Rundfunkchor Berlin
With around 60 concerts a year, CD recordings and international guest appearances, the Rundfunkchor Berlin is one of the world's outstanding choirs. Three Grammy Awards attest to the quality of its recordings. Its wide-ranging repertoire, flexible, richly nuanced sound, impeccable precision and gripping responsiveness make the professional choir a partner to major orchestras and conductors, including Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In Berlin, the choir works closely with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and their chief conductors.
The Rundfunkchor Berlin has also attracted international attention with its interdisciplinary projects, which break up the classical concert format and make choral music a new experience. The staged realization of Brahms' Requiem as a »human requiem« by Jochen Sandig and a team from Sasha Waltz & Guests became a milestone. Guest performances have taken place in New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Adelaide, Istanbul and in 2023 in Elefsina, Greece. With the project »LUTHER dancing with the gods« in fall 2017, the choir reflected on Luther's impact on and in the arts in a genre-bending concert performance with Robert Wilson and music by Bach, Nystedt and Reich. For the interdisciplinary concert installation THE WORLD TO COME, the Rundfunkchor Berlin created a Berlin festive mass based on Beethoven's »Missa solemnis« in the 2020/21 season. Based on the concept and directed by Tilman Hecker, contemporary musical currents entered into a dialog with Beethoven's masterpiece. In the 2023/24 season, the Rundfunkchor Berlin staged Gioachino Rossini's »Petite Messe solennelle« with »Rote Messe«. The music theater performance, directed by Anna-Sophie Mahler, combined Rossini's mass with works by Schönberg and others in the former industrial hall MaHalla in Berlin-Oberschöneweide.
In the 2024/25 season, the Rundfunkchor Berlin is bringing classical choral music together with the urban dance language of breaking for the first time with »Flying Mozart«. In collaboration with the Flying Steps and the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie, a production of Mozart's Requiem will be created that uses light art and electronic music to place the work in a modern context.
Since the 2016/17 season, the RundfunkchorLounge has been an integral part of the concert program. In a relaxed atmosphere at Heimathafen Neukölln, it combines choral singing, chamber music and inspiring discussions on socially relevant topics – from climate change and music as a language to the art of being alone. Musically, the spectrum ranges from baroque to the Spice Girls.
With its community projects for different target groups – the big sing-along concert in the Berlin Philharmonie and the song exchange for Berlin schoolchildren – the Rundfunkchor Berlin wants to get as many people as possible singing. Its broad-based educational program SING! aims to create a sustainable network of different partners in order to promote singing as a natural part of everyday life in Berlin's primary schools. With the Academy and Schola as well as the International Master Class for Choral Conducting in Berlin, the ensemble is committed to the next generation of professional singers and conductors.
Founded in 1925, the Rundfunkchor Berlin looks back on 100 years of history, which was celebrated with an anniversary season in 2024/25. The choir has been shaped by conductors such as Helmut Koch, Dietrich Knothe, Robin Gritton and Simon Halsey. Since the 2015/16 season, Dutchman Gijs Leenaars has been at the helm of the ensemble as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. Simon Halsey remains associated with the choir as honorary conductor and guest conductor.