Rundfunkchor Berlin

With around 60 concerts a year, CD recordings, and international guest performances, the Rundfunkchor Berlin ranks among the world’s most outstanding choirs. Three Grammy Awards alone attest to the quality of its recordings. Its wide-ranging repertoire, a flexible, richly nuanced sound, flawless precision, and captivating delivery make this professional choir a partner to leading orchestras and conductors, including Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In Berlin, the choir maintains close collaborations with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, as well as with their principal conductors. Since 2015, Dutch conductor Gijs Leenaars has served as the ensemble’s principal conductor and artistic director.

The Human Requiem – Artistic New Beginnings

The Rundfunkchor Berlin has also attracted international attention with its interdisciplinary projects, which break away from the traditional concert format and offer new ways to experience choral music. A major milestone was the staged production of Brahms’s Requiem as "human requiem" by Jochen Sandig and a team from Sasha Waltz & Guests. Since its premiere in 2012, the Rundfunkchor Berlin has performed in New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Adelaide, Istanbul, and Elefsina, among other cities. With the project "LUTHER dancing with the gods" in the fall of 2017, the choir reflected on Martin Luther’s impact on the arts and their forms of expression in a genre-bending concert performance featuring 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" during the 2020/21 season. In the 2023/24 season, the Rundfunkchor Berlin staged Gioachino Rossini’s "Petite Messe solennelle" as the "Red Mass." The musical theater performance, directed by Anna-Sophie Mahler, combined Rossini’s Mass with works by Schoenberg and others at the former MaHalla industrial hall in Berlin-Oberschöneweide.

To mark its 100th anniversary, the Rundfunkchor Berlin presented "Flying Mozart" during the 2024/25 season, bringing together classical choral music and the urban dance style of breaking for the first time. In collaboration with the Flying Steps and the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie, the choir created a production of Mozart’s Requiem that placed the work in a modern context through the use of light art and electronic music.

RundfunkchorLounge – The Choir Meets the Present

Since the 2016/17 season, the RundfunkchorLounge has been a regular feature of the program. The format brings together elements that rarely come together: choral singing, chamber music, and open discussions on socially relevant topics – all in a relaxed atmosphere at Heimathafen Neukölln. In the 2026/27 season, the focus will be on topics such as water and how we manage this resource in times of scarcity, desire and physicality, as well as time and temporality.

Trailer for "100 Years of the Rundfunkchor Berlin"

Singing for Everyone

Through its community projects for various target groups – including the large sing-along concert at the Berlin Philharmonic and the "Liederbörse" for Berlin schoolchildren – the Rundfunkchor Berlin aims to encourage as many people as possible to sing. Its wide-ranging educational program, "SING!," focuses on building lasting networks among various partners to promote singing as a natural part of everyday life in Berlin’s elementary schools. Through its Academy and Schola, as well as the International Master Class for Choral Conducting in Berlin, the ensemble is committed to supporting the next generation of professional singers and conductors.

Gijs Leenaars and the Legacy of 100 Years of Choral History

Founded in 1925, the Rundfunkchor Berlin will celebrate over 100 years of existence in 2026. The choir has been shaped by conductors such as Helmut Koch, Dietrich Knothe, Robin Gritton, and Simon Halsey. Since the 2015/16 season, Dutch conductor Gijs Leenaars has served as the ensemble’s principal conductor and artistic director. Simon Halsey remains associated with the choir as honorary conductor and guest conductor.