Rundfunkchor Berlin

With around 60 concerts a year, CD recordings and international guest appearances, the Rundfunkchor Berlin is one of the world’s most outstanding choirs. Three Grammy Awards alone are testimony to the quality of its recordings. Its wide-ranging repertoire, flexible, richly nuanced sound, impeccable precision and gripping response 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 with the classical concert format and make choral music a new experience. The staged realisation of the 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 autumn 2017, the choir reflected on Luther’s impact on and in the arts in a genre-busting 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”. Based on the concept and directed by Tilman Hecker, contemporary musical currents entered into dialogue with Beethoven’s masterpiece. The musical journey into the world of tomorrow brought together national and international artists such as Birke J. Bertelsmeier, Colin Self, Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, Moor Mother and Planningtorock.

In 2022, the Rundfunkchor Berlin continued its interdisciplinary projects with “Time Travellers” in the Schinkelhalle Potsdam. With its community projects for different target groups – the big sing-along concert in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Festival of Choral Cultures for choirs from all over the world and the Song Exchange for Berlin schoolchildren – Rundfunkchor Berlin aims to get as many people as possible singing. Its broad-based educational programme SING! aims to create a sustainable network of different partners in order to promote singing as a natural part of everyday life at primary schools in Berlin. With the Academy and Schola as well as the International Masterclass for Choral Conducting in Berlin, the ensemble is committed to promoting the next generation of professional singers and conductors.

Founded in 1925, the Rundfunkchor Berlin will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025. The choir has been characterised 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.

The Rundfunkchor Berlin is an ensemble of Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin, sponsored by Deutschlandradio, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Berlin and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.