RIAS Kammerchor Berlin

Biography

The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin is one of the most renowned professional choirs in the world. Numerous awards and prizes document the choir’s high international reputation: The German Record Critics’ Award, the ECHO Klassik, the Gramophone Award, the Choc de l’annee, the Prix Caecilia, and the “Nachtigall” honorary prize from the Jury of the German Record Critics’ Award.

The multinational ensemble, made up of 34 professionally trained singers, is known for its meticulously prepared performances. As part of the RIAS Kammerchor Studio, four young singers are invited to work closely with the choir each season. lts repertoire ranges from historically informed interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque music to works from the Classical and Romantic eras, together with regularly given world premieres.

Justin Doyle has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the choir since the 2017-18 season.

The recordings they have made together for harmonia mundi have been enthusiastically received by the listening audience and critics alike. They include the complete Liebeslieder waltzes by Brahms, and Handel’s Messiah, Coronation Anthems, and Dixit Dominus, along with a pairing of his Utrecht Te Deum with Bach’s Weihnachts-Magnificat – a collaboration with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Summer of 2025 marks the release of the first of two recordings devoted to sacred works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and his sister Fanny Hensel.

With up to 50 concerts per season on stages in Germany and around the world, the ensemble is one of the most important touring choirs in the country. Every other year, the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin and Deutscher Musikrat host the final concert of Deutscher Chordirigentenpreis, which concludes a multiannual funding programme for aspiring conductors. Other music education projects include mentorship for Berlin school choirs, musical salons, and audience workshops led by Justin Doyle.

Since being founded in 1948 as part of the “Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor” (Radio in the American sector), the choir has been guided and shaped by leading artists, including Günther Arndt, Uwe Gronostay, Marcus Creed, Daniel Reuss, and Hans-Christoph Rademann, who were its chief conductors. It regularly collaborates with renowned ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Freiburger Barockorchester, along with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Iván Fischer, and Rinaldo Alessandrini, as well as with René Jacobs, who leads the choir in their numerous recordings for harmonia mundi.