Women of the Bavarian Radio Choir

Founded in 1946, the Bavarian Radio Choir has been performing the great choral symphonic literature and oratorios from the Baroque to the present since then, especially with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The latter’s music directors have regularly been in charge of the Choir’s artistic leadership: from Eugen Jochum through Rafael Kubelík, Sir Colin Davis, and Lorin Maazel to Mariss Jansons. The ensemble is especially acclaimed for its flexibility and for the stylistic diversity of its repertoire. The singers are capable of shifting effortlessly from the austere sonority of a Renaissance madrigal to a Romantic choral work or to the technical challenges posed by contemporary music – all while preserving their signature sonic homogeneity.  Through its own subscription series at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Choir performs not only the classic works of the canon but also crossover projects and jazz. Since the beginning of the 2016-17 season, the British Howard Arman (born in 1954) has held the position of Artistic Director. Previously, from 1998 to 2013, Arman led the MDR Radio Choir in Leipzig and he served as Music Director of the Luzerner Theater from 2011 to 2016. Regular tours and invitations to the major music festivals are among the Choir’s activities; the singers have also worked with such leading European orchestras as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, and the Staatskapelle Dresden. They additionally perform concerts with such period-instrument ensembles as Concerto Köln, B’Rock, and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. The Bavarian Radio Choir has won Echo Klassik Awards repeatedly; it received the Bavarian State Prize for Music in 2015.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 30 August 1965 in Janáček’s From the House of the Dead under the direction of Rafael Kubelík.

February 2018