The MDR Leipzig Radio Choir (MDR-Rundfunkchor) is the largest concert choir with one of the richest traditions within the German Broadcasting Corporation (ARD), but it is also regarded world-wide as one of the most sought-after ensembles of its kind. Conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Masur, Colin Davis, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti or Daniel Barenboim have all paid tribute to the ensemble. The choir also regularly performs with the MDR Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Dennis Russell Davies. Other artistic partners for the 2024/25 season include the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under Alan Gilbert and Ingo Metzmacher, the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons and Antonio Pappano, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Alain Altinoglu and the Staatskapelle Weimar under Ivan Repušić.
Not only an excellent partner for major orchestras, the ensemble regularly demonstrates its expertise with highly acclaimed a cappella performances. Secular and sacred music, wide-ranging ensemble singing and choral symphonic works complete a repertoire that encompasses practically a thousand years of musical history. Numerous world premieres attest to the 72 choir members’ reputation as a specialized ensemble for contemporary music.
Since January 2020, and still until the summer of 2025, Philipp Ahmann is the Artistic Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir, succeeding Risto Joost. He had formerly collaborated closely with the choir as guest conductor and has shaped the choir’s profile through a cappella programmes and CD productions. His predecessors include Herbert Kegel, Gert Frischmuth and Howard Arman, who also created the highly successful format of the “Nachtgesänge”, late-night a cappella concerts held in Leipzig‘s Peterskirche. The next Chief Conductor of the choir will be Josep Vila i Casañas, starting in the 2025/26 season.
Nearly 250 LPs and CDs – many of them award-winning – have been recorded by the ensemble to date. In 2017 the choir was awarded the International Classical Music Award for its recording of Max Reger’s Motets op. 110, and in March 2018 the Diapason d‘Or for its recording of Rachmaninov‘s Vespers conducted by Risto Joost. In recent years, two recordings of motets by Anton Bruckner and Michael Haydn as well as choral pieces by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy conducted by Philipp Ahmann were released by Pentatone, followed by Haydn’s “Die Schöpfung” under the baton of Marek Janowski.
Whether via the European Broadcasting Union, through touring or in guest performances worldwide, the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir, which was awarded the European Cultural Prize in 2013, successfully acts as supreme musical ambassador for central Germany.