RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin & Justin Doyle
Biography RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin & Justin Doyle
The RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin
is one of the world's leading professional choirs. Numerous awards document its international reputation, including the German Record Critics' Prize, ECHO Klassik, Gramophone Award, Choc de l'année, Prix Caecilia and the "Nachtigall" honorary prize awarded by the jury of the German Record Critics' Prize.
34 professionally trained singers make up the multinational orchestra. The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin is renowned for its precise sound. The repertoire ranges from historically informed Renaissance or Baroque interpretations to new interpretations of works from the Classical and Romantic periods and regular world premieres.
Justin Doyle has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Director since the 2017-18 season. In autumn 2018, he made his debut in Japan with the RIAS Kammerchor. Three recordings featuring him with his choir have since been released - Britten's Hymn to Cecilia, Haydn's Missa Cellensis and Handel's Messiah - to rave reviews from audiences and critics. A recording of both of Brahms' love song cycles will follow in spring 2022. As part of the RIAS Kammerchor Studio, four academy students will also become part of the choir each season.
With up to 50 concerts per season on stages throughout Germany and the world, the RIAS Kammerchor is one of the most important touring choirs in the country. In its home city, it presents ten Berlin concerts, including the renowned New Year's Concert, the Forum Concerts in cooperation with the Verein der Freunde und Förderer (Association of Friends and Sponsors), in which unusual venues become concert stages, as well as joint programmes with sister ensembles such as the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin or the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Every two years, together with the German Music Council, it organises the final concert of the German Choral Conductors' Prize, which comes at the end of a support programme lasting several years. In addition, the RIAS Kammerchor maintains school choir sponsorships with Berlin high schools as part of its education programme.
Leading artists such as Günther Arndt, Uwe Gronostay, Marcus Creed, Daniel Reuss and Hans-Christoph Rademann have shaped the choir since its founding in 1948 as a radio ensemble in the American sector. Regular collaborations exist with important ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Freiburger Barockorchester as well as conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, René Jacobs, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Iván Fischer and Rinaldo Alessandrini.
The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin is an ensemble of the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre gGmbH Berlin (ROC). Its shareholders are Deutschlandradio, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Berlin and the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Founded in Berlin in 1982, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Akamus for short) is now one of the world's leading chamber orchestras playing historically informed music and can point to an unparalleled success story. Akamus is a regular and much sought-after guest on international concert stages. For over 30 years, the orchestra has had its own subscription series at the Konzerthaus Berlin, and since 1994 its musical signature has shaped the baroque repertoire at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. The ensemble performs under the changing direction of its concertmasters Bernhard Forck, Georg Kallweit and Stephan Mai as well as selected conductors. The ensemble has a particularly close partnership with René Jacobs. Recent conductors have included Emmanuelle Haïm, Bernard Labadie, Paul Agnew, Diego Fasolis and Rinaldo Alessandrini. The orchestra's congenial cooperation with the RIAS Chamber Choir deserves special mention, as evidenced by numerous award-winning recordings. Akamus regularly works with internationally renowned soloists such as Isabelle Faust, Andreas Staier, Alexander Melnikov, Anna Prohaska, Werner Güra, Michael Volle and Bejun Mehta. Together with the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests, successful productions such as Purcell's "Dido & Aeneas" or Dusapin's "Medea" have been created, establishing Akamus' international reputation as a creative and innovative ensemble. Well over one million recordings sold are an expression of the orchestra's international success.
Justin Doyle
has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin since 2017.
Born in Lancaster in 1975, he was first a choirboy at Westminster Cathedral in London and later a Choral Scholar at the renowned King's College, Cambridge. His international breakthrough as a conductor came in 2006 with a second prize at the prestigious Cadaqués Orchestra International Conducting Competition in Barcelona and a scholarship with the BBC Singers, which marked the beginning of a steady collaboration.
He regularly works with orchestras such as the Orchestra of Opera North, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra.
During this season he guest conducts with orchestras such as the MDR Rundfunkchor, Norwegian Soloists' Choir, Poznań Philharmonic, Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, Genesis Sixteen, Kammerakademie Potsdam and Swedish Radio Choir. Doyle is also in demand as an opera conductor, especially for works by Mozart, Haydn and Britten.
With the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin he has initiated an annual cycle of major new commissions, focused on the works of Handel with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, expanded the choral repertoire in Renaissance polyphonic music, and performed with the singers a spectrum of choral works ranging from Heinrich Biber's monumental Missa Salisburgensis to performances of intimate settings of folk songs from around the world.
In addition to Renaissance and Romantic repertoire, Justin Doyle has a keen interest in contemporary music. He regularly premieres commissioned works: most recently he conducted the world premiere of Reiko Füting's Weil wir leben, können... for four choirs.
He is particularly passionate about music of other cultures and music education. From 2018 to 2022, he was a visiting professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in the Choral Conducting programme. Since 2021, Doyle has been Visiting Professor of Early Music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
