Vocalconsort Berlin

Founded in 2003, Vocalconsort Berlin is considered one of the finest and most adaptable chamber choirs in Germany. It has deliberately chosen not to have a chief conductor, but works with permanent artistic partners such as Daniel Reuss, James Wood, Folkert Uhde and Sasha Waltz. Above all, the choir itself determines its composition, programming and direction. Vocalconsort Berlin has already collaborated with conductors such as Simon Rattle, Marcus Creed, Jos van Immerseel, Ottavio Dantone, Christophe Rousset, Iván Fischer, Pablo Heras-Casado and Peter Ruzicka. In addition to Sasha Waltz & Guests and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Vocalconsort Berlin is one of three ensembles based at the innovative concert venue Radialsystem in Berlin.
The choir’s repertoire ranges from early music to the Romantic era and contemporary works and it has enjoyed success in various different areas, including Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo under René Jacobs, Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten under Christopher Moulds, Bernstein’s A Quiet Place under Kent Nagano, Peter Ruzicka’s …Inseln, Randlos… and Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron under Vladimir Yurovski. Vocalconsort Berlin has also appeared in many productions by Sasha Waltz & Guests.
For its own projects, Vocalconsort Berlin likes to cross generic and disciplinary boundaries, with productions such as Über das Verlangen/Allegory of Desire, which combined Renaissance music and Arabic vocals, Gesualdo – From Inside, featuring works by Carlo Gesualdo and Giacinto Scelsi, and Libera Me, fusing music by Alonso Lobo, Josquin Desprez and Carlo Gesualdo with contemporary dance. Other premieres include Songs of Suffering in 2015, Hèctor Parra’s Breathing in 2016 and Sven Helbig’s concerto for choir and live electronics, I Eat the Sun and Drink the Rain.
During the 2018/19 season Vocalconsort Berlin celebrated its 15th anniversary with a five-part concert series. In addition to a staged production of Bach’s St John Passion under Marcus Creed, the choir performed commissions by Matthias Kadar and Frank Schwemmer.
Vocalconsort Berlin has created an extensive discography, receiving the 2013 Echo Klassik Award for its recording of the second book of Carlo Gesualdo’s Cantiones sacrae under James Wood.