WDR Rundfunkchor

The WDR Radio Choir is an internationally renowned ensemble that makes its home in Cologne. It specializes in challenging choral works ranging from the Middle Ages to contemporary compositions. Alongside a cappella pieces, the singers regularly perform large-scale choral-symphonic works, film music and in operas. The Choir regularly appears in concert with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Funkhaus Orchestra and the WDR Big Band.

Nicolas Fink has been chief conductor of the WDR Radio Choir since the 2020/21 season and Simon Halsey has been its principal guest conductor since 2023/24. In the 2025/26 season Philipp Ahmann, who has already worked with the choir for several years as a guest conductor, takes over the position of chief conductor.

The Choir receives invitations to perform with renowned orchestras such as the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and at international festivals such as the Berlin Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the Venice Biennale, the BBC Proms, the Eight Bridges Festival in Cologne and the NOW! Festival in Essen.

The WDR Radio Choir has given around 200 first performances and world premieres, including of compositions by Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Hans Werner Henze, Isabel Mundry, Luigi Nono, Krzysztof Penderecki, Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. The Choir has also been involved in collaborative projects such as the world premiere of Adriana Hölszky’s Deep Field with Martin Schläpfer’s ballet company at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Through various initiatives the Choir builds a bridge with amateur singers, who can rehearse and sing under professional conditions in come-and-sing concerts and unusual collaborative projects.

The WDR Radio Choir is also passionate about family and children’s projects; these include the Kommissar Krächz concerts, Das Konzert mit dem Elefanten and Das Konzert mit der Maus.

In addition, the WDR Radio Choir is committed to supporting young professionals. Its Choir Academy, founded in 2015, offers choral singing training to young singers in the period between university and the start of their careers.