Memorial concert to mark 80 years of Auschwitz liberation

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) since 2017. In 2023/2024, his concerts, tours and recordings were the highlights of the ‘RSB100’ anniversary season. His current contract in Berlin runs until 2027,
while he has also been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

Vladimir Jurowski, one of the most sought-after conductors of our time, who is celebrated worldwide for his innovative musical interpretations and equally for his courageous artistic commitment, was born in Moscow in 1972 and completed the first part of his music studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. He moved to Germany with his family in 1990 and continued his studies at the music academies in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995, he made his debut at the Wexford Festival in Ireland with Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Mainacht’ and in 1996 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with ‘Nabucco’. He was then First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997-2001).

Vladimir Jurowski worked as Chief Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) for fifteen years until 2021 and has since been appointed Conductor Emeritus. In the UK, he was Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 2001 to 2013, leading a wide range of highly acclaimed productions. His close connection to British musical life was recognised by King Charles III in spring 2024 when he appointed Vladimir Jurowski an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). In April 2024, Vladimir Jurowski returned to London as a guest conductor to complete the concert performance cycle of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ with ‘Götterdämmerung’ with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall.

He was Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra ‘Yevgeny Svetlanov’ of the Russian Federation until 2021 and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain, as well as Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. He has also worked with the unitedberlin ensemble for many years. Vladimir Jurowski has suspended performances in Russia since February 2022. Ukrainian works are and will remain part of his repertoire, as will works by Russian composers.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted concerts by the most important orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. He is a regular guest at the music festivals in London, Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, SchleswigHolstein and Grafenegg. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, he now concentrates his activities on those geographical areas that he can easily reach with reasonable effort from an ecological point of view.

The joint CD recordings by Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and again Schnittke. Vladimir Jurowski has been honoured many times for his achievements, including numerous international record awards. In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Philharmonic Society from the hands of the current King Charles III. In 2020, Vladimir Jurowski’s work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival was honoured by the Romanian President with the Order of Cultural Merit.

With approximately 50 concerts each season, regular CD-recordings and world tours the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin is one of the most renowned choirs in the world.

The ensemble is celebrated internationally for its multifaceted repertoire and its outstanding and precise acoustic sound. It is known for its historically informed interpretations of the Renaissance and the Baroque period. Its presentations of works from the classical period and Romanticism lead listeners to a new conception  of  the 19t ^-century  sound  world  frequently.  Furthermore,  the  RIAS Kammerchor Berlin commissions demanding world premieres  each  season, which will broaden the cultural legacy permanently.

In 1948, the Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor [broadcast in the American sector], short RIAS, instructed the conductor Herbert Froitzheim to form a  chamber choir. Leading artistic personalities such as Gunther Arndt, Uwe Gronostay, Marcus Creed, Daniel Reuss and Hans-Christoph Rademann shaped and coined the choir with their chief conducting.

Since the 2017-18 season, Justin Doyle has been the chief conductor and artistic director of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin. Extraordinary concert programmes, his Japan-debut in autumn of 2018 and two recordings by now — Benjamin Britten’s I-Iymn to Cecilia and Joseph Haydn’s Missa Cellensis — were celebrated by the audience and critics. The release of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is planned for autumn 2020.

Alongside concerts at renowned major venues, the ensemble developed the idea of the Forum Concerts in 2004. In collaboration with the ensemble’s Friends Association, events exploring new concert forms and concepts take place with choir members in unusual locations all over Berlin. The Forum  Concerts  have long stopped being events merely for the initiated; they  have  meanwhile  acquired cult status.

The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin takes part in music outreach projects with passion and responsibility. Mentorships for school choirs, concert introductions  with  school students, workshops with aspiring conductors and support for young singers in the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin Studio are only some of the elements in their successful education programme.

Numerous awards and prizes document the artistic journey and the choir’s high international reputation: The German Record Critics’ Award, the Gramophone Award, the Choc de l’annee or the Prix Caecilia are only a few of many honours.  In 2012 the choir received the “Nachtigall” honorary prize from the Jury of the German Record Critics’ Award.

An enduring and fruitful collaboration binds the choir to the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Ensemble Resonanz as well as distinguished conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, René Jacobs, Yannick Nézet- Séguin, Ivdn Fischer, and Rinaldo Alessandrini.

The RIAS Kammerchor is an ensemble of the Rundfunk Orchester und Chore GmbH (ROC). Other partners are Deutschlandradio, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Berlin and the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg broadcasting company.

Ralf Sochaczewsky received conducting lessons under Christian Grube and Marc Piollet at the Berlin University of the Arts. Later he studied choir conducting under Jörg-Peter Weigle and orchestral conducting under Prof. Reuter at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”.

He directs the Berlin choir Cantus Domus, with which he won a 1st prize at the Berlin Choir Competition in 2017 and a 3rd prize at the 8th Choir Competition of the Deutscher Musikrat in Dortmund . From 1998 to 2012, he conducted the Ensemberlino Vocale choir and successfully participated in choir competitions (1st prize at Chorfest Bremen (Bremen Choir Festival) 2008).

He regularly works with choirs like the Berlin Vocalconsort, the Cappella Amsterdam, the RIAS Kammerchor, and the Berliner Rundfunkchor.

In 2016, he conducted the European premiere of the oratorio “Anthracite Fields” by Julia Wolfe, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015, with the DR Vocalensemble and Bang on a Can-All Stars.

Ralf Sochaczewsky has performed with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the National Radio Orchestra Bucharest, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Minsk Philharmonic. He conducted operas at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Opera National du Rhin, and the Lithuanian National Opera.

Ralf Sochaczewsky collaborated with various pop groups and artists such as Stargaze and André de Ridder, Bon Iver, Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, and Tocotronic. With Cantus Domus, he is a regular guest at festivals such as HaldernPop and KalternPop.

He teaches choral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”. For his great service to the Berlin choir scene, the Chorverband Berlin awarded him the Geschwister Mendelssohn Medal in 2017.