Frank Strobel

Frank Strobel is one of the internationally accomplished conductors with a stylistically incredibly diverse repertoire. For years he has been one of the most important protagonists in the interdisciplinary field of film and music, through his commitment film with live orchestra has found its way into leading opera houses and concert halls. Strobel works as a consultant for the silent film programme of ZDF/arte and in 2000, together with Beate Warkentien, founded the cultural institution EUROPEAN FILMPHILHARMONIC INSTITUTE, which under his artistic direction has rendered outstanding services to highly acclaimed film in concert productions.

Strobel is also in demand internationally for performances of music by the late-Romantic composers Franz Schreker, Alexander von Zemlinsky and Siegfried Wagner. The great Russian-born composer Alfred Schnittke, came to see Strobel as an ideal interpreter of his works. To the present day, Frank Strobel has the editing rights to his compositions.

2014 Strobel conducted the world premiere of Philippe Schoeller’s newly-written score for Abel Gance’s film J’accuse with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. In 2016 Frank Strobel realised the reconstructed film Iwan Grozny by Sergei Eisenstein, for the first time performed with the complete music in its’ original orchestration by Sergei Prokofiev with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) at the Musikfest Berlin, followed by a performance with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna in 2017.

Frank Strobel is the designated chief conductor of the WDR Funkhausorchester. He enjoys close and long lasting relationships with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, the NDR Radio Philharmonic Hannover, with the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Cologne and Paris Philharmonie as well as the Vienna Konzerthaus.

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.