The NFM Choir was founded in 2006 by Andrzej Kosendiak as a resident ensemble of the Wrocław Philharmonic. Directed for its first 15 years by Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny, Lionel Sow became its Artistic Director in 2021. The choir has a well-earned reputation for its work in several genres, performing a cappella pieces as well as large-scale oratorios, operas, and symphonic compositions. The choir has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Giovanni Antonini, Bob Chilcott, Iván Fischer, Jacek Kaspszyk, Stephen Layton, James MacMillan, Paul McCreesh, Zubin Mehta, Masaaki Suzuki, Kirill Petrenko and Krzysztof Penderecki, performing more than 300 concerts, including at the Barbican Centre and Royal Albert Hall in London, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Philharmonie de Paris and Salle Pleyel in Paris, as well as Berlin Philharmonie.
The NFM Choir is frequently invited to perform at international festivals such as the BBC Proms, International Ankara Music Festival, Gent Festival van Vlaanderen, Gstaad Menuhin Festival and Academy, Klarafestival, Serenade! Choral Festival, and Warsaw Autumn. The choir has worked with, among others, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Il Giardino Armonico, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Bach Collegium Japan, Berliner Philharmoniker, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR). At the core of the choir’s activity are world premières of choral and vocal-instrumental works, including by such composers as Penderecki, Zubel, Panufnik, Augustyn, Łukaszewski, Wolfe, and Chilcott.
The NFM Choir has made a series of award-winning recordings under the direction of Paul McCreesh issued by Winged Lion, and two discs of Bob Chilcott’s music: The Seeds of Stars and Canticles of Light, on Signum. Its recording of De profundis won 2017 Album of the Year in the category for choral music, oratorio, and opera from the Fryderyk Awards. Recent releases include Ubi caritas, Music of Trust, The Phantoms by Stanisław Moniuszko, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, and the discs of works by Marcin Józef Żebrowski and Witold Lutosławski.
Highlights of 2022/23 season included collaboration with Massaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan, and an opera production of Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten with Berliner Philharmoniker led by Kirill Petrenko during Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden and at the Berliner Philharmonie.
