page_title: WDR Rundfunkchor Köln
section_title: Program
hierarchical_section_title: WDR Rundfunkchor Köln / Program
caption_attribution_description: Abbildung des Programmblattes zum Konzert am 21. Mai 1962 im Westdeutschen Rundfunk (WDR) Köln mit Uraufführungen von Karlheinz Stockhausen
context_page_description: The WDR Rundfunkchor Köln is the choir of the German broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk, based in Cologne. It was founded in 1947. The choir premiered works by contemporary composers including Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera Moses und Aron in 1954, Karlheinz Stockhausen's Momente, Luigi Nono's Il canto sospeso, Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Requiem für einen jungen Dichter and Penderecki's St Luke Passion.
context_section_description: The choir of 45 singers has a repertory of medieval music to contemporary music, sacred music, oratorio, operetta, and music of computer games and film. The regularly perform cantatas and a cappella works in churches  of the region. A series Musik am Mittag (Music at noon) in the Minoritenkirche invites the audience to participate.
  The choir has been focused on contemporary music and has performed more than 150 premieres of new works, several of them commissioned by the WDR. The choir took part in pioneering projects, such as the concert premiere of Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera Moses und Aron in 1954. Karlheinz Stockhausen conducted in 1962 the first performance of his cantata Momente for soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two electric keyboards). Other premieres included Hans Werner Henze Laudes, Luigi Nono's Il canto sospeso, Pierre Boulez' Le Visage nuptial, Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Requiem für einen jungen Dichter, Penderecki's St Luke Passion, Iannis Xenakis' Nuits, Luciano Berio's Coro, York Höller's Der ewige Tag, Péter Eötvös' IMA and Toshio Hosokawa's Die Lotosblume. The choir has performed internationally, for example in 2013 in Mahler's Second Symphony with choir and orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk conducted by Mariss Jansons at the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festival and The Proms. In Oktober 2013 the choir performed Schönberg's Gurre-Lieder with the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
  In 2012, the WDR Rundfunkchor Köln  was awarded the Echo Klassik in the category best choral recording for György Ligeti's Requiem.
caption: Poster for the premiere of Stockhausen's Momente on 21 May 1962
exif: {}