The RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin, founded 77 years ago, is one of the world’s leading professional choirs. Thirty-four professionally trained singers make up the multinational ensemble, which is known for its precise sound. Its repertoire ranges from historically informed Renaissance and Baroque interpretations to works from the Classical and Romantic periods, as well as regular world premieres.

Since the 2017–18 season, Justin Doyle has been principal conductor and artistic director of the ensemble which is one of the country’s most important touring choirs, enjoying up to 50 concerts per season on stages in Germany and around the world.  In its home city, the ensemble presents six subscription concerts, including the renowned New Year’s Concert.

Music education projects include choral sponsorships for Berlin school choirs and the RIAS Chamber Choir Studio under the direction of Justin Doyle. In addition, the ensemble organises the final concert of the German Prize for Choral Conducting every two years in collaboration with the German Music Council. It collaborates regularly with major ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Freiburger Barockorchester, as well as conductors such as René Jacobs, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Joana Mallwitz, Pablo Heras-Casado and Krista Audere. The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin is an ensemble of the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre gGmbH Berlin (ROC). Its shareholders are Deutschland Radio, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Berlin and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.

Justin Doyle has been principal conductor and artistic director of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin since 2017. Born in Lancaster in 1975, he was initially a choirboy at Westminster Cathedral in London and later a choral scholar at the renowned King’s College in Cambridge. His international breakthrough as a conductor came in 2006 when he won second prize at the prestigious Cadaqués Orchestra International Conducting Competition in Barcelona and with it a scholarship with the BBC Singers, marking the beginning of their ongoing collaboration.

As a guest conductor, he has conducted ensembles such as the MDR Rundfunkchor, the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and orchestras such as the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester and the Kammerakademie Potsdam. With the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, he has initiated an annual cycle of major new commissioned works, focusing on the works of Handel together with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and expanding the choir’s repertoire in the polyphonic music of the Renaissance. Between 2018 and 2022, he was a visiting professor on the choral conducting programme at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music Berlin. In addition, Doyle was a visiting professor of choral conducting and early music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki between 2019 and 2024.

Justin Doyle recently made his debut this season at the Zurich Sing-Akademie. Future engagements include renewed collaborations with the Swedish Radio Choir, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and the Swedish Radio Choir, the Eric Ericson Kammarkör and the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra.