(c) Jan-Olav Wedin
The Eric Ericsons Kammarkör was founded in 1945 by Eric Ericson and has held a central position in the Swedish and international music scene ever since. The specific aims of the choir and its leader, to constantly seek out new music and new areas of work, has today resulted in an extensive repertoire spanning from the renaissance to the latest avant‐garde. The Chamber Choir, with its characteristic Nordic sound and wide‐ranging virtousity, has been an ideal vehicle for several generations of Swedish composers.
Internationally the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir ranks amongst the highest levels of professional choirs and it has received many international awards including the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and the Edison Prize. The Choir undertakes several tours each year throughout Europe, the USA and Canada. The Choir has made numerous recordings of a cappella repertoire on a number of different recording labels.
Together with the Swedish Radio Choir the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir has made several recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra including Verdi’s Quattro Pezzi Sacri and Mozart’s Requiem with Riccardo Muti and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis under the baton of James Levine. The Choir has made several appearances at La Scala, Milan under the direction of Riccardo Muti. The Choir has also worked on several occasions with Nicolaus Harnoncourt and his Orchestra, Concentus Musicus, Vienna, resulting in a recording of Handel’s Messiah, amongst others. The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and the Swedish Radio Choir have also been frequent guests at the Berlin Philharmonie where they have performed concerts resulting in recordings of Brahm’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust, Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado.
Since 2003 the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir have had an extensive cooperation with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Stockholm Concert Hall where they perform a large number of a cappella concerts and works for orchestra and choir every season.
Beside their extensive a cappella projects, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir frequently also collaborates with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble with whom they have recorded all Bach’s major oratorios. In 2007 the ensemble was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize.
> visit the ensemble’s website.