NFM Choir

The National Forum for Music Choir was foundedin 2006 by Andrzej Kosendiak and operated as partof the Wrocław Philharmonic, which transformedinto the National Forum for Music (NFM) in May2014. Since its establishment conductedby Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny, it very quicklybecame a leading ensemble on the Polish choralmusic stage.The choir has been invited to numerousinternational festivals of music, notablyto the Ankara International Music Festival,International Festival of Arts and Ideas in NewHaven, the Gent Festival van Vlaanderen,the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy,the Jazztopad, the Klarafestival, the MusMA,the Musica Electronica Nova, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Serenade! Choral Festivalin Washington, the Warsaw Autumn, the WorldMusic Days, and the Wratislavia Cantans. In 2009and 2011 it was the first choir from Poland to beinvited to the legendary BBC Proms. In 2011, itreceived the Kantor Award for their extraordinaryperformance of J.S. Bach, one of the three mainprizes at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings in Croatia.An important element in the recording historyof the NFM Choir is the line of recordingsunder Paul McCreesh that have won a rangeof prestigious prizes: the BBC Music MagazineAward 2012 for Technical Excellence (for Berlioz’sGrande Messe des Morts), Diapason d’Or 2013(for Mendelssohn’s Elijah), and the BBC MusicMagazine Award 2014 in the Choral Music category(Britten’s War Requiem). The choir’s a cappellarecordings include an album with Bob Chilcott’sThe Seeds of Stars (2012) and three CDs withPolish choral music: Słowa dźwiękiem malowane(Words painted in sound, 2012), Miłość na ludowo(Love the folk way, 2014) and De profundis (2016)awarded the Fryderyk 2017 Award in Choral,Oratorio, and Opera Recordingof the Year category.