* En anglais uniquement
The
Gulbenkian Foundation Chorus, Lisbon, has performed and recorded both together with and independently of the
Orchestra of the Gulbenkian Foundation, with which it has been associated since its founding by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1964. The group has also been known as the
Coro Gulbenkian or
Gulbenkian Choir. Its conductor, since 1969, has been Swiss-born
Michel Corboz, who has also conducted the orchestra. The
Gulbenkian Foundation Chorus comprises about 100 singers who perform en masse or separately in smaller groups for renditions of chamber vocal music such as a cappella music from the Renaissance and Baroque Portuguese traditions. The group has also given premieres of 20th and 21st century compositions, Portuguese and otherwise. It has often performed with the
Orchestra of the Gulbenkian Foundation, but its numerous collaborations with other orchestras are especially notable. These have included performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the
Budapest Festival Orchestra, the
San Francisco Symphony, the
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and many other groups, led by a roster of internationally famous conductors including
Leonard Slatkin,
René Jacobs,
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos,
Michael Tilson Thomas,
Istvan Fischer,
Claudio Abbado,
Colin Davis,
Emmanuel Krivine,
Esa-Pekka Salonen,
Frans Brüggen, and
Franz Welser-Möst. The choir's international tours have included sojourns in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macao, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., the U.S., and Uruguay, and it is a fixture of music festivals in Europe and beyond. The
Gulbenkian Foundation Chorus, Lisbon, has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon's early music imprint Archiv, Philips, Erato, Cascavelle, Apex, and Naxos. In 2017 they joined the roster of the Warner Classics label for a recording of choral works by Portuguese composer
António Pinho Vargas with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa. They also joined the
Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra that year for
a new recording of Verdi's Otello, featuring Austrian tenor
Nikolai Schukoff.