NFM Choir - NOSPR

The NFM Choir was founded in 2006 by Andrzej Kosendiak. Directed for its first 15 years by Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny, Lionel Sow became its Artistic Director in 2021. The choir has a well-earned reputation for its work in various genres, performing a cappella pieces as well as large-scale oratorios, operas, and symphonic compositions. 

The choir has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Giovanni Antonini, Zubin Mehta, Masaaki Suzuki, Kirill Petrenko, Iván Fischer, Jacek Kaspszyk, Paul McCreesh, James MacMillan, Stephen Layton, Bob Chilcott, and Krzysztof Penderecki, performing more than 300 concerts, including at the Berliner Philharmonie, Barbican Centre and Royal Albert Hall in London, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, as well as the Philharmonie de Paris and Salle Pleyel in Paris.

The NFM Choir is frequently invited to perform at international festivals such as the BBC Proms, Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden, International Ankara Music Festival, Gent Festival van Vlaanderen, Klarafestival, Lucerne Festival, George Enescu Festival, and Warsaw Autumn. The choir has worked with, among others, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort & Players, Il Giardino Armonico, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Bach Collegium Japan, Berliner Philharmoniker, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. At the core of the choir’s activity are world premieres of works by such composers as Krzysztof Penderecki, Agata Zubel, Roxanna Panufnik, Rafał Augustyn, Paweł Łukaszewski, Julia Wolfe, and Bob Chilcott.

The NFM Choir has made a series of award-winning recordings under the direction of Paul McCreesh released by Winged Lion, and two discs of Bob Chilcott’s music: The Seeds of Stars and Canticles of Light, on Signum. In April 2024, the Łukasz Borowicz album, recorded with the choir, received a Fryderyk award in the Album of the Year – Oratorio and Opera Music category. Under the direction of Lionel Sow, Dance of Death was recorded and received the Diapason d’Or distinction in September 2025.

Highlights of the 2024/2025 artistic season included a concert with Marin Alsop and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Brussels to celebrate the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2025, a concert tour with Enrico Onofri and the Orchestre national Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and participation in the premiere of Thierry Escaich’s Te Deum pour Notre-Dame during the reopening season of the Paris Cathedral.