(double lead) of Robin Gritton and Michael Gläser. Leon Schidlowsky composed his Laudate for the choir in 1996. From 1999 to 2004, Hans-Christoph Rademann became choir director. He achieved more transparency in the sound, following historically informed performance of Baroque music, but conducting works by Reger and Bruckner with the same intention. From the 2008/09 season, Philipp Ahmann has been artistic director of the ensemble. He found an ensemble of only 28 singers and programmed chamber music to match the size. He created a new series four concerts per year focused on a theme. The choir collaborates with the other musical groups of the NDR, but also with other German radio choirs. It has promoted to make music more accessible, presenting a program Konzert statt Schule (concert instead of school), performing concerts for families, conducting workshops open for students of music academies of the region (Musikhochschule), and regular concerts at locations of the region served by the NDR. In April 2010, the NDR Chor was awarded the Johannes Brahms Medal of the city of Hamburg, given for special merits for musical life in Hamburg and preservation of the cultural heritage of Brahms ("für besondere Verdienste um das Hamburgische Musikleben und die Pflege des Kulturerbes von Johannes Brahms"). Ahman conducted a festive program on 19 April 2010, of Bach's motets Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225, and Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf, BWV 226, Fest- und Gedenksprüche and Warum ist das Licht gegeben by Johannes Brahms, Knut Nystedt's Immortal Bach and Arvo Pärt's Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen. The conductor and composer Eric Whitacre organized in 2012 a sing-along project, SINGING!, in Hamburg, which has become an annual institution, connecting hundreds of singers with the NDR Chor. The 70th season in 2016/17, also the first season in the concert hall Elbphilharmonie, is marked by extra concerts, including Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel, Haydn's Die Schöpfung and Handel's Israel in Egypt. In the opening concert of the new concert hall on 11 January 2017, the NDR Chor performed in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock. Choral directors In more than 70 years, the choir had the following directors: 1946–65: Max Thurn 1966–78: Helmut Franz from 1995: Robin Gritton and Michael Gläser 1999–2004: Hans-Christoph Rademann 2008 - 2019: Philipp Ahmann from 2019: Klaas Stok Recording Johann Strauss Jr.: Der Zigeunerbaron (Operetta in three acts; version 1886). Nikolai Schukoff, Jochen Schmeckenbecher, Markus Brück, Jasmina