CHÓR VRC (VRC Choir)

Known for its events and concert projects combining music, theatre and performance art, VRC Choir was founded in 2009 by its current choirmaster, Joanna Maluga, DMA, graduate of Warsaw’s Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy of Music, lecturer at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. The Choir’s artistic profile results from its conductor’s fascination with contemporary music. The Choir premieres numerous new works in collaboration with composers such as Miłosz Bembinow, Eunho Chang, Aleksandra Gryka, Andrzej Karałow, Jan Krutul, Adam Sławiński, Piotr Tabakiernik, Artur Słotwiński, Kamil Staszowski, and Ignacy Zalewski. It has performed at Warsaw Autumn, the CODES Festival of Traditional and Avant-garde Music in Lublin, and the New Epiphanies Festival in Warsaw. The Choir has collaborated with the National Film Archive FINA – Audiovisual Institute in Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, Sinfonia Varsovia, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, and National Museum in Warsaw. 

The Choir is extending its stylistic offer to include early music and Renaissance repertoire, conceived as a contrasting context for contemporary music. It also presents original projects such as the concert programme The Body. Between Adoration and Delight for unaccompanied choir, the show Good Night for choir, percussion, Hammond organ, and actress, the concert-performance Wake Up! for choir, flute, cello and percussion, as well as Wind from the Fields Afar, a concert dedicated to composers of Jewish origin, held at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The Choir has also participated in choral competitions, winning top prizes. 

The Choir’s CD releases include VRC’s Good Night, notably featuring original pieces inspired by the lullaby form. Their most recent album comprises Ignacy Zalewski’s Stabat Mater – Stage Cantata with Dialogue and can also be heard on Spotify and other streaming services.