The Latvian Radio Choir is a full - time professional chamber choir founded in 1940. Since 1992 the Choir has worked under the leadership of Sigvards Kļava and Kaspars Putniņš. The Radio Choir’s repertoire encompasses an epoch spanning the renaissance and the present day; however, some of the most highly esteemed performances are those by contemporary composers, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Baroque music. The Choir is open to creative experiments and often participates in dramatic performances of contemporary music and multimedia projects.

On a regular basis, the Choir commissions works from Latvian composers Pēteris Vasks, Arturs Maskats, Mārtiņš Viļums, Santa Ratniece, Ēriks Ešenvalds and others. Occasionally their collaboration has won acclaim internationally, as was the case with the recording of Ēriks Ešenvalds’ work La Légende de la Femme Emmurée which won the Young Composers’ trophy from the 53rd International Composers’ Rostrum.
In collaboration with Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of music Choir launched a new annual competition for young composers’ choral works in 2007.

CD On Photography featuring music by Gavin Bryars, Arturs Maskats and Valentin Silvestrov recorded by the Latvian Radio Choir ventured into the Top Ten records of the famous periodical Gramophone in January 2006 and the Choir’s newest CD Glorious Hill again in collaboration with Gavin Bryars was hailed as Album of the Week by the The Independent in early December 2007.

Recently the Latvian Radio Choir has collaborated with such outstanding artists as Stephen Layton, Tõnu Kaljuste, Laurence Equilbey, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Concerto Copenhagen, Esa - Pekka Salonen and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Swedish Radio Choir, The Baltic Sea festival in Stockholm and Koonbiënnale in Haarlem (The Netherlands) have become regular collaborators of the Latvian Radio Choir.

On a regular basis the Choir collaborates with Le festival de Radio France et Montpellier in France where among other productions Choir participates also in recordings of rarely-performed and newly-revealed pieces. Seven CDs published by the Le festival de Radio France et Montpellier feature the Latvian Radio choir.

The Choir frequently performs at festivals of contemporary music, such as Klangspuren festival in Austria, Time of Music in Finland, Tenso Days in Germany and France.

For its creative activities Latvian Radio Choir has been awarded five trophies of Latvian music Grand Prix (in 1994, 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2007).

Together with The Nederlands Kamerkoor (NL), Rias Kammerchor (GER), Accentus (FR), Latvian Radio Choir is co-founder of Tenso – an international association whose objective is to promote professional choral singing culture through the exchange of experience and knowledge. Tenso is a platform for scientific research into vocal music and annual festivals Tenso Days in Europe.

Latvian Radio Chamber Singers was set up in 1994 and comprises 12 soloists of the Latvian Radio Choir.

The group’s main focus is to study the capabilities of the human voice and to seek possibilities to push the limits. It also looks for new forms and ways of performance; therefore a significant part of the repertoire is allotted to contemporary music and 20th-21st century composers such as Luciano Berio, Giacinto Scelsi, Kaija Saariaho and others.

The group is willing to extend its repertoire by adding new works by Latvian composers. In 2005, the Latvian Radio Choir commissioned Le temps scintille from Mārtiņš Viļums, and the recording won the title of Selected Work in the general category at the 52nd International Composers’ Rostrum in Vienna.

Latvian Radio Chamber Singers embrace experiments, engages in projects requiring not only singers’ talent but also stage acting skills. Among the most recent activities by the group of soloists are the performance of the opera by Bo Holten featuring music by John Cage Operation : Orfeo at Latvia’s National Opera in collaboration with the Hotel Pro Forma from Denmark, and the multimedia stage work Press to play by Ģirts Bišs within the setting of the Arena festival of new music in 2007.

The Group of Soloists has performed at well-known Baltic and European festivals: Oxford Contemporary music festival (U.K.), März Musik (Germany), Klangspuren festival (Austria), Time of music (Finland), NYYD festival (Estonia) and Gaida festival (Lithuania).