Coro Casa da Música

Leo Warynski – New Principal Conductor

BIOGRAphy

Léo Warynski principal conductor
Paul Hillier conductor emeritus
Pedro Teixeira assistant conductor

Coro Casa da Música was founded in 2009 with Paul Hillier as its principal conductor until 2019. The choir performs regularly at Casa da Música and on tour, and has been conducted by Martina Batič, Simon Carrington, Nicolas Fink, Antonio Florio, Robin Gritton, Sofi Jeannin, Andrew Parrott, Marco Mencoboni, Kaspars Putniņš, Nacho Rodríguez, Gregory Rose, Nils Schweckendiek, Léo Warynski, and James Wood, as well as its assistant conductor, Pedro Teixeira. In 2025, it will work for the first time with Florian Helgath and Peter Dijkstra. With a core membership of 18 singers, the choir often expands to perform medium and full symphonic choral works, playing a key role in presenting repertoire from the Renaissance to the present day. Its symphonic choral projects have included collaborations with conductors such as Martin André, Stefan Blunier, Douglas Boyd, Baldur Brönnimann, Olari Elts, Leopold Hager, Michail Jurowski, Michael Sanderling, Christoph König, Peter Rundel, Vassily Sinaisky, and Takuo Yuasa. Additionally, the choir has performed early music programmes under the direction of internationally renowned specialists such as Laurence Cummings, Paul McCreesh, and Hervé Niquet.

Since its inception, Coro Casa da Música has premiered several works, including world premieres by Francesco Filidei, Michael Gordon, Gregory Rose, Manuel Hidalgo, Carlos Caires, Daniel Moreira, and a rediscovered work by Lopes-Graça. Its repertoire includes the Portuguese premieres of significant contemporary composers such as Birtwistle, Manoury, Dillon, Haas, and Rihm, alongside other key figures from the 20^th and 21^st centuries, including Lachenmann, Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Gubaidulina, Ligeti, Distler, Kagel, and Cage. The current season highlights the choir’s versatility, featuring Early Music by Allegri, Scarlatti, and João Rodrigues Esteves, a key figure of the Portuguese Baroque, as well as recent works by Caroline Shaw, James MacMillan, and Knut Nystedt.

Portuguese music has been a major focus of the choir, with programmes dedicated to the golden age of Renaissance polyphony, works by Lopes-Graça, and symphonic choral pieces by Bomtempo and António Teixeira. In June 2024, the choir released its first CD, featuring works by Fernando Lopes-Graça, under the Naxos label.

Coro Casa da Música has also performed with other Casa da Música ensembles – including its symphony orchestra, baroque orchestra, and contemporary music ensemble – in performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers, Charpentier’s Te Deum, Bach’s Mass in B minor, Christmas Oratorio and Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Haydn’s The Seasons, The Creation and St. Cecilia Mass, Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem, Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Missa Solemnis, Brahms’ A German Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Arvo Pärt’s Credo, Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Richard Strauss’ Elektra. The 2025 season brings Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3 “Song of the Night”, and Telemann’s Magnificat in C.

Coro Casa da Música tours regularly, with performances at the Úbeda and Baeza Early Music Festival and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid (Spain), the Laus Polyphoniae Festival in Antwerp, the Handel Festival in London, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Tenso Days Festival in Marseille, the Christmas Concerts in Ourense, and various concert halls in Portugal.

Leo Warynski

Léo Warynski is a French conductor whose work reflects a deep commitment to collective musical practice and a wide-ranging artistic curiosity. Renowned for the versatility of his repertoire, he moves with equal ease between opera, choral music and orchestral music, from early music to contemporary works. His conducting is widely praised for the clarity of his gestures, his precision of sound and his strong sense of musical architecture.

He performs regularly at leading concert halls and opera houses in France and abroad, including the Philharmonie de Paris, the Opéra de Nice, La Scala in Milan and the Teatro Colón. His operatic repertoire ranges from Mozart and Britten to Philip Glass and Unsuk Chin, whilst his concert programmes often explore unexpected connections between different musical periods.

A central part of his artistic practice is devoted to vocal music. In 2010, he founded the vocal ensemble Les Métaboles, which quickly became one of France’s leading professional choirs, acclaimed for the quality of its sound, stylistic flexibility and bold programming. With Les Métaboles, he performs a vast repertoire ranging from Renaissance polyphony to contemporary works, appearing at major festivals and concert halls.

At the same time, Léo Warynski has been the musical director of the instrumental ensemble Multilatérale since 2014. With this ensemble, he develops ambitious projects at the intersection of chamber music, orchestral repertoire and new works, collaborating with some of today’s leading composers and performers.

2026