The cultures of Scandinavia have always exerted a huge fascination over people. Scandinavian music is often purported to possess a mystical and "typically Nordic" sound. In Scandinavian choral music developed a strong orientation towards folk music and folk songs. The important relationship between human beings and Nature - as a result of the strong influence in Scandinavia of the changing seasons on people's every-day lives - along with fundamental questions about life and death were ever-present topics in those countries' choral music. The human voice was deployed in far more diverse ways than ever before: novel sounds and unusual scores were soon setting the tone and new standards on the Scandinavian choral scene began leading to a continual professionalisation that was to make waves across all of Europe.

The Jugendkonzertchor der Chorakademie Dortmund under the direction of Felix Heitmann is the top-drawer ensemble of the youth section of Europe's largest school for singing.

The WDR Radio Choir is a professional ensemble comprising 43 singers, male and female. It is based at the WDR broadcasting centre in Cologne. Its profile is repertoire diversity in perfection and specialisation on innovative and demanding works, both in the unaccompanied and instrumental fields.