Helmuth Rilling

Helmuth Rilling (29 May 1933 – 11 February 2026) was a German choral conductor and an academic teacher who was internationally known as an authority on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He was the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei in 1954 when still a student, the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart in 1965, the Oregon Bach Festival in 1970, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart in 1981 and other Bach Academies worldwide, as well as the Festival Ensemble Stuttgart (FES) in 2001 and Junges Stuttgarter Bach Ensemble in 2011. He taught choral conducting at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt from 1965 to 1989 and led the Frankfurter Kantorei from 1969 to 1982.

He held talk concerts, introducing the music with the performers, internationally and notably in Eastern Europe. In 1985, Rilling was the first to have recorded Bach's complete church cantatas, and recordings of Bach's complete works were issued by 2000. He performed the world premiere of the Messa per Rossini (which Verdi had initiated upon the death of Rossini) in 1988.

He recorded 20th-century works such as Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher and Penderecki's Credo, the latter commissioned and performed by the Oregon Bach Festival and winning the 2001 Grammy Award for best choral performance. He continued to lead the Gächinger Kantorei and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart until 2013.