Frankfurter Kantorei (Frankfurt chorale) is a German mixed concert choir established in July 1945 by Kurt Thomas in Frankfurt. In 1969, Helmuth Rilling assumed leadership, and the choir began recording the complete Bach cantatas in 1972. From 1982 to 1997, Wolfgang Schäfer was artistic director of the Frankfurter Kantorei. Since then it has been led by Winfried Toll. The choir has performed concert tours abroad in Paris, Lyon, Venice, Turin, Vienna, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Seattle and Toronto, among others, and first appeared in Israel in 1979. The group has made numerous CD recordings on the EMI Classics label. In 2000 they were a recipient of the Binding Kulturpreis, and in May 2000, they performed Brecht/Weill's Three Penny Opera at the Musiktriennale Köln of Col