The choral conductor and pedagogue
Alois Ickstadt, who had founded the children's choir for the broadcaster
Hessischer Rundfunk (hr) in 1961, founded a youth choir, which would become the Figuralchor, for the station in 1966, according to his concept to educate choral singers from childhood to adulthood in both vocal training and background information. The name Figuralchor was derived from , mostly polyphonic music of the 17th and 18th century. Ickstadt conducted the Figuralchor in concerts, radio productions and recordings. The first Figuralchor performances, beginning in 1966, were broadcasts. The ensemble sang its first concert for a live audience In 1970, performing
motets at
St. Leonhard. The choir's repertoire is focused on sacred and secular
a cappella motets, but it also performs symphonic works and oratorios, such as Mahler's
Eighth Symphony in the opening concert of the
Alte Oper on 28 August 1981, conducted by
Michael Gielen. In the 1990s, the choir no longer received funding from the broadcaster and changed its name to Figuralchor Frankfurt, but it still has appeared in broadcasts. When Ickstadt retired in 2011,
Martin Lücker succeeded him.
Paul Leonard Schäffer became conductor in 2016, the year of the choir's 50th anniversary, after having assisted Lücker for three years. Schäffer conducted the choir in a festive concert at the Clara Schumann Saal of Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium on 16 September 2016 in a performance of Schubert's
Mass in E-flat major. The choir performed Bach's
Christmas Oratorio at the Alte Oper in 2017. == Recordings ==