European GP for choral Singing 2018

Announcements

EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX FOR CHORAL SINGING 2018,
Slovenia, Maribor, April 21, 2018

JURY

Karmina Šilec, Slovenia– President

Karmina Šilec is artistic director of Carmina Slovenica and Choregie – New Music Theatre, conductor, stage director, set designer and choreographer. She has brought freshness and originality to the world of vocal music and theatre. Her projects are provocative and daring: her ideas break taboos, both those of the society and music. She has received more than 20 highest international awards at choir competitions, the prestigious ITI - Music Theatre Now award in Music beyond Opera category, the Golden Mask theatre award and the International Robert Edler Prize for Choral Music for her exceptional contribution to the world choir movement. As conductor and director, Karmina Šilec does projects with various companies and ensembles worldwide, among them Theater Basel, SNT Opera Ljubljana, Radio Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Maribor, Slovenian National Project Choir, ensemble ¡Kebataola! and many others. Her ensemble Carmina Slovenica has been invited to art events of the highest esteem such as the Operadagen Rotterdam, Ruhrtriennale, Festival d'Automne á Paris, Moscow Easter Festival, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Melbourne Festival, Prototype Festival, Steierischer Herbst, Holland festival, etc.
She also works as an artistic adviser for choral music, university professor for choir conducting and is regularly guest conductor, jury member, or member of artistic committees at festivals and competitions.

Bernard Tétu, France

Bernard Tétu is the artistic director of the Chœurs et Solistes de Lyon-Bernard Tétu since 1979, having directed over 2,000 concerts with them. He created the first graduate program for choral conducting in France at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Lyon. Over 60 graduates currently hold professional conducting positions. He is internationally renowned for his knowledge of the French repertoire.
Tétu is recognized as one of the leading interpreters of 19th and 20th century French music and German Romantic music. His thirty-five recordings include world premiere recordings of La Naissance de Vénus by Fauré, Athalie by Mendelssohn, and Miroir de Jésus by Caplet, while his recordings of Brahms, Berlioz, Debussy, Franck and Caplet are considered to be artistic references.
He has collaborated with many contemporary composers, among them Pierre Boulez. Since 2003, he is the artistic director of Les Voix du Prieuré, a contemporary and sacred music festival in the Savoie region of France (Bourget-du-Lac).
Tétu has worked with numerous choreographers and stage directors, including Jean Lacornerie, in staged musical performances, recently, Les Rêveries by Philippe Hersant and Mirage de l’ailleurs by Samuel Sighicelli.
Vocal and choral repertoires remain at the heart of his orchestra conducting activities. In France, he conducted the Lyon National Orchestra, Orchestra of Auvergne, National Orchestra of Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Regional Orchestra of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, Symphonic Orchestra of Brittany, Symphonic and Lyric Orchestra of Nancy, National Orchestra of Lorraine and the Orchestra of the Pays de Savoie. Abroad, he collaborated with the Chamber Orchestra of Geneva, the Soloists of Salzburg, Bratislava Orchestra, Montreal Ancient Music Studio and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, as well as some of the most prestigious professional vocal ensembles.
Bernard Tétu has been named Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters and is a member of the Lyon Academy of Arts, Letters and Sciences.

Gary Graden, USA/Sweden

Gary Graden was born in the USA and studied at the Hartt School of Music, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and with Eric Ericson at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. He is a former member and tenor soloist with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir.
Graden is presently director of choral music in the Stockholm Cathedral and St. Jacob´s church. He has also previously served on the faculty of Stockholm´s Musikgymnasium where he founded and conducted the Stockholm Musikgymnasium´s Chamber Choir. With them and the St. Jacob's Chamber Choir, he has won grand prizes and first prizes in several of Europe´s most prestigious competitions, including the European Grand Prix.
He has participated in a wide array of national and international festivals, commissioned and premiered more than 90 works by Swedish and international composers. He is in demand as conductor, teacher and adjudicator throughout the world. He has conducted many international choirs including the Swedish Radio Choir, the choir of Radio France, the Hungarian Radio Choir, Slovenian Philharmonic Choir, IFCM World Youth Choir, and Coro Giovanile Italiano. His work as conductor and singer is documented on many radio and some 30 CD recordings, including recent recordings of the Bach Motets, St. John Passion, and Handel’s Messiah.

Helena Fojkar Zupančič, Slovenia

Helena Fojkar Zupančič completed her musical education at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, Slovenia, supplementing it through numerous vocal and conducting seminars. She works as a choral conductor and vocal teacher at the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium of St. Stanislav's Institution. She leads the St. Stanislav Girls' Choir as well as the St. Nicolas Choir Litija, both of which perform classical choral repertoire. She also leads the 100-member (Re)Mixed Choir of the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium, which sings gospel, pop and musicals. Her choirs excel in sophisticated vocal technique, profound breadth of musical repertoire, a rich sound quality and original interpretation.
She was the choirmaster of the Slovenian Children’s Choir from 2004-2009; collaborated and recorded with the Slovene Radio Chamber Choir from 2009-2014; performed in the Mozartine concert with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2014; and opened the Slovene Music Days concert cycle with the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir in 2015.
As a conductor, Helena Fojkar Zupančič has received several awards at the national and international levels. She is a sought-after jury member for national and international competitions and her choirs regularly commission and perform new works by Slovene composers.
She was awarded the 2016 prize for outstanding achievements in the field of musical education presented by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of the Republic of Slovenia.
She enjoys delving into a variety of music genres, researching the unknown and finding new approaches to familiar repertoire. Helena Fojkar Zupančič is very popular among singers as a conductor who knows how to inspire them and find joy through music. In this way, she has educated numerous generations of singers who have gone on to decidedly influence the Slovene choral scene.

Johannes Prinz, Austria

Johannes Prinz started singing in the Vienna Boys Choir at the age of nine. He studied composition, musical and singing education at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, orchestra conducting in the class of Karl Österreicher. He took courses in choral conducting with Erwin Ortner, with whom he continued working as a singer in the Arnold Schönberg Choir and the Austrian Radio Choir.
Prinz conducted the Choir of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (1982-1992), Chamber Choir of the Vienna Music University (1988-1998), and Vienna Chamber Choir (1995-2007).
In 1991, he was appointed the Choir master of the Wiener Singverein that has since re-established its reputation as one of the top international concert choirs, winning the Grammy Award for the recording of Mahler’s 3rd symphony under Pierre Boulez with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ladies Choir of the Wiener Singverein.
As a guest conductor, Prinz has collaborated with the Bavarian Radio Choir, Berlin Radio Choir, the Austrian State opera Chorus, the RIAS Kammerchor, Slovenian Chamber Choir, Spanish Radio Choir, State Choir Latvija and others. He also worked with the European Youth Choir (1998) and the World Youth Choir (2003).
Recently, he has been making a mark as an orchestra conductor, having appeared with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Capella Istropolitana (Slovakia), Tschaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow, Capella Leopoldina, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra (Osaka, Japan), the Vienna Concert-Verein and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.
Prinz has held international and national choir master courses, was a jury member or chairman at national and international choral competitions, and is professor of choral conducting at the University of Music and dramatic arts in Graz.

Nadezhda Averina, Russia

Nadezhda Averina graduated from the Ponomaryov VESNA Children’s Choir School (Moscow, Russia) and Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory, holds a PhD in History of Arts and is a Professor of Moscow Conservatory, laureate of international competitions, and Merited Artist of Moscow.
Since 2012 she has been Principal of Ponomaryov VESNA Choir School and Artistic Director and Conductor of VESNA Children’s Choir. Under the leadership of Dr. Averina, the Choir won first prizes and Grand Prix at international choir competitions in Tolosa (2006), Nyiregyhaza (Hungary, 2010), Malcesine (Italy, 2012), Neerpelt, Belgium, and Halle, Germany (2014), Debrecen (2016), and Daugavpils (Latvia, 2017). Last year, the Choir won the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing 2017.
VESNA Children’s choir has performed its concert programs in 12 European countries, Canada, Japan, and China, as well as in about 50 Russian cities and towns. The choir has sung in prestigious concert halls in Moscow with famous orchestras and conductors.
The choir’s repertoire is wide and varied. It includes hundreds of pieces of classical music of different periods, countries, styles and genres. The programs have been recorded by music publishers, radio, and television.
Dr. Averina has written articles on methodology of teaching, arranged for choir performance a number of music pieces, compiled numerous choir music collections (seven of them included in the Golden Library of Choirmaster series). She regularly holds seminars and master classes for choirmasters and is a jury member in Russian and international choir competitions.

Simon Phipps, GB/Sweden

Simon Phipps has conducted most of the professional orchestras in Sweden including the Swedish National Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony. His choir Simon Phipps Vokalensemble has established itself as one of Sweden's finest and has won prizes in many international competitions, most notably at the prestigious festival in Marktoberdorf, Germany, (May 2005)  where they were awarded first prize and a special prize for best programme. The choir was elected Choir of the year 2006 in Sweden, and took the Grand Prix as well as four other first prizes at Florilège vocale de Tours in France in 2007. Since Autumn 2007 the choir has adopted the name of The Swedish Chamber Choir.
Simon was born in London and received his early musical training as a chorister at New College, Oxford. He took his B.A. as a Choral Scholar at King's College, Cambridge and went on to study singing at the Guildhall School in London. Conducting studies in Munich and Manchester followed and he made his professional debut at the Gothenburg Opera in 1985.
The next ten years were largely devoted to opera with engagements at Sadlers Wells and English National Opera in London, Krefeld in Germany, and Malmö in Sweden . In 1994 Simon Phipps moved to Sweden and has since then lived in Gothenburg. Although opera is still an important feature of his career (since 2003 he has been the Artistic Director of Läckö Opera Festival and in November 2005 he conducted the Scandinavian premiere of Britten's Paul Bunyan in Gothenburg) orchestral and choral work is now equally important.