21.01.2013  The Hilton College Music Department is pleased to announce the first ever Hilton College International Vocal Ensemble Festival, a new event produced in collaboration with Nordic Voices and the Norwegian State Government that promises to carry the discipline of ensemble singing to exciting new frontiers.

The festival will be held at Hilton College from 23 -25 April. Vocal ensembles from all over South Africa and abroad will come together for three days of singing, learning, and exploring the ensemble side of the singing, communication, breathing together, taking responsibility of one’s voice, role defining within a musical picture, intonation and score analysis.

Evening concerts will feature Nordic Voices and participants in Hilton College’s renowned Memorial Hall and the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir Auditorium. Each day will be filled with lectures, workshops, and masterclasses for our participants led by the six members of the Nordic Voices, each member a specialist in a different aspect of ensemble singing.

Meet the outstanding team of internationally acclaimed specialists:

Soprano Tone Braaten graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo in 1996. She is one of the founding members of Nordic Voices. Besides singing in Nordic, Braaten is a sought-after singer, both home and abroad, and has on several occasions appeared in both radio and television. She has also been a soloist on several CD releases.

Soprano Ingrid Hanken studied music pedagogy and voice training at the Norwegian State Academy of Music. She has been a member of several choirs and ensembles at home and abroad. Ingrid Hanken has great expertise in the field of voice training, also teaching at the Baardar Academy of performing arts in Oslo. She has been a member of Nordic voices since its institution in 1996.

Mezzo soprano Ebba Rydh, Swedish-born, studied singing at Kulturama, Stockholm and Opera Studio, Gothenburg, as well as Musicology at the University of Uppsala, before moving to Norway for studies at the Opera Academy wherefrom she graduated in 2003. She currently resides in Oslo and has numerous engagements as freelance singer mainly within the early, baroque and contemporary music fields.

Tenor Per Kristian Amundrød is educated from the National Academy of Music, Oslo. He graduated in 1985 Candidata Magisterii, and in 1996 he got his Master degree in choir-conducting. Per Kristian has a wide experience as choir conductor, instructor and ensemble singer, and is often teaching choirs, and choir-conducting. Per Kristian has been a member of Nordic Voices from the start in 1996.

Baritone/tenor Frank Havrøy joined Nordic Voices in 1997. He works as a freelance singer and composer, doing projects of different styles and genres. In 2008 he started as a PhD graduate at the Academy of Music with a project that concentrates on the classical, contemporary vocal ensemble.

Bass Trond Olav Reinholdtsen, is both singer and composer. Trond’s first music was modernistic and complex, then developed into extreme performativity, with non-musical elements, essayistical explanations, live-cam movie as well as statistical facts, grimaces etc. He normally lets his compositions be concluded with “the composer’s speech to the audience”, live on stage, recorded or filmed.

Schedule of Events & Concerts
Please note, all events take place on the campus of Hilton College in Hilton, KwaZulu Natal unless otherwise indicated.

Day 1 (Tuesday, April 23)
9:00am: Registration at the Hilton College Theatre
09:30am: Official Welcome
09:45am—10:30am: Lecture/Workshop Session 1 (Ensemble vs Choral Singing)
11:00am-12:00am: Individual Ensemble Workshops
12:00am-1:00pm: Welcome Lunch
1:00-3:00pm: Ensembles Masterclass 1
3:30-4:30pm: Ensembles combined project
5:00pm Supper
6:30pm: Concert 1: Participants

Day 2 (Wednesday, April 25)
8:45am-9:45am: Lecture/Workshop Session 2: (Intonation: Ingrid Hanken)
10:00am-11:30am: Ensemble Masterclass 2
12:00am-1:00pm: Lunch
1:00pm: Participants depart by bus for Drakensberg Boys’ Choir Auditorium to perform at the weekly Wednesday Concert.
3:00pm Concert 2 starts
5:00pm – Return to Hilton College
7:00pm – Supper, Fern Hill Hotel

Day 3 (Thursday, April 25)
8:45am-10:15am: Lecture/Workshop Session 3: (Score Analysis & Interpretation)
10:30am-11:30am: Ensemble Masterclass 3
12:00am-1:00pm: Lunch
1:30-2:30pm: Lecture/Workshop Session 4: (Communication)
3:00-4:00pm: Ensembles combined project
5:00pm: Supper
6:30pm: Gala Concert 3: Nordic Voices and Selected Participants

Contact:
Jaco Dippenaar
Tel: +27 33 383 0100 (office hours)
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Online Registration: Click here.
Website: Click here.