13.01.2014  Jaco Dippenaar, conductor of the Cape Soloists Choir, in collaboration with New Frontier Aid Trust and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has announced a one of a kind Choral Conductors’ Seminar focusing on experiencing through active participation and observation.

The International Choral Conductor’s Seminar is aimed at giving participants the opportunity to experience choral music in a supportive and safe environment, whilst promising to carry the discipline of choral conducting and music making to exciting new frontiers.

Conducting master classes will be facilitated by Professor Kåre Hanken (for experienced conductors) and Zimfira Poloz (for emerging conductors). Guest speaker lectures will include Michael Barrett (The Chamber Singers) and members of the Cape Soloists Choir. Conductors from all over South Africa are encouraged to register for the seminar as either active conductors or active observers. 

Master classes will feature selected conductors, but are structured in such a way as to give all involved the opportunity to experience and witness sound principles in choral conducting and choral music performance. Register now and be inspired through attending sessions that vary from lectures, master classes, and whole group participation, to unforgettable concerts of beautiful music by established local and professional choirs such as the above mentioned.

Presented at Hilton College, KZN from 20 to 23 February, the seminar is aimed at both emerging and experienced choir conductors and will feature local choirs for the emerging conductors, and for experienced conductors, The Chamber Singers, The Cape Soloists Choir and The Drakensberg Boys’ Choir.

Please note, the deadline for registration has been extended to 31 January 2014.

To read more about the Choral Conductors’ Seminar, and register, simply click on the following link:

http://www.hiltoncollege.com/music/195-international-choral-conductors-seminar.html

ABOUT:

Zimfira Poloz is a choral conductor, educator and adjudicator with a distinguished international reputation. She has been decorated with numerous awards in her long career, including the Honoured Representative of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Award, the city of Hamilton’s V.I.P. Award, and the Leslie Bell Prize Award for Choral Conducting from the Ontario Art Council. She is invited regularly to serve as clinician for festivals, lead workshops for educators, and jury International Choir Competitions around the globe. Zimfira first established her musical credentials in Kazakhstan (former USSR), founding the country’s first Choir School. The school provided an outstanding music program that grew to employ 35 music teachers with an enrolment of 450 children. Upon her arrival to Canada, Zimfira’s boundless energy and her passion for choral music found an outlet, first as a member of the Toronto Children’s Chorus Artistic Staff and later as vocal coach at St. Michael’s Choir School. At present, Zimfira is the Artistic Director for both the Hamilton Children’s Choir and the Young Voices Toronto – children’s choir in residence of University of Toronto.

Kåre Hanken (Oslo, Norway) holds a Master Degree in Church Music at the Music Conservatory in Oslo, Norway. Later he specialised in choral conducting with further studies in Sweden and USA. His career spans almost four decades, starting as an organist in Ålesund, before becoming Principal of the city’s music school. From 1987 to 2000 Kåre Hanken taught choral conducting at the Institute for Music and Theatre of the University of Oslo, and later been a part time lecturer at the Academy of Music in Oslo. He was the secretary general of the Norwegian Choir Association from 1991 to 2009.

At the University of Oslo he became the conductor of the Schola Cantorum, a choir whose concerts have brought them international acclaim all over Western Europe, the Baltic States, the Nordic countries, South Africa and Japan. In 1998 the Norwegian Department for Foreign Affairs afforded the choir the honour of representing Norway in the Pre-Olympic Culture Program in Japan. Kåre Hanken is in great demand as guest conductor and adjudicator at national and international choir competitions. In 2000 he served on the jury of the first Choir Olympics held in Linz, Austria and the World Choir Games in China in 2006. He is also a well-known choral conducting specialist and has held master classes in conducting at Universities and Academies in the Nordic countries, Estonia, Latvia, Switzerland, Japan, South Africa, Taiwan and the USA.