International Federation for Choral Music

The Conductors Beyond Borders (CBB) Peer-to-Peer Exchange Programme is part of the Choral TIES project coordinated by the European Choral Association, co-funded by the European Union Creative Europe programme, and organised in cooperation with IFCM.

Thank you to all the participating partners! Here’s a peek into the January exchanges made possible through the CBB Peer-to-Peer Exchange Programme.

15-19 January 2026: A European conductor from outside the EU (Kjetil Åmann, Norway) invited to Gramsh, Albania, to work with a blind conductor.

Kjetil Åmann (Norway) has been working to develop ways of making sheet music more available for visually impaired singers. In January, he was invited to Gramsh, a small town in Albania, to learn how a blind conductor, Marsona Taçe, working for the local municipal music school, handles the challenges she meets in her daily work. This was a two-way exchange of knowledge. For Kjetil, getting insight in Albanian iso-polyphony was valuable, while Marsona received insight in Kjetil’s techniques for generating sheet music in braille and the use of screen readers.

Some of the young singers from the music school in Gramsh, together with Marsona Taçe and her brother Blendi

19-28 January 2026: An EU conductor (Gerrit Maas, The Netherlands) invited to Brandon, Canada, to work with the Brandon University School of Music

Gerrit Maas was a guest of Andrée Dagenais, Professor and Director of Choral Studies at Brandon University (BU). During the programme, Gerrit conducted the two university choirs—the BU Chorale and the BU Concert Choir—and worked with the School of Music’s conducting students.

As the programme is designed to foster mutual learning and exchange, the collaboration will hopefully continue in return with Andrée travelling to the Netherlands. There, she will work with the Koninklijke Christelijke Oratorium Vereniging (KCOV) Excelsior in Amsterdam, an amateur choir of approximately 100 singers; the LSKO Collegium Musicum, the choir of Leiden University; and the Domstad Jeugdorkest, a youth orchestra for high school students aged 14 to 18.