International Federation for Choral Music

We are pleased to announce the first season of the 2026 IFCM Online Café, which will focus on the WSCM 2026 and some of its presenters and workshop leaders.

Inspired by the WSCM 2026 theme, Reimagining the Future, the opening Online Café, Reimagining the Story, will feature five of the 40 choral presenters who have been selected to be part of the WSCM 2026 artistic programme. These presenters will speak about topics related to repertoire and narratives shaping the future of choral music. Their WSCM 2026 sessions will reflect on how new voices, ideas, and artistic perspectives are redefining what choirs sing about - and why. They will address topics such as emerging composers, global aesthetics, text and dramaturgy, and thematic innovation, including themes of climate, migration, and identity.

On 21 March, five presenters will each offer a short glimpse into their WSCM 2026 sessions - just enough to make you want to experience the full symposium in Macau.

• David Buley (Canada): Our Bodies Our Selves: Learning Choral Music In and Through the Body.
• Bengt Ollén (Sweden): To Captivate and Reach a Concert Audience – Preparations and Work Methods
• Timothy Pallett (South Africa): Choral Works by Emerging South African Composers
• Merzi Rajala (Finland): Choirs for Ecocide Law: Choral Art as Civic and Ecological Engagement
• Kenneth Wan Sheng Tay (Singapore/UK): Composing the Future: Sustaining the Ecology of Choral Creativity

See the abstracts of what our guests' WSCM 2026 sessions will contain below.

Register to join us on 21 March at 2PM CET and enjoy a first taste of WSCM 2026, as we reimagine the stories that will shape the future of choral music. The live 2026 IFCM Online Cafés are open to anyone, but everyone must register in order to get the Zoom link. Following the online event, only IFCM members will have access to the café.

David Buley: Our Bodies Our Selves: Learning Choral Music In and Through the Body

Participants in this fully immersive workshop will engage with a piece of choral music through key aspects of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, including movement, improvisation, group interaction, listening, and singing. The session will introduce the Dalcroze method and provide practical strategies for singers and conductors to achieve expressive, joyful performances of the studied work by integrating healthy movement that connects mind, body, emotion, and spirit. We will also explore how diverse forms of mobility can enrich the Dalcroze experience, reflecting a cultural understanding that motion and emotion, form and content, body and mind are inseparably united.

Bengt Ollén: To Captivate and Reach a Concert Audience – Preparations and Work Methods

This presentation explores how choirs and conductors can prepare and perform in ways that deeply engage audiences. Through practical examples and interactive exercises, participants experience how physical awareness, emotional connection, and expressive freedom enhance musical interpretation. The session examines rehearsal methods that develop trust, timing, and communication, revealing how expressive singing can move listeners beyond sound into shared emotion. By reimagining the relationship between preparation, performance, and audience, this session invites choral musicians to create concerts that resonate with authenticity and human connection.

Timothy Pallett: Young Composers of South Africa, Choral Works by Emerging South African Composers

Discover the voices shaping South Africa’s choral future. Young Composers of South Africa offers an interactive session of new works ranging from the traditional to contemporary, alongside guidance in authentic performance practice, pronunciation, and teaching strategies.

Merzi Rajala: Choirs for Ecocide Law: Choral Art as Civic and Ecological Engagement

Choirs for Ecocide Law (CFEL) is a transnational initiative that reimagines the choir as a civic and ecological actor. Bringing together artistic expression, environmental science, and legal advocacy, CFEL explores how collective singing can foster empathy, awareness, and responsibility for the planet. At its heart is Let’s Change the Rules, a newly commissioned fifteen-song concert in popular music styles that gives artistic voice to the recognition of ecocide as an international crime. Through collaborations with composers, legal scholars, and sustainability networks, CFEL transforms choral performance into a platform for dialogue, education, and activism—inviting the global choral community to imagine singing as ecological citizenship.

Kenneth Wan Sheng Tay: Composing the Future: Sustaining the Ecology of Choral Creativity

To reimagine the future of choral music, we must also reimagine how we nurture those who compose for it. This presentation explores the foundations that sustain the creative ecology of choral composition through three questions: (1) How do composers find their voice within the choral ecosystem? (2) What sustains the act of composing beyond funding or opportunity? (3) Whose voices are heard, or missing, in the global repertoire? Drawing on international and diasporic perspectives from living composers, the session examines composition as a collaborative practice. It explores how nurturing composers ensures that choral music remains alive, diverse, and forward-looking.