International Federation for Choral Music

We’re delighted to invite you to the next IFCM Online Café, 2 May 2026, at 2PM CEST, offering a first glimpse into the World Symposium on Choral Music 2026 (WSCM 2026) and the inspiring voices behind it.

Inspired by the symposium’s theme, Reimagining the Future, this online Café—Reimagining the Community—will bring together six of the 40 selected presenters from the WSCM 2026 artistic programme. Together, they will explore how choirs can become powerful spaces of belonging, inclusion, and social cohesion.

Through a range of perspectives and experiences, the session will touch on themes such as:

• Choirs as models for community building
• The intersection of heritage and choral singing through Arabic music
• Creating and nurturing a gospel choir from the ground up
• The transformative role of musical entrainment in Philippine choirs
• New approaches to cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration

Join our guests for this engaging Online Café and be part of the conversation as we begin to reimagine the role of choral music in our communities.

• Marleen de Boo and Jeroen Keymeulen (Belgium): A Choir Family as a Model for Community Building.
• Amir Jaber Chehayeb (Lebanon): Arabic Music in Harmony — At the intersection of Heritage and Choral Singing.
• Marques J. Ruff (USA): Make a Joyful Noise: Building a Gospel Choir from Scratch!
• Robert Delgado (Philippines): The Transformative Power of Musical Entrainment on the Success of Philippine Choirs.
• Karmina Šilec (Slovenia): Choirs Beyond Borders: A New Praxis of Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration.

Register to join us on 2 May at 2PM CET and enjoy a first taste of WSCM 2026, as we reimagine the community that will shape the future of choral music. The live 2026 IFCM Online Cafés are open to anyone.

Biography of the presenters:

• Marleen De Boo (Belgium) holds a master's degree in both music education and choral conducting. She teaches choral conducting at the Antwerp Conservatory and the Podiumacademie Lier and is also artistic director of the non-profit organization Waelrantkoren, where she conducts various choirs. Her work covers different age groups with a strong focus on the educational dimension of choral singing. Her main motivation is to help amateurs, especially children and young people, discover the beauty of choral music.
• Robert Delgado (The Philippines) is a nationally recognized figure in the Philippine choral scene as conductor, arranger, and educator with over four decades of experience. In the 1980s, he was a soloist and resident arranger of the Philippine Madrigal Singers while pursuing Music Composition and Voice at UP, contributing significantly to the group’s acclaimed repertoire. In the 90s, he led award-winning choirs, organized international tours, and served as clinician and juror at festivals in the Philippines and abroad. His work also extends to scoring for film, fashion shows, recordings, and state events. He is listed in the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art and serves as member of the NCCA Music Committee. Currently, he sits on the Steering and Operations Committees of the World Choral Conducting Network and is pursuing a PhD in Music at UP. He also founded the National Association of Filipino Choirs, Inc.
• Amir Jaber Chehayeb (Lebanon) is an assistant conductor of the Fayha National Choir of Lebanon, one of the Arab world’s most distinguished choirs renowned as the pioneer of Arabic a cappella. He joined the choir in 2022, and soon thereafter started studying under the mentorship of its principal conductor, Barkev Taslakian. Amir is a Eirm believer in the ability of choral singing to foster community, resolve conElict, and preserve heritage. He witnesses this impact daily within the choir’s various branches and outreach projects which extend across Lebanon and the Arab world. This same philosophy of service and social harmony guides his career as a medical student at the American University of Beirut. Musically, Amir is deeply invested in evolving and amplifying the blossoming school of Arabic a cappella. The unique microtonal scales and phonetics of Arabic music have given rise to new arrangement and performance techniques that challenge and expand traditional choral boundaries.
• Jeroen Keymeulen (Belgium) obtained master's degrees in classical guitar, chamber music and orchestral conducting. He conducts the Mechelen-based Vokalis and the Chamber Choir Flanders. With this young ensemble he became third champion in the champions competition “Chamber Choirs” at the European Choir Games 2025. In August 2019, Jeroen took on a new challenge, bringing together several passions, as general director of Koor&Stem vzw, the Flemish amateur arts organization for vocal music.
• Marques Jerrell Ruff (USA) is a distinguished bass-baritone, conductor, and scholar recognized for his “power, clarity, and brilliant shades of color” (The Hartford Courant). He serves as Associate Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at Arkansas State University, where he directs the Arkansas State University Gospel Choir. Dr. Ruff is the creator of The Evolution of the Negro Spiritual, a lecture-concert series that explores the historical, cultural, and pedagogical dimensions of the spiritual as a cornerstone of African American music. While pursuing his Ph.D. at Florida State University, he directed the Florida State University Gospel Choir, advancing its artistic profile and community engagement. His performance career includes collaborations with the New World Symphony, Seraphic Fire, and Conspirare. Dr. Ruff holds degrees from Central Connecticut State University, the University of Missouri, and Florida State University, and maintains active membership in ACDA and the National Association of Negro Musicians.
• Karmina Šilec (Slovenia) is a multidisciplinary artist. She creates projects with various choirs, companies, opera and drama houses, festivals and ensembles worldwide. In her projects different theatrical and other elements are merged into an emancipated composition where this fusion gives various semantic directions. Her projects have been granted with major international awards in the fields, including the International Robert Edler Prize (2004) for her contribution to the world choral movement, two Music Theatre Now and more than 20 highest international awards at choir competitions, among others. Her ensembles and projects have been performed on stages and festivals of the highest esteem. She is artistic director of Carmina Slovenica and is active as an artistic adviser for choral music, a university professor for conducting, a guest conductor and jury member at competitions.

Presentations Summaries

Marleen De Boo, Jeroen Keymeulen (Belgium)
A Choir Family as a Model for Community Building
The decline of parish choirs in Flanders has eroded the social fabric once centered around shared singing. To rebuild that sense of belonging, new “choir families” are emerging — organizations that unite multiple choirs across ages and styles under one roof. Waelrant in Antwerp exemplifies this model, offering a continuous path from children to adult choirs, combining musical education with community spirit. In a society where time and connection are scarce, choir families provide structure, continuity, and inclusion — restoring singing as a shared social act and a cornerstone of modern community life.

Robert Delgado (The Philippines)
The Transformative Power of Musical Entrainment in the Success of Philippine Choirs
Philippine choirs have earned global recognition for their artistry and discipline, yet their enduring success may be best explained through the lens of musical entrainment; the synchronization of physiological, cognitive, psychological, and social processes in collective music-making. This paper explores how Filipino choirs foster entrainment through rigid rehearsals, sectional training, shared experiences, and communal traditions. Drawing from music psychology, ethnomusicology, and cultural practice, the presentation highlights case studies of Philippine choirs to demonstrate how entrainment not only produces competition-ready excellence but also cultivates community, resilience, and identity, revealing its profound transformative power.

Amir Jaber Chehayeb (Lebanon)
Arabic Music in Harmony - At the Intersection of Heritage and Choral Singing
In a reimagined future where choral music shapes communities worldwide, it will inevitably engage in intimate dialogue with local musical heritage. Shared songs and stories travel down generations and can only endure if we collectively sing the reprise. From a small town in Tripoli - Lebanon, our experience started more than two decades ago, exploring how choral singing can elevate Arabic musical heritage with its unique phonetics, rhythms, and scales. We will delve into three key milestones of this journey: the phonetic hurdles of singing a cappella in Arabic, the adaptation of tonal-harmony principles to microtonal Arabic scales involving three-quarter tone steps, and the rapid spread of this novel artform to other Arabic countries despite the lack of proper academic programs.

Marques J. Ruff (USA)
Make a Joyful Noise: Building a Gospel Choir from Scratch!
Make a Joyful Noise: Building a Gospel Choir from Scratch! equips educators and conductors with the tools to confidently establish gospel choirs in schools and communities. This session explores the historical roots of gospel music, foundational vocal and instrumental elements, and distinctive stylistic practices that set the genre apart from Western classical traditions. Participants will gain practical strategies for healthy vocal production, expressive conducting, and authentic ensemble leadership. Emphasizing collaboration and cultural awareness, this presentation provides a framework for building choirs that honor the gospel tradition while fostering artistic growth and communal connection through song.

Karmina Šilec (Slovenia)
Choir Beyond Borders: A New Praxis of Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
Recently a choral art has been steadily expanding beyond its traditional framework. The choir could also be vibrant actor for dialogue, creativity and social transformation. My lecture will help to explore a praxis of creating cross-disciplinary projects. The emphasis will be on how to think / create a cooperation, an inclusion of different artistic and scholarly fields, and the profound social dimensions of such collaboration. It will help to understand methods for creating such projects through a creative process that brings together different artistic fields and non-artistic disciplines such as science, technology, social studies into a shared space of expression.