As part of the agreement between the Argentine Federated Organisation of Choral Activities (OFADAC) and IFCM, OFADAC has launched a serie of Conductors Without Borders (CWB) sessions starting in 2018.
Read the report in English — en español
The first CWB workshop for Brazilian choral conductors was organized during the 17th Choral Festival of Paraíba, on 25-30 November 2019. In cooperation with the festival coordinator, Eduardo Nóbrega, and Prof. Eduardo Lakschevitz from Rio de Janeiro, Cristian Grases presented a workshop during which he commented on the development of choral music in the world today, presenting trends in performance and repertoire, difficulties encountered, and their proposed solutions.
The First International Choral Festival in Guatemala took place in Guatemala City. As part of this festival, IFCM's project Conductors Without Borders (CWB) had its first workshop in Latin America with wonderful success. This festival was organized by the Guatemalan organization "Proyecto Corodemia" and their leaders Fernando Archila and Julio Edgar Julián, in connection with CWB's coordinator for the Northern Region, Ana Patricia Carbajal, and guests clinicians Maibel Troia (Venezuela) and Susie Wilson (Costa Rica). Read the report of this first session in Latin America (in Spanish).
A second session was held at the Faculty of Music an Visual Arts of Da Vinci University of Guatemala on 8-11 June 2023, with Julio Morales and Ana Patricia Carbajal as session leaders. Topics were the role of choir conductor, gestural technique, analysis of choral works, rehearsal and pedagogy techniques for rehearsal, vocal technique for children’s choirs and adult choirs, choral composition and arrangements, repertoire, etc. 60 students and 15 children’s choirs attended the session. Read the report here.
From September 24 to 28, 2018, the Foundation Schola Cantorum de Venezuela organized, from Caracas, Venezuela, a virtual international workshop in collaboration with IFCM's project, Conductors Without Borders, and the Company Mega Sala Virtual Movistar. The international session leaders were Anton Armstrong (USA), Pearl Shangkuan (USA), Elisenda Carrasco (Spain), María Guinand (Venezuela), Silvana Vallesi (Argentina), Ana María Raga (Venezuela), Jan Schumacher (Germany), Isabel Palacios (Venezuela), Miguel Astor (Venezuela) and Cristian Grases (USA/Venezuela).
More recently, the Schola Cantorum Foundation of Venezuela has iniated a new program, called ¡Cantemos!, which continues to fulfill its mission of training young directors, students, and singers in values and musical education. The inaugural stop was on the island of Margarita, where four days of workshops and concerts were held in various locations on the island, thereby promoting a new boost in choral activity in the region. The next destinations will take them to the Venezuelan Andes area and the central area of the country.
An online session was organized for all Latin Americans on 24-26 September 2021 and presented by a team of well-known Latin American conductors: Luimar Arismendi (Venezuela), Virginia Bono (Argentina), Chiara Danielle Schol (Uruguay), Cecilia Espinosa (Colombia), Ángel Herdz (Dominican Republic), Antonio Llaca (Cuba/Canada), Julio Morales (Mexico), Omar Morales Abril (Guatemala), Amarilis Pagán Vila (Puerto Rico), Margot Parés-Reyna (Venezuela), María Felicia Pérez (Cuba), María Olga Piñeros (Colombia), Ana María Raga (Venezuela), Isabella Sekeff (Brazil), Aurelio Tello (Peru/Mexico), and Federico Trindade (Brazil). The topics of this session focussed on repertoire: children’s, mixed and equal voice choirs’ repertoire, as well as Latin American repertoire from the past. It will also include the teaching of choral conducting, discussions on the selection of the repertoire and the conception of a programme in collaboration with the choir, and choral arrangements of traditional music.
Official magazine of the International Federation for Choral Music, the International Choral Magazine is published quarterly in the four official languages of IFCM: English, French, German and Spanish. It is distributed in more than 80 countries on the five continents and is the official voice of choral music around the world.
Read moreOur focus at the moment is to unite the choral calendars of international choral organisations. Meanwhile please consult the calendar of choral events published by the European Choral Association - Europa Cantat here.
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