Friday 30 October 2022
Friday 30 October 2022
C-mine
C-mine
C-mine
Saturday 1 Oct 22
Contest:
from 10 am - 12.05 pm : session 1
from 1.30 pm – 3.35 pm: session 2
from 4 pm to 6 pm: session 3
LA BIOCHORISTA – 20h00 at LA BIOMISTA - Genk
“LA BIOCHORISTA” a unique symbiosis between La BIOMISTA, nature & heavenly choral sounds.
During a fairytale evening walk in the twilight of this beautiful park, the public is surprised by the heavenly sounds of 6 international top choirs.
Moreover, this concert gives the listener the unique opportunity to discover LABIOMISTA at dusk.
Small and large theater
International
Choral Festival
Flanders Genk
JURY
Also this edition, the International Choir Competition Flanders Genk invited a balanced international jury to play the 12 judging choirs from all over the world on their efforts. We introduce them to you.
Johannes Dewilde, president of the jury (Belgium)
Johannes is a passionate musician and teacher and a highly regarded choir conductor in the Belgian choir world and beyond.
He received his professional training at various conservatories in Flanders. As a teacher, he lectures at the GO! Arts Academy in Ghent, the Bruges Municipal Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, KASK. From 2013 to 2021, he was a lecturer at Artevelde University College. He also taught at the Antwerp Conservatory and the University of Eastern Finland (Joensuu).
As a conductor, in addition to his master's studies with Luc Anthonis and Geert Hendrix, he trained with various teachers at home and abroad, such as Jan Vuye, Aarne Saaluveer, Brady Allred and Bob Chilcott. He has been a guest conductor, choir coach and jury member in Sweden, Hungary, Italy, Finland, Spain, South Korea, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.
He is currently the permanent conductor of the internationally acclaimed choirs Amaranthe, the vocal ensemble Saevus and BYAC, the Brussels Young Adults Choir. He is guest conductor of the Ghent Singers. Johannes received the conductor's prize at both the Musica Eterna Rome festival and CantaRode in Kerkrade.
Bengt Ollén, (Sweden)
Bengt studied with Gösta Ohlin and Gunnar Eriksson at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. He studied orchestral conducting under Lennart Hedvall, Jorma Panula, Robert Reynolds and Everett Lee. In 1981, he founded the Amanda Vocal Ensemble.
Bengt is also the founder and conductor of the Södra Dalarnas Chamber Orchestra and has been artist and conductor in residence for the VOX Oratorio Choir since 2003. With them, Bengt has conducted all the major works for choir and orchestra from the Baroque to the 20th century at the Musik vid Siljan festival over the years.
From 1994 to 2018, Bengt worked as a choir teacher at the internationally renowned Stockholm Music Gymnasium. With these choirs, he achieved great success at international choir competitions.
In 1995, Bengt founded the Sofia Vocal Ensemble. He leads the vocal ensemble with great passion and unwavering enthusiasm. The performances of the Sofia Vocal Ensemble are characterised by a typically Swedish choral sound. Bengt's vision is to create music “beyond the notes” in order to move the listener.
The dedication of each singer is very important in this regard. That is why he constantly works to strengthen the group dynamics. Combined with a great deal of enthusiasm, this seems to be the key to success at international competitions and concerts around the world.
Bengt is frequently asked to serve as a jury member, guest lecturer, teacher at festivals, workshops and concerts at home and abroad.
Bernie Sherlock (Ireland)
Bernie Sherlock is a leading choral conductor. She founded New Dublin Voices in 2005, is Artistic Director of the Irish Youth Choir since 2020, and was co-conductor of EuroChoir 2021. She has won international conducting prizes in Finland, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Wales and Ireland. Her ongoing work as an international adjudicator of choral and conducting competitions and director of choral workshops has taken her around Europe and to the US, Canada and China.
Under Bernie, New Dublin Voices has gained critical acclaim for its innovative concert programming and its work in television, radio and recording. The choir is a multiple winner of international first prizes and has premiered approximately 80 works.
Bernie is a founding Board-member of the World Choral Conductors Network, and a representative for Ireland on the World Choir Council. She is a Lecturer in Music at the TU Dublin Conservatoire and for 12 years she directed and taught on the annual Sing Ireland International Choral Conducting Summer School.
She has a degree in music from Trinity College Dublin, she studied in Hungary for 2 years and she has Masters and Doctorate degrees in conducting from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music/DCU respectively.
Jonas Rasmussen (Denmark)
Jonas Rasmussen (b. 1992) is a Danish conductor, composer, content creator and educator, widely recognized for his ability to combine artistic ambition with playfulness and accessibility. He serves as Artistic Director of Academic Choir Aarhus and Youth Choir Aarhus U, both award-winning ensembles with whom he has achieved significant international success, including victories at the World Choral Championship in Tokyo, European Choir Games and Let the Peoples Sing.
Educated in choral conducting at the University of Cambridge, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Jonas has quickly established himself as one of the most distinctive choral voices of his generation. He has worked with professional ensembles such as The King’s Singers and Ars Nova Copenhagen and is in high demand as a workshop leader throughout Europe.
Beyond performance, he is committed to education and mentorship. Since 2021 he has taught classical choral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, and since 2025, he has shared content about choral music online for a wide international audience with a following of 150.000 across platforms and millions of views.
Maria Guinand (Venezuela)
choral and orchestral conductor, college professor, teacher and leader of national and international choral projects and has specialized in Latin American Choral Music of the 20th and 21st centuries. With the female choir Cantoría Alberto Grau she won two first prizes and two third prizes in the Guido D’Arezzo Competition in 1989. She was awarded the ‘Kulturpreis’ (1998) by the Inter Nationes Foundation (1998), the ‘Robert Edler Preis für Chormusik’ (2000), the Helmuth Rilling Prize (2009), the Life Achievement Award by the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) (2019), Life Achievement Choral Award (World Youth and Children Choral Artists’ Association, Honk Kong, China) (2020) and the Honorary Doctorate of the Metropolitan University, Caracas, Venezuela (2023).
She is frequently invited as guest conductor, adjudicator, jury member, lecturer and professor of choral music in USA, Canadá, LatinAmerica, Europe, Asia and Oceanía, and has premiered many new works.
She is currently the Artistic Director of the Fundación Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, directs the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela (1992- ) and Coral Fundación Empresas Polar (1992-).
In 2023 she conducted the renowned chamber ensembles Seraphic Fire (USA) and Coro de Cámara del Palau de la Música (Barcelona, España). She was also a presenter and conductor at the ACDA National Conference in Cincinnati and in the WSCM of the IFCM in Istanbul. In 2024 she will conduct the All-State Choir at the MMEA Conference in Missouri, (USA), concerts with the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela in the Edinburgh International Music Festival, and lead masterclasses at the Chor.com Conference in Germany.
Amongst her responsibilities, she has been Professor of Music and Choral Conducting at the University Simón Bolívar (Caracas, Venezuela 1976-2019), Associate Conductor of Choral Symphonic Performances of El Sistema (Caracas, Venezuela 1976-2012), Artistic Director of the program ‘Música para Crecer’ of the Andean Bank of Development (Latin America 2003-2017), Vice-President and Advisor of the International Federation for Choral Music (1996-2014/ 2017-2023/2023-2026), Member of the International Music Council (UNESCO 2002-2004) and Member of the World Choir Council of Interkultur. (2017-); Founder and artistic Director of the Cantoría Alberto Grau (1976-2012) and Orfeón Universitario Simón Bolívar (1976-2008).
Jurģis Cābulis (Latvia)
Jurģis Cābulis has been the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Youth Choir Kamēr… since 2022 and he heads the Choral Conducting Department at the Riga Cathedral Choir School and is the Artistic Director of its Mixed Choir since 2015.
Since 2023, he has been a Chief Conductor of the Latvian Song Festival and serves as the Chief Conductor for the Cēsis region.
Jurģis has been honored with the Latvian Choral Music Award 2024 as Conductor of the Year. Together with choir Kamēr…, he triumphed in the grand choral competition of the 2023 Latvian Song and Dance Festival. Cābulis received the Latvian Grand Music Award in 2021 for the concert program Amao Omi / The Senseless War. He won 3rd prize at the 5th Jāzeps Vītols International Choral Conducting Competition (2014) and was the winner of the 3rd Juozas Naujalis International Conducting Competition in Vilnius (2017). In 2021, he was a semifinalist at the prestigious Eric Ericson Award.
He conducted the Riga Chamber Choir Ave Sol from 2013 to 2024. Under his baton, the album Aeternum, featuring music by Jēkabs Jančevskis, was recorded and released by the renowned British label Hyperion Records in 2020 together with RCCS mixed choir.
