International Seminar for Youth Choir Conductors

27-31 October 2010, Örebro Sweden

Fred Sjöberg, IFCM Vice-President

An exciting new conducting course takes place this autumn in Örebro, held under the auspices of the International Swedish Choral Center (SWICCO), founded recently during the 2009 WYC 20th Anniversary. This course is directed towards youth choir conductors and will focus on the pop and jazz repertoire. Last year, FENIARCO held in Italy the first course in this field and now plans to continue what was a successful event. The major choral organizations Europa Cantat and IFCM are co-organizers along with FENIARCO, SWICCO and the Sveriges Körförbund. 

We see a present need to develop not only conducting technique, vocal technique, performance technique and staging, but also to ensure the creation of suitable new repertoire and arrangements in the fields of popular and jazz music. The course will offer exactly this and is open to interested youth choir conductors from all over the world. The working language is English. There are ten places open for active conductors and up to 40 places for observers.

A unique point is the provision of a clinicians’ choir of 24 singers along with one beat boxer and with a band (piano, bass, guitar, drums and percussion) for course work with the conductors. Here, the Coro Accademia Feniarco comes into its own as a resident ensemble specialized in this repertoire. Clinicians will be Fred Sjöberg (Sweden), Alessandro Cadario (Italy) and Stefan Berglund (Sweden). The course will end with a public concert where the best conductors will conduct the choir and the band. If you love the music of ABBA, The Real Group, Elton John, Michael Jackson, U2, Phil Collins and others, this is the right course for you. This project is a part of the Uniting Youth in Song project which was selected as part of the European Union programme Culture 2007-2013. Please visit www.swicco.se in order to download the brochure. Members of Europa Cantat and IFCM may avail themselves of a reduced participation fee. The deadline to sign up is 30 September 2010.

Fred Sjöberg, Email: fred.sjoberg@telia.com