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9. INTERNATIONAL CHORAL COMPETITION
18. - 20. April 2008
JURY President
Gintautas Venislovas, artistic director of the Brevis Chamber Choir, studied choral conducting and completed the post-graduate professional course at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He taught choir singing and conducting at the Ažuoliukas Music School in Vilnius from 1991 to 2006. Since 2003 he has been teaching choral conducting at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Under the direction of Venislovas, the Brevis Chamber Choir won more than 30 outstanding prizes in various international competitions across Europe. In 2003 the choir was awarded The European Grand Prix in Choral Singing. Venislovas was awarded the best conductor's prizes at the choral competitions in Slovenia (1996), Lithuania (1998) and Italy (2002). Since 2001 Venislovas has been working as a member of the international juries at the Europe's most important choral competitions.
In 1998, Laurendale Associates, the US publisher, released a collection of the most popular Lithuanian choral works under the title The Gintautas Venislovas Choral Series. As a composer, he wrote a number of songs for children choirs, pieces for mixed choir, including two Missa brevis, and arranged many compositions, including musicals and rock operas.
Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and Artistic Director of the Salt Lake Choral Artists, Dr. Brady R. Allred has developed "an international reputation for excellence." His choirs won several awards ( Grand Prize - Tours, First Prize - Marktoberdorf, Grand Prize - Tolosa 2006). They have also been invited to participate in major festivals including the Festival des Choeurs Lauréats, the 19th Festival "Choralies de Vaison-la-Romaine", and the Nancy Festival International Chant de Choral. Dr. Allred has been the guest conductor for the Salt Lake Symphony, Utah Philharmonia, the Schumann Chamber Orchestra in Florence, Italy, the Wroclaw Philharmonic in Poland, the Symphonic Orchestra of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle.
Dr. Allred earned the degrees Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music and the Bachelor of Music degree in Theory/Composition and Flute Performance from Brigham Young University. As a graduate student at the Eastman School of Music he was awarded the Performers Certificate in Flute and the Jesse Kneisel Prize for Piano Accompanying. He has performed with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus. In 2007 he was honored by The Salt Lake Tribune as on of Utah's 25 Most Influential People, by the Utah Music Educators Association with a Superior Achievement award, and was selected for recognition in the International Who is Who in Choral Music.
Martina Batič was born in 1978 in Slovenia. She graduated from Academy of Music in Ljubljana in 2002 and continued at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, Germany, where she finished postgraduate studies in choral conducting in 2005. She is currently the chorus master at the Slovene National Theater Opera in Ballet and also works as a conductor and accompanist with several choirs and soloists. She is often invited as a member of a jury at the important choral competitions in Slovenia and abroad and gives lectures on choral conducting at various seminars. One of her most important achievements is the 1st prize at "Eric Ericson Award Competition" in Sweden in 2006, thus making Martina's wish to work with the best ensembles around the world a reality.
Christian Balandras
Christian Balandras studied music with an emphasis on singing and choral conducting in Lyon and Paris (under P. Caillard and C. Geoffray - founder of 'A Coeur Joie') and musicology (J. Chailley, Paris-Sorbonne).
Since 1971 he has taught music and conducting in Tours. He has been founder and conductor at the Tours University Orchestra and from 1971 to 1983, conducted the Grand Theatre Choirs for opera and operetta. In recognition of his teaching, France has awarded him the 'Palmes Academiques.
At the present time, since 1994 he's been Director of the highly recognized 'Florilege Vocal de Tours' Festival. He is often called upon as an international adjudicator (most recently in Varna, Gorizia, Cork, Debrecen, Montreux). On November 2004 he gave to the French Ministry of Culture a Report analyzing the results of 50 European International Contests during the last 10 years.
Andraž Hauptman
Andraž Hauptman studied piano, flute, singing and musical theory at the High School of Music in Ljubljana. He continued his studies at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and graduated from conducting and piano. When still a student, he took over the artistic guidance of Vinko Vodopivec male choir and was active as an accompanist and soloist of the Tone Tomšie Academic Choir.
In 1984 he founded Chamber Choir Ave with which he won numerous awards and prizes at international festivals and choral competitions, such as Maribor (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996), Gorizia (1992, 1996), Tours (1993, 1997), Maasmechelen (1993), Tolosa (1994), Johannesburg (1995), Athens (1996), Montreux (1998), Rhodos (1999), Marktoberdorf (1999), Mendoza (2000), Tallinn (2001), Vienna (2004). For his artistic achievements with Chamber Choir Ave he was awarded the City of Ljubljana Memorial Plaque and in 2005 the Gallus Plaque, the supreme award of the Slovene Cultural Activities Foundation.
He is active as a lecturer at choral seminars in Slovenia and abroad and is frequently invited to national and international choral competitions as member of the jury. He works as a pianist at the Department of Singing at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and performs regularly with promising young singers and established Slovene artists both in Slovenia and abroad.
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