competition 2017

Jury

Karmina Šilec, president

Karmina Šilec is artistic director of Carmina Slovenica and Choregie – New Music Theatre, conductor, stage director, set designer and choreographer. She has brought freshness and originality to the world of vocal music and theatre. Her projects are provocative and daring: her ideas break taboos, both those of the society and music. She has received more than 20 highest international awards at choir competitions, the prestigious ITI - Music Theatre Now award in Music beyond Opera category, the Golden Mask theatre award and the International Robert Edler Prize for Choral Music for her exceptional contribution to the world choir movement. As conductor and director, Karmina Šilec does projects with various companies and ensembles worldwide, among them Theater Basel, SNT Opera Ljubljana, Radio Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Maribor, Slovenian National Project Choir, ensemble ¡Kebataola! and many others. Her ensemble Carmina Slovenica has been invited to art events of the highest esteem such as the Operadagen Rotterdam, Ruhrtriennale, Festival d'Automne á Paris, Moscow Easter Festival, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Melbourne Festival, Prototype Festival, Steierischer Herbst, Holland festival, etc.
She also works as an artistic adviser for choral music, university professor for choir conducting and is regularly guest conductor, jury member or member of artistic committees at festivals and competitions.

Gabriel Baltes

Gabriel Baltes is currently a teacher of choral conducting at the Centro Superior de Musica del Pais Vasco (Musikene) in San Sebastian, Spain.
He is the founder and director of the vocal group KUP Taldea in Tolosa, Spain, made of about thirty young yet experienced singers. Under his direction, they were awarded first prize (ex aequo) at the international choir competition of Maribor (Slovenia) in 2009. At the international competition of Tours in May 2010, the vocal group was awarded first prize in the two categories in which it was competing and received the Grand Prix of Tours.
In 2011, KUP Taldea was a finalist at the European Choral Grand Prix that took place in Tolosa, Spain.
KUP Taldea has been selected along with 23 other choirs over the world to participate in the 11th World Symposium on Choral Music organised by the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM).

Helena Fojkar Zupančič

Helena Fojkar Zupančič obtained her singing and music education degree from the Ljubljana Academy of Music, and perfected her skills in numerous singing and conducting seminars. She works at Diocessan Classical Gymnasium (ŠKG), St. Stanislav's Institution, Ljubljana, as choir conductor and teacher of vocal technique. She conducts St. Stanislav's Girls Choir, St. Nicholas Choir Litija (classical choral repertoire) and the ŠKG (Re)Mixed Choir (gospel, pop and musical). Her recent notable achievements are: absolute victories at the EBU Let the Peoples Sing 2009 in Oslo, Summa cum Laude 2013 in Vienna and taking part in the European Festival of Youth Choirs Basel 2014 with St. Stanislav's Girls' Choir, and victories at Venezia in Musica 2011, Maasmechelen 2013, Derry 2015, two second places in Tolosa 2016, as well as golden plaques at the 2012 and 2016 Naša pesem national competitions with St. Nicholas Choir Litija. In the coming July, St. Stanislav's Girls Choir will present itself under her lead in Barcelona at the 11th World Symposium on Choral Music.
Her choirs excel in perfected vocal technique, insightful knowledge of the musical material, a rich sound, and inventive interpretation.
From 2004–2009, she led the Slovenian Children’s Choir, recorded and held concerts with the project Radio Slovenia Chamber Choir and performed with the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir in 2015. She is a regular jury member and often commissions and performs novelties by Slovenian composers with her choirs.

Maria Gamborg Helbekkmo

Maria Gamborg Helbekkmo is professor emeritus at Bergen University College, where she taught choir conducting, piano, and solo voice. Educated as a pianist, singer and conductor, she has gained wide recognition as a musician and teacher, and is especially known for her work with the female choir Voci Nobili. Her determination, combined with her artistic abilities and her unique musical ambience resulted in 11 international first prizes with this choir.
 In 2005 she won the Norwegian Choral Association’s annual prize with Voci Nobili, and in 2006 she was awarded H.M. The Kings Medal of Merit in Gold for her educational and artistic contribution to Norwegian music.

Reiner Schneider-Waterberg

Reiner Schneider-Waterberg was born in Namibia, attended the local Deutsche Schule Otjiwarongo and then Michaelhouse, where he obtained the best matriculation results in Natal. He then studied at Stellenbosch University where he completed three degrees cum laude and received the faculty medal. He also sang in the University Choir. He was subsequently awarded a scholarship to Cambridge to study International Relations. There he sang in the Trinity College Choir and established himself as a counter-tenor soloist. He finally left his academic pursuits behind to study singing at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. It was here that he started to retrain the baritone range of his voice.
As a soloist, he has worked with numerous formations. Recitals of song and melodrama remain a particular priority. In 2003 he joined the vocal ensemble Singer Pur, Germany’s leading vocal ensemble that has performed in over 50 countries and won three times in recent years the ECHO Klassik prize, considered Europe’s most prestigious CD award. Apart from his engagement in Singer Pur, he conducts several choirs in the Basel region.