The May issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “International Conductors Exchange Program to Sweden: Building Bridges Through Choral Conductors” by Jeremy D. Jones and Joshua Habermann. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction.
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Jeremy D. Jones
Following exchanges with Cuba in 2012 and China in 2014, ACDA partnered with Sweden in 2015 with fourteen conductors from each country participating. The exchange began with the visiting conductors from Sweden gathering for residencies in each of our ACDA Regions and attending the National Conference in Salt Lake City. Following the conference, I had the pleasure of creating a residency itinerary and hosting Jakob Patriksson at Miami University in Oxford, OH.
His time in the Central Region also included residencies with 2015 ICEP conducting fellows Amy Blosser at Bexley High School in Columbus, OH, and Dominick DiOrio at Indiana University, Bloomington. Jakob serves as organist and music director at Oscar Fredrik Church in Gothenburg and is also the founder and artistic director of the male choral ensemble, Ars Veritas, a chamber ensemble specializing in the performance of Gregorian chant.
Joshua Habermann
For me, ICEP was a chance to return to Sweden, where I had been an exchange student in 1985 between my junior and senior years of high school. Since spending that summer there, I had maintained an interest in Scandinavian languages and culture, and once I made the choice to pursue choral conducting, I was excited to put my Swedish to use and dig into the rich tradition of Nordic choral music.
The first step in the bilateral exchange was to host two Swedish conductors: Lars Fredén, music director at the Gustav Vasa Church in Stockholm, and Mats Bertilsson, who leads the music program at Olaus Petri Church in Örebro, a city of around 125,000 inhabitants located two hours west of Stockholm. Lars and Mats were among the group of fourteen conductors from Sweden who were hosted in each region.
Related Choral Journal Content
February 2016 – “Training Choral Conductors in the Choral Culture of Sweden: Interviews with Seven Prominent Swedish Conductors” by R. Paul Crabb
November 2016 – “Reflections from the 2015 ACDA International Conductors Exchange Program Körsamarbete med Sverige (Choral Connections with Sweden)” by Kimberly Dunn Adams
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