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Kåre Hanken
Kåre Hanken holds a Master Degree in Church Music from the Music Conservatory in Oslo, Norway, and obtained further qualifications in Organ and Choral Conducting in Denmark, Sweden and the USA. Spanning almost four decades, he started his career as an organist in Ålesund, before becoming Principal of the city’s music school. From 1987 -1998 Kåre Hanken taught choral conducting at the Institute for Music and Theatre of the University of Oslo, and he has been part time lecturer at the Norwegian Academy of Music. |
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At present he is Secretary General of The Norwegian Choir Association. During his time in Ålesund, he conducted the Ålesund Church Choir and Ålesund Chamber Choirs. Under his baton, these Choirs performed all over Scandinavia, as well as in Germany, England and the USA. At the University of Oslo he became the conductor of the Schola Cantorum, which has achieved international acclaim with concerts all over Western Europe, the Baltic States, The Nordic countries, South Africa and Japan. In 1998 the Choir was afforded the honour by the Norwegian Department of Foreign Affairs to represent Norway in the Pre-Olympic Culture Program in Japan.
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| He is in great demand as a guest conductor and adjudicator at national and international choir competitions, and has served on the jury of the first Choir Olympics in 2000, held in Linz, Austria. In 2006 he will be in the jury of the Choir Olympics which will be arranged in Xiamen, China. Kåre Hanken is also a well-known choral conducting specialist and has held master-classes in conducting at universities and academies in Latvia, Estonia, South Africa, Japan and the USA. |
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In 1998 he established an extensive choral conducting educational program at the University of Port Elizabeth, which he serves the broader communities of the Eastern Cape Province. He also supervises and lectures at the Masters Degree and Doctoral Programs in Practical Choral Conducting at the University of Port Elizabeth. These programs are in cooperation with the Norwegian Academy of Music. At present he is part-time lecturer in choral conducting at Stellebosch University, South Africa. In 1999 he was awarded an Honorary Professorship by the University of Port Elizabeth in honour of his contributions to the development of choral singing in the Eastern Cape and South Africa. |
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Gábor Hollerung, festival choir conductor
Gábor Hollerung was born in Budapest in 1954. He studied choral and orchestral conducting at the Liszt Academy of Music and attended the master classes of Eric Ericson, Kurt Masur and László Somogyi. From 1979 he was the assistant conductor of the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra. He taught choral conducting and music theory at the music faculty of the University of Pécs, where he also conducted the female choir of the university. Parallel to this
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he was the conductor of the semi-professional symphony orchestra of the KPVDSZ. He has been the principal conductor of the Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok since 1989. Thanks to their rapid development under his hands, the amateur ensemble received a professional status in 1993, becoming the youngest professional symphony orchestra in Hungary.
He has been the Music Director of the Budapest Academic Choral Society since 1980. He enjoyed a unique series of successes, winning first prizes at all recognized European choir competitions including the Grand Prix of the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition in Debrecen (Hungary). Under his leadership the BACS was awarded the title "Choir of the World' at the Llangollen International Choir Competition (Wales). He was awarded the prize for best conductor in Debrecen in 1984.
Since May 2001 he has been music director of Honvéd Ensemble and conductor of its worldwide unique professional male choir. In 2002 he became Chief Guest Conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and Musical Advisor of the Philharmonia Singers Tel Aviv.
He has toured all over the world with his ensembles. They gave many concerts in England, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Australia and Mexico. His choir was among the 30 best choirs of the world to be invited to the 4th IFCM World Symposium on Choral Music in Sydney (Australia).
In addition to his European engagements as a guest conductor he is regularly invited to Israel, to Taiwan and to the Unite States. He appeared at such reputed concert halls as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, De Doelen Rotterdam (the Netherlands), the Royal College of Music London (England), Frankfurter Alte Oper (Germany), Wiener Konzerthaus (Austria), Palau de Música Valencia (Spain), the Henry Crown Symphonic Hall Jerusalem (Israel), the Sydney Opera House (Australia), the Taipei National Concert Hall (Taiwan), and this year in Rio de Janeiro, just to name but a few. He is engaged in training young conductors and he has regularly given master classes on conducting since 1986 both in Hungary and abroad e.g.: Belgium, Finland, Germany, Taiwan and Israel. He led a master class at the IFCM European Symposium in Ljubljana in 1995. He will conduct the orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali (Milan) in January 2005.
In 1988 he initiated the foundation of a choir competition with a revolutionary new artistic concept in Budapest, which has grown to be an internationally renowned event series during the past decade. A whole family of choral events was born following the example of the Budapest International Choir Competition under the name "MUISCA MUNDI" in Italy, Germany, Israel, and the United States. The highlight of the series is the Choir Olympics in (Linz 2000, Pusan – South-Korea 2002, Bremen 2004). Gábor Hollerung is one of the artistic directors of INTERKULTUR International Music Competitions Foundation, the "MUSICA MUNDI" international choir competitions and of the Choir Olympics. He is the president of the Association of Hungarian Choir Competitions and Festivals founded in 1998. From 2004 he is the director of a very noted music festival in Hungary, the Zemplén Festival.
In 2002 he was awarded the Knight-cross Order of the Republic by the President of the Republic of Hungary and in 2004 he was given Liszt Award. |
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Kurt Suttner
Kurt Suttner studied music education and singing at the Munich Musikhochschule. After several years spent as a music teacher in Munich and at the German School in Addis Abeba (Ethiopia), three years as Music Advisor to the Madagascan Ministry of Culture in Tananarive (Madagascar), and a lectureship in choral conducting at the Munich Musikhochschule, he was Professor for Musical Education at the University of Augsburg.
In 1972 he founded the via-nova-chor München. His aim was, to focus on new choral music, especially compositions by contemporary composers without loosing contact with |
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| traditional European choral music. In accordance with this policy, the choir regularly premieres new choral works. The choir has been awarded many prizes in international choir competitions. Since 1989 Kurt Suttner has conducted the Bavarian Choral Academy sponsored by the Bavarian Ministry of Culture and Education, which is designed to further young and talented singers. He regularly takes part in national and international choir competitions as a jury member and in seminars for choral conductors as a lecturer. In 1997 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany conferred by the President Roman Herzog. |
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Frieder Bernius
Two distinguishing characteristics coin the artistic activities of the conductor Frieder Bernius: the formation of his own conception of sound and his search for an appropriate historic style for each period of the European music history since 1600.
This was his reason to establish different ensembles during his 30 years as a conductor (Chamber Choir of Stuttgart, the Baroque Orchestra of Stuttgart, the Classical Philharmonic of Stuttgart and the Court Chapel of Stuttgart), which he united under one head organisation: the Musik Podium Stuttgart. |
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Over the year most of his time is dedicated to round about 12 artistic projects with these ensembles. Besides he regularly works with the Chamber Philharmonic Bremen, the String Academy Bozen and the World Youth Choir of Jeunesses Musicales.
In order to achieve his stilistic and tonal goals his ensembles work with different sizes of voices: The Chamber Choir of Stuttgart performs not only with 16 independent voices as an a-cappella ensemble, but also in the formation of a Baroque choir with 26 independent voices or as an ensemble with up to 60 voices when performing oratories or stage preformances. His orchestras focus on music of the 18. century tuned on a pitch of 415 hz (Baroque Orchestra Stuttgart), music of the early romantic with a tuning of 430 hz (Court Chapel Stuttgart) and the music of the 19. and 20. century in modern tuning (Classical Philharmonic Stuttgart).
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During 30 years of freelance conducting Frieder Bernius has worked on a variety of repertoire including all musical genres from 1600 to 2000 – in recent years his main focus was on baroque vocal music (Zelenka, Bach and sons, Händel), vocal symphonic works of the 19. and 20. century (from Mendelssohn to Ligeti), first performances of operas from Jommelli to Schubert, symphonies of the early romantic period (Kalliwoda and Burgmüller), incidental music (Mendelssohn, Grieg) and a-cappella works of the 19. and 20. century.
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| Invitations to international festivals and concert tours led him throughout Europe, North America, Israel and Asia. From his 80 recordings the following highlight his recording career: the complete works of Mendelssohn’s vocal works by Carus, a representative choice of baroque masterworks by BMG/Sony as well as Opera and symphony editions by Orfeo. |
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Paul Hondorp
Paul Hondorp is Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Western Kentucky University, where he directs three university ensembles, teaches conducting and graduate literature. A California native, Dr. Hondorp received his DMA in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University, where he studied under Charles K. Smith, |
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Jonathan Reed and David Rayl. Dr. Hondorp's conducting mentors have also included Alan Harler (Temple University), Lynn Bielefelt (Cal State Long Beach), and Thomas Davies (Cal Poly SLO). Prior to his arrival at WKU, Dr. Hondorp has taught at the community college and high school level. He has directed church choirs in California, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and is currently Director of Music at First Christian Church of Bowling Green. |
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Dr. Hondorp has served as an adjudicator, clinician and guest conductor for festivals of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) in California, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee. Current year engagements include guest conducting and clinicianships in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, and at New York City’s Avery Fisher Hall with Manhattan Concert Productions. |
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Dr. Hondorp has recently accepted appointments as the Repertoire and Standards Chair for College/University for the Southern Division of ACDA, and served in that capacity for the state of Kentucky. He also serves as state representative and founding member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization. Dr. Hondorp was named College/University Teacher of the Year for 2004-2005 for KMEA District Three. |
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A lyric tenor, Dr. Hondorp is a tenured member of the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, under the direction of Helmuth Rilling, and has served on the faculty of the Berkshire Choral Festival in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Solo performances include concert work in Handel's Messiah (Bryn Athyn Cathedral), Handel's Samson (Handel Oratorio Society, California), Mozart Requiem (Idyllwild Arts Festival) and Starbuck in the world premiere of Gary Eister's opera Moby Dick. He has recorded professionally for an educational series of compact discs by GIA Publications. |
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| Dr. Hondorp lives in Bowling Green with wife, soprano Jennifer Brennan-Hondorp, and their son Brennan. |
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