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.

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.

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.