Workshop

Philip Brunelle, artistic director and founder of VocalEssence, is an internationally renowned conductor, choral scholar and visionary. He has made his lifelong mission the promotion of the choral art in all its forms, especially rarely heard works of the past and outstanding new music. Under his leadership, VocalEssence has commissioned more than 240 works to date. The 2018-19 season will mark his 50th season with VocalEssence. Brunelle has conducted symphonies (New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra among others) as well as choral festivals and operas on six continents. He is the editor of two choral series for Boosey & Hawkes and chairman of the review committee for Walton Music. Brunelle is also Organist-Choirmaster at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis.

For the past two decades, Brunelle has been deeply involved with the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM). He served as president of the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music, held in Minneapolis in 2002. He was a Vice President of the IFCM Board and served as Executive Director for the 2014 World Symposium on Choral Music in Seoul, South Korea. In 2017 Brunelle served as Artistic Advisor for the World Choral Symposium in Barcelona, Spain.

Brunelle is the recipient of the Weston H. Noble Lifetime Achievement Award, given by the North Central American Choral Directors Association; the F. Melius Christiansen Lifetime Achievement Award, American Choral Directors Association-Minnesota Chapter’s highest honor; and the Michael Korn Founder’s Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art, Chorus America’s highest lifetime achievement award.

Philip holds five honorary doctorates and has been recognized for his commitment to choral music by Norway (Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit), the United Kingdom (Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire), Hungary (Kodály Medal), Sweden (Royal Order of the Polar Star) and Mexico (Ohtli Recognition Award).

Officially ranked as national first-class honor choral conductor in China, Mr. Chen graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Central Conservatory of Music. In 2001, he took the International Choir Conductor Master Class in Vienna National Conservatory of Music. Mr. Chen had the privilege to study vocal music, choral and orchestra conducting with China’s well known music educators, among them are Zhilan Gao, Geshun Ma, Hongnian Yang, and Lingfen Wu.

In addition to his conducting activity, his other duties include: Member of World Choir Council, Vice President of Chinese Chorus Association, Director of the Mass Chorus Committee of CCA; President of Guangdong Chorus Association, President of Shenzhen Chorus Association; Artistic Director & Permanent Conductor of Shenzhen Star Bright Choir, Artistic Director of Shenzhen Longhua Teachers Choir and Shenzhen Guangming Teachers Choir.

In recent years, Mr. Chen has frequently been invited as an adjudicator by many international choral competitions, including World Choir Games, European Choir Games, Asian Pacific Choir Games, China Choir Festival, and Beijing International Choir Festival, etc. He organized choral arts lectures and workshop series for young choral conductors have earned him the highest praise in the choral community worldwide. He founded the annual Guangdong International Choral Conductor Symposium, “Sound of South China,” a well-regarded program consisting of concerts and lectures in both China and aboard.

Singaporean Conductor-Composer Darius Lim graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama with a Masters in Choral Conducting (with Distinction). He is the Music Director of VOCO Singapore Ladies Choir and VOCE Singapore Men’s Choir, President of the Choral Directors’ Association of Singapore and Associate Choirmaster of the Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir. Lim is one of the leading new-generation Asian Conductor-Composers of his time. He has risen to prominence in the national and international music scene with more than 40 national and international awards in both local and international choral and composition competitions. He is one of the newest international composers to be published by world publishing company, Edition Peters.
As a composer, Lim’s choral works have been performed widely around the world. Between 2012 and 2014, Light of the Night, Puppet’s Dream and 5 Elemental Dances for Youth and Children’s Choirs received international acclaim, with subsequent performances of those works by more than 250 choirs from China, America, Hong Kong, Australia, Spain, South Korea, Finland, Malaysia, Taiwan, Russia, Singapore and the Philippines. Most recently, Lim was the featured composer in the world’s leading choir magazine, Choir & Organ. His commission of Gloria! Alleluia! in the New Music Series of the magazine was recorded by the Choir of Royal Holloway and Director Rupert Gough.

SO Tsz-lun Eric (Heartgrey)
Heartgrey is a world-renowned beatboxer who won 3 times Chinese Beatbox Champion. He is also the Top 8 of the world from “Emperor of Mic 2011”, a finalist in “Grand Beatbox Battle 2017” and the Top 8 of Asia Beatbox Championship 2018.

Heartgrey performs in numerous commercial events and TV shows, such as Asia’s Got Talent on AXN, China Got Talent on Dragon Television, Happy Camp on Hunan TV, etc. He has collaborated with different artists, for instance, JoLam Wong, GEM and Sherman Chung in their music projects. Besides, Heartgrey has participated in the acclaimed Hong Kong movie The Way We Dance, as the character “Beatboxer”.

Other than performing, Heartgrey has dedicated to teaching Beatboxing over 9 years. He thinks that everyone in all genders, all ages and even people without music background are capable to learn, as Beatboxing is a language that everyone can speak. He has taught and hosted workshops in high school, colleges and different associations such as HKU, PolyU and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals.

Ai Hooi’s philosophy for choral music and teaching stems from her view that a fulfilling musical journey is one that is filled with sincerity, love and excellence. She uses the creation of music as a platform to share and infuse her values and beliefs in her singers, and inspires them to use the beauty of music to craft experiences that touch the hearts of the audience.
Ai Hooi actively contributes to the growth of the local choral scene, through nurturing younger choral conductors and choristers. On top of conducting several local secondary and junior college choirs, Ai Hooi established ONE Chamber Choir, a young adult choir. ONE entered into a partnership with the Song Lovers Choral Society in 2010 (formerly known as Lee Howe Choral Society), to form its youth wing. In 2017, the choir achieved the 2nd Prize of the Mixed Choirs category at the 15th International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf 2017, as well as the Special Prize of the Carl-Orff-Stiftung Diessan am Ammersee for the best interpretation of a choral worked premiered at the competition for “The Emigrant” by Wolfram Buchenberg. Recently, the choir took part in the 10th World Choir Games in Tshwane, South Africa and achieved Gold in all three categories they competed in, including Champion of the World Choir Games in the Chamber Choir Category.
She has also been the conductor of the Hwa Chong Institution Choir since 2000 which has achieved numerous accolades over the years, including emerging Champion in the Mixed Choir category at the 5th World Choir Games 2008, achieving the title Absolute Winner (top choir across categories) at the Festival of Songs Olomouc, and the Prix du public (Public prize) at the 2010 Florilège vocal de Tour.
Ai Hooi also co-founded Sourcewerkz PL to further her calling to teach, touch and transform the larger choral community and its audience. To date, Sourcewerkz has organised the Winter Choral Festival in Hong Kong since 2010 and Festival Coros de Verão in Lisbon since 2012, as well as various workshops with international choral clinicians. In 2014, she conceptualised and directed the 1stSingapore International Choral Festival and since then, SICF has played host to over 10,000 choristers and is now in her sixth iteration.

Ng is a renowned composer, producer, sheng performer and a cappella singer in Hong Kong. He is Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s first Artist Associate, the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s first resident composer, music director of the fusion group SIU2 and the co-artistic director of the a cappella theatre company Yat Po Singers. After receiving a post-graduate degree from the Music Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he went on to study Japanese at the International Christian University in Tokyo and Jazz Music at Codarts in the Netherlands.

In 2012, Ng received Award for Best Artist from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. In 2009 and 2013, he received the Best Serious Composition in CASH Golden Sail Music Awards for the theatrical choral concert Rock Hard and the double sheng concerto Before the City Collapses respectively. The next year his choral work Voices of the World was awarded the CASH most performed work award 2013 (serious music).

Ng has collaborated with various art groups and pop singers, his major choral works include Voices of the World; the 6th China Children’s Choral Festival’s theme song Before we grow up; the theme song of World Youth & Children’s Choir Festival (Hong Kong) HuXi, Love in Music, Dairy of Spring; Choral Medley Ears in the Heaven and The Hong Kong Children’s Choir’s 40th Anniversary Musical’s theme song Magical Beanland.

Other works include I Wish I Could Make a Wish, The Theatre Concert of Jimmy Liao; drumset concerto Fly; sheng concerto The Seventh Month; Chinese orchestral work Tang Resonating; film score for Mcdull Pork of Music; grand dance drama L'Amour Immortel, Lady White of West Lake and Di Zi Gui; theatrical a cappella works for Yat Po Singers Rock Hard, Sing Sang Sung, Requiem HK. Pop music includes Hins Cheung’s Under the Sakura Tree and Eason Chan’s Can’t Get Happy.

Sandra Milliken is based in Brisbane, Australia, where she works as a composer, conductor, teacher and adjudicator. A music graduate of the University of New England, Sandra also has a Masters in choral conducting from the University of Queensland. She holds performance qualifications from Trinity College London and the Australian Music Examinations Board.

Sandra has had a long involvement with choral music. She is currently the music director of the Bayside Divas, a women’s choir based in the Brisbane. From 1995 to 2008, Sandra was on the staff of Queensland Youth Choir, conducting several of their ensembles and in 2006 was appointed the QYC Artistic Director. In 2007 she took up the position of Conductor of the much-awarded Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir where she remained until 2016. She then went on to direct the Sunshine Coast Oriana Choir.

During 2001 Sandra travelled overseas on a Churchill Fellowship studying choral conducting and vocal/choral pedagogy. She visited 56 choirs in England, Sweden, Finland, the United States and Canada, working with and observing many international choral experts.

Sandra has achieved international recognition as an Australian composer specialising in choral music. Her works have been performed and recorded by choirs in Scandinavia, Central and Western Europe, the United Kingdom, North America, south-east Asia, New Zealand and Australia. She has her own choral music series – Choral Vivace – which is published by Edition Peters London.

Sandra has an avid interest in, and commitment to, promoting Australian choral music through her choral workshops and international invitations. As an adjudicator and music educator, Sandra has travelled extensively within Australia and internationally to Singapore, China, Canada, the United States, England and Finland.

John Winzenburg is an associate professor of music at Hong Kong Baptist University, where he conducts the Cantoria Hong Kong. Since 2009, he and the Cantoria have actively presented Chinese choral music in dialogue with international repertoire through prominent performances at international choral festivals, the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, King’s College Chapel, Cambridge University, and on the BBC Radio 3 programme “In Tune.”

Most recently, Winzenburg appeared at the Hong Kong Arts Festival as Choral Director of the premiere of “Hong Kong Odyssey” in 2017 and as Chorus Master of “The Suppliant Women” in collaboration with the Actors Touring Company (UK) and the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in 2018. He has regularly conducted vocal and instrumental premieres with the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and since 2015, he has conducted or collaborated with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, the Choir of Royal Holloway, the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir, and the King’s Voices, Cambridge University. Winzenburg has premiered a wide range of contemporary music that includes the U.S. premiere of “Karura” by Japanese composer Akira Nishimura with renowned oboist Thomas Indermuhle, “Aurora” by Joyce Tang (Ablaze Records Millenium Masters series), the cantata “Anesti” by James Boznos, and new compositions for Indonesian gamelan, percussion, and piano. He has also been active as clinician, presenter, and adjudicator at international choral events in Argentina, Hong Kong, Korea, the United Kingdom, the U.S., and Singapore.

Scholastically, Winzenburg’s international publications include the Journal of Musicological Research, Perspectives of New Music, Palgrave Macmillan, The University of Michigan Press, Twentieth-Century China, Asian Music, CHIME, and the Journal of the Central Conservatory of Music. Winzenburg is the editor of the first internationally published Chinese choral anthology Half Moon Rising: Choral Music from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan (Edition Peters, 2015). In collaboration with other dedicated choirs, conductors, and composers, he has promoted Chinese choral music locally and internationally via commissions, premieres, recordings, performances, and workshops. His workshop on Cantonese choral music, presented jointly with fellow Hong Kong Baptist University conductors Po-Kwan Law and Dominic Lam at the Asia Pacific Choral Summit in Hong Kong 2019, follows a special concert of all newly composed Cantonese works performed by HKBU choirs in collaboration with the Hong Kong Children’s Choir in April of this year.