The 2023 Jury

Jennifer Tham

Jennifer is a choir conductor, composer, international juror, and Singaporean artistic director with over 30 years of experience. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Art from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She has received numerous awards, including the Cultural Medallion, presented by the President of the Republic of Singapore himself, the country’s highest artistic honour.

Jennifer is curious about the vision of sound and practises multimodal listening as a choir conductor and composer. Her work is shaped by her love of words, phenomenology, mapping, spatial practices, conceptual art, contemporary music, and choral theatre. With the SYC Ensemble Singers (Singapore)—a mixed chamber choir she has conducted since 1986—she works at the intersection of literary, musical, and visual cultures, using staging, movement, and lighting to bring new-music models to life on stage.

For her role in shaping Singapore’s cultural landscape, she received the Cultural Medallion from the President of the Republic of Singapore, the country’s highest artistic honour.

Jennifer has taught choral conducting and pedagogy at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and delivers short courses and workshops on repertoire, conducting, and rehearsal technique, equipping young conductors worldwide with a toolkit of musical games to learn and perform contemporary music.

She has chaired panel discussions on repertoire and programming at conferences and symposiums in Argentina, Denmark, Estonia, and Sweden, and was a keynote speaker at the Lithuanian Conductors’ Summer Academy, organised by the Lithuanian Choral Union and the Ministry of Culture.

Under the auspices of the Young Musicians’ Society, Jennifer served as artistic director of the Asia-Pacific South Symposium on Choral Music (2001) and its offshoots, First Aid for Choirs (2002–2017) and the Kodaly Seminar Asia (2009–2016). The latter was delivered in partnership with the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest, Hungary).

For the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM), Jennifer coordinates the Asia-Pacific working committee and the Asia-Pacific Youth Choir.

She also represents Singapore on the World Choir Council and has served on the jury of the World Choir Games and other festivals in Asia, Europe, and the Americas since 2003.

More information at: https://www.jennifertham.com

Danguolė Aukselienė

Danguolė is a Lithuanian choir conductor, educator, composer, and performer. She graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and conducts the renowned Kivi choir, double world champion and winner of the Vocal Ensembles category at the International Choral Competition in Provence 2022. Danguolė was named Lithuanian Choir Conductor of the Year in 2021 & 2022.

Danguolė received her primary music education in her hometown of Panevėžys. She completed her accordion studies at the Panevėžys Higher School of Music. In 1982, she graduated from the Lithuanian Conservatoire of Music (now the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre), specialising in choral conducting. From 1980 to 1990, she sang in the Academy’s renowned mixed chamber choir. The choir performed concerts with major orchestras and conductors in Italy, Germany, France, the USA…

Danguolė sang in the a cappella jazz vocal ensemble Jazz Land from 1997 to 2007. The group performed not only in Lithuania, but also in the United States, Germany, Austria, and Poland. Chamber and jazz singing styles greatly supported her later musical work. As a music expert, she founded the KIVI children’s and youth choir in 1997, which she still conducts today.

She developed her own working methodology, which she shares with other educators through various training programmes. She has led seminars for conductors and music teachers in Lithuania, Germany (Bonn), China (Xiamen), Switzerland (Basel Academy of Music), and many others. Danguolė Aukselienė has arranged a number of musical works and Lithuanian folk songs for youth and children’s vocal ensembles.

She also took an active part in the activities of the Lithuanian folk song and dance ensemble « Ugnelė » and organised international festivals. Danguolė Aukselienė improved her management skills in Denmark in 1995 and 1996, and in Germany (Zonenberg) in 1997. She cooperates closely with the Lithuanian University of Music, participating and giving presentations to students.

Since 2016, she has been a member of the Lithuanian Choral Union, and since 2018, she has also been a member of the Lithuanian Music Union. Danguolė Aukselienė’s activities have not been limited to musical work: she was invited to organise Lithuania’s largest song festival (vocal ensembles by musical genre) in 2018. She organised and served as artistic director of the 1st concert of vocal ensembles at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic in 2018.

She is a member of the committee for one of Lithuania’s largest music events. The committee was responsible for selecting musical pieces for events for choirs and youth ensembles. She serves on juries for popular vocal ensemble competitions in Lithuania.

Danguolė Aukselienė has received many certificates of gratitude from the President of Lithuania and other government institutions for her contribution and for cherishing Lithuanian music. Prestigious « Golden Birds » awards in the « International Shining Star » category, recognised by the Lithuanian National Cultural Centre—best choir conductor and best choir (2006). Prestigious « Golden Birds » awards recognised by the Lithuanian National Cultural Centre—best choir conductor and best choir (2021)—best children’s choir and best choir conductor (2022, Lithuanian Choral Union). Best children’s choir conductor (2021, Lithuanian National Cultural Centre).

With Danguolė Aukselienė as conductor, the KIVI children’s choir has received numerous top-level awards as well as Grand Prix, winning many international competitions, including in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Lithuania, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Latvia, China (Olympic champion in the jazz category at the World Choir Games), Austria, South Korea, Japan, the United States, Macedonia, Belgium (Olympic champion in the children’s category at the World Choir Games), and France.

Danguolė also received the Lithuanian Choir Conductor of the Year award in 2021 & 2022.

Born in 1984, he graduated from a chemistry degree programme at Manado State University. He also became a choir conductor at the age of 17.

Since then, he has continuously pursued his musical activities, successfully taking part in various national and international competitions as choir conductor of Manado State University, Bitung, City Chorale, Master of Breakthrough, the North Sulawesi LPPD Choir, and the North Sulawesi GMIM Male Choir.

Since 2005, he has studied music with Professor Perry Rumengan (Indonesia), Tommyanto Kandisaputra (Indonesia), Professor Andre de Quadros (United States), and Jonathan Velasco (Philippines), attended music symposiums, studied piano and composition, taught music in churches, and served as a judge in various choral competitions.

He has also received the « Best Choir Conductor » award in several competitions, such as the Asian Choir Games, Jakarta, Indonesia 2007, the Bali International Choir Festival in 2012 and 2017, and the 5th Leonardo da Vinci International Choral Festival, Florence, Italy 2023.

Cinzia Zanon

Cinzia is an Italian choir conductor, a graduate of the Pollini Conservatory of Music in Padua. She is an educator specialising in training children’s and youth voices. She is also the founder and director of several national and international events. Cinzia has also won numerous awards worldwide, including 3 prizes at the International Choral Competition in Provence 2022: Gold Medal, Youth Choirs Category; Gold Medal, Sacred Music Category; and Best Choir Conductor award.

Cinzia holds a degree in choral music and choral conducting under the guidance of an outstanding mentor, Professor Bruno Coltro. She graduated from the Pollini Conservatory of Music in Padua.

During her professional training, she attended numerous specialist courses with internationally renowned professors. She serves on audition panels and as a juror in national and international competitions.

Choir conductor of various instrumental and choral groups (women’s, mixed, children’s), including Giovanni Voci Bassano, Gioventù in Cantata- Marostica & Mélicus. She has toured in America, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Australia, the Philippines, China, and many European countries.

From 2007 to 2015, she served on the ASAC Regional Artistic Commission, and from 2014 to 2017 she was part of the National Commission: FENIARCO. She recently joined the World Choral Council, representing Italy.

She is the founder and artistic director of international and national events: « Primavera Musicale – incontri corali internazionali’, « Canticoro » and « Poesia in Canto ».

She has received the Best Choir Conductor award five times—three times at international competitions (1999, 2016, and 2022) and twice at national competitions (2017–2022). Among these competitions is, of course, the International Choral Competition in Provence, where Cinzia was recognised as best choir conductor after winning the « Youth Choir » and « Sacred Music » categories.

Robert Porter

Bob Porter is an English choir and orchestra conductor and President and Artistic Director of the Brandenburg Choral Festival in London.

Robert (Bob) Porter began studying the bassoon at the age of 11 and, at 14, was accepted as a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music. Two years later, after playing with the National Youth Orchestra, he decided to abandon any idea of a future in mathematics and embarked on a career that now encompasses work as a musician, conductor, teacher, concert promoter, and artistic director.

After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Bob worked as a musician and teacher, returning to Guildhall to teach in the junior department he created and becoming Director of Woodwind and Percussion in 1985—a position he still holds today. As a performer, he plays regularly with the London Mozart Players and has worked with all the major professional orchestras in London.

In the early 1980s, Bob founded the Brandenburg Sinfonia, the first orchestra in a group of ensembles under his artistic direction, which now also includes the Brandenburg Brass and the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists. Performing regularly in the UK and abroad, a residency at St Martin-in-the-Fields gave him the idea for a choral festival around some of London’s finest churches. Beginning in 2010 with six concerts at St Martins, the Brandenburg Choral Festival is now the country’s largest and most important choral festival. In 2019, the Festival featured more than 70 choirs across 67 concerts, covering standard choral repertoire masterpieces as well as jazz and gospel, making it one of the most varied and inclusive choral festivals as well!

In 1991, Bob was made a Freeman of the City of London for services to music—an honour that allows him to drive a flock of sheep over London Bridge! Something he fully intends to do one of these days…

Bob is part of the Jury team for the second consecutive year.

The last student of the renowned Professor Piotr Gorokhov of the Prokofiev State Conservatory of Donetsk in Ukraine, a graduate of the Slaviansk School of Music, the Dzerzinsk Music College, and the Donetsk Conservatory, Igor Mykhailevsky taught music education, singing techniques, voice, and choral conducting.

He founded the Crimean Choir in 1994, which, under his direction and thanks to his choral training method, became one of the most representative ensembles of the Slavic musical and vocal repertoire. This excellent standard of the Crimean Choir, unanimously recognised, earned him the highest distinctions in his country: Merited Master of Arts of Ukraine, Honorary Citizen of the Arts of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea…

Arriving in France in 2022, Igor Mykhailevsky’s tireless dynamism and great expertise have led him to develop new projects: creating a choral singing festival and organising music training courses throughout France, joined by passionate choristers.

Luc Coadou

Luc Coadou is a French solo singer specialising in the Baroque bass repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. He is also active as a choir and orchestra conductor and leads the Ensemble Instrumental de Toulon et du Var as well as the professional vocal ensemble « Les Voix Animées ». Luc is the President of the Jury.

Born in the mists of the North, like the Franco-Flemish masters of the Renaissance, Luc Coadou moves effortlessly from singer to choir and ensemble conductor, with a constant commitment to teaching and musicological research. A particular fondness for early repertoires is also reflected in his academic work; he is the author of research on lyric theatre during the French Revolution.

Baritone Luc Coadou began his career as a child singer with the Manécanterie de Dunkerque Les Rossignolets. He studied singing in Lille and refined his skills with Rachel Yakar and René Jacobs at the Studio Versailles-Opéra.

He has sung with many ensembles such as La Chapelle Royale, Les Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Talens Lyriques, Le Parlement de Musique, La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, and Le Concert Spirituel. From medieval music to contemporary creation, his repertoire combines musical research and eclecticism. He performs as a singer at prestigious festivals and in many opera houses.

As a conductor, Luc Coadou has led, among others, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C minor, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Handel’s Messiah, and many 19th-century lyric works, including little-known operas by Boieldieu, Weber, Chabrier, Viardot, Bizet, Gounod, Pergolesi, Grétry, Delibes, Terrasse, and Offenbach.

A singing teacher, he is invited by the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon for masterclasses devoted to Renaissance polyphony and has taught since 2000 at the Conservatoire National à Rayonnement Régional de Toulon Provence Méditerranée, after teaching for ten years at the Conservatoire of Caen.

With Les Voix Animées, he explores the vast repertoire of a cappella vocal music, and especially Renaissance polyphony. By creating the ensemble in 2009, Luc Coadou developed a true sonic « toolkit », enabling him to bring back to life—and to voice—little-known or even forgotten music from the 15th and 16th centuries. Through the ensemble’s programmes, the « Renaissance » composers Josquin, Lassus, Palestrina, Victoria, and Byrd re-enchant our 21st-century ears and mingle with works by « contemporary » composers Karol Beffa, Dimitri Tchesnokov, Tomas Bordalejo, Léo Collin, Raphaël Languillat, Christophe Demarthe, and Romain Bastard, specially composed for Les Voix Animées.

In 2025, Luc will chair the Jury for the 4th time at the International Choral Competition in Provence.

Born in the mists of the North, like the Franco-Flemish masters of the Renaissance, Luc Coadou moves effortlessly from singer to choir and ensemble conductor, with a constant commitment to teaching and musicological research. A particular fondness for early repertoires is also reflected in his academic work; he is the author of research on lyric theatre during the French Revolution.

Baritone Luc Coadou began his career as a child singer with the Manécanterie de Dunkerque Les Rossignolets. He studied singing in Lille and refined his skills with Rachel Yakar and René Jacobs at the Studio Versailles-Opéra.

He has sung with many ensembles such as La Chapelle Royale, Les Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Talens Lyriques, Le Parlement de Musique, La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, and Le Concert Spirituel. From medieval music to contemporary creation, his repertoire combines musical research and eclecticism. He performs as a singer at prestigious festivals and in many opera houses.

As a conductor, Luc Coadou has led, among others, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C minor, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Handel’s Messiah, and many 19th-century lyric works, including little-known operas by Boieldieu, Weber, Chabrier, Viardot, Bizet, Gounod, Pergolesi, Grétry, Delibes, Terrasse, and Offenbach.

A singing teacher, he is invited by the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon for masterclasses devoted to Renaissance polyphony and has taught since 2000 at the Conservatoire National à Rayonnement Régional de Toulon Provence Méditerranée, after teaching for ten years at the Conservatoire of Caen.

With Les Voix Animées, he explores the vast repertoire of a cappella vocal music, and especially Renaissance polyphony. By creating the ensemble in 2009, Luc Coadou developed a true sonic « toolkit », enabling him to bring back to life—and to voice—little-known or even forgotten music from the 15th and 16th centuries. Through the ensemble’s programmes, the « Renaissance » composers Josquin, Lassus, Palestrina, Victoria, and Byrd re-enchant our 21st-century ears and mingle with works by « contemporary » composers Karol Beffa, Dimitri Tchesnokov, Tomas Bordalejo, Léo Collin, Raphaël Languillat, Christophe Demarthe, and Romain Bastard, specially composed for Les Voix Animées.

In 2025, Luc will chair the Jury for the 4th time at the International Choral Competition in Provence.

Michel Camatte

Michel Camatte is a French choir and orchestra conductor with an international reputation. For more than 30 years, he has been invited as a jury member to the world’s leading international choral singing festivals.

Born in Marseille, he began music in childhood, through both piano and choral singing. At the Conservatoires of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, he won awards in solfège, organ, musical composition, and orchestral conducting.

After teaching harmony for two years at the Faculty of Musicology in Aix-en-Provence, he obtained the Certificat d’Aptitude as Director of a National Conservatoire, a role he held as head of the conservatoires of Clermont-Ferrand, Tours, and then Aix-en-Provence, until his retirement in 2012.

For more than 30 years, he has performed as a professional conductor, successively leading the Clermont-Ferrand Symphony Orchestra, the Tours Chamber Orchestra, and the student orchestras of the conservatoires he directed.

He has also conducted ensembles such as the Cannes Regional Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Grenoble Instrumental Ensemble, the Orchestre des Concerts Colonne, and the Strasbourg Chamber Orchestra, and has been invited to the festivals of Avignon, La Chaise-Dieu, La Rochelle, and Ville-d’Avray.

His dual professional practice as an orchestra conductor and choir conductor has also led him to take part in major choral singing festivals: Europa Cantat in Namur, and the Choralies « A Cœur Joie » in Vaison-la-Romaine. For more than thirty years, he has been invited as a jury member to major international choral singing competitions in Wales (Llangollen), Ireland (Cork), Switzerland (Montreux), Greece (Athens), and Italy (Arezzo).

In 2023, Michel will take part for the second time in the International Choral Competition in Provence as a juror.

Camilo Santostefano holds a bachelor’s degree in choral conducting from the National University of the Arts in Buenos Aires. He also holds qualifications as a music teacher and guitar teacher from the Morón Conservatory in Argentina. At UNCUYO University in Argentina, he pursued postgraduate studies in « Performance of 20th-century Latin American music ».
He received the 2019 Konex Award, Merit Mention in choral conducting, as one of the 100 most influential Argentine musicians of the period 2009–2018.
He currently conducts the Coro Polifónico de Córdoba, the professional choir of the Teatro del Libertador San Martin in Córdoba, Argentina.

Camilo is the founder and choir conductor of MusicaQuantica Voces de Cámara, which has won numerous awards worldwide: Grand Prix Ave Verum (Austria 2012), Grand Prix Florilège Vocal de Tours (France 2012), finalist in the European Grand Prix (Italy 2013), IFCM Ambassador (South Korea 2014), as well as many awards in his home country of Argentina. He also received the First Prize in Orchestral Conducting in 2014 at the Maimonides University Competition, as well as the FNA Award for Best Conductor at Ansilta 2010, San Juan, Argentina.

He founded and directed the opera company Lírica Lado B between 2009 and 2018 (which won the ACMA stimulation award in 2015), with which he created numerous operas in South America.

He founded and directed the Carlos López Buchardo Choir of the National University of the Arts (FAUNA Award 2017) between 2013 and 2022.
In addition, Camilo was director of the choir of the National School of Buenos Aires as well as its Amadeo Jacques Chamber Choir.

He lived in Austria between 2019 and 2022, where he was conductor of the Gumpoldskirchner Spatzen, the Cantilena Kammer Frauenchor, the Ensemble KammerAT, the Melange Vocal Wien, and guest conductor of the Wiener Tonkunstvereinigung Chor und Orchester.

Camilo is also a guest conductor of the National Youth Choir of Wales (United Kingdom), Red Coral of Medellín (Colombia), Fullerton College in Los Angeles (United States), and the Coro Polifónico Nacional (Argentina).

He taught orchestral conducting at the Astor Piazzolla Conservatory in Buenos Aires. French.

He has also delivered masterclasses and lectures in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, the United States, and Wales.
As a composer, he won first prize for the 80th anniversary of the National Conservatory of Buenos Aires and second prize in the « OperaVista » chamber opera composition Competition in Houston, United States.

As a jury member, he took part in 2022 in the international choral competition with Choral Events, Provence, France, as well as the Victoria Adriatic Choral Competition and We Are Singing, Opatija, Croatia;

In 2016: Artistic Council of the 8th America Cantat Festival, América Cantat, Nassau, Bahamas;

In 2015: 8th South American Choral Music Performance Competition, AAMCANT, La Plata, Argentina;

In 2013: Choral Arrangement Competition, AAMCANT, La Plata, Argentina.

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