Choral conducting workshop with Kerstin Behnke

   Conducting is not just giving beats. Over three working days in Hanoi, a German professor of choral and orchestral conducting leads a small group through a different approach: creating the conditions in which music can emerge, rather than imposing a pulse on a choir.

   The programme is run by Goethe-Institut Hanoi together with VYMI and is built for exactly 10 conductors of mixed experience, with a stated preference for those working with community choirs and school choirs.

   Throughout the sessions the strands stay connected:

• — hands-on conducting practice
• — vocal work
• — rehearsal technique for choirs
• — artistic reflection on the repertoire

   Participants sing, conduct, observe and reflect together, working on selected repertoire drawn from different periods of music history.

   Kerstin Behnke is Professor of Choral and Ensemble Conducting and director of the university choir at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar. She has been director of the Berliner Cappella, still conducts the Berlin chamber choir TONIKUM, and is artistic director of the LandesJugendChor Saar and the via-nova-choir Munich. Her work includes collaborations with the Kammersymphonie Berlin, the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester and the RIAS-Kammerchor.

   One thread runs through her career: reviving forgotten works by women composers. She conducted the world premiere of the orchestral version of Lili Boulanger's Hymne au Soleil, reconstructed by the Berlin composer Oliver Korte.

   This is for you if you already stand in front of a choir and want practical tools you can carry straight into your next rehearsal. Places are capped, so an early application helps.

   The programme closes with an Open Sing-Along evening that welcomes everyone, no choral experience required.

   Three days to hear yourself before you hear the whole choir.