Evaluation and Jury
Performance of the participants (in rehearsals and concerts) is evaluated by an international jury consisting of five members. The jury acts in accordance with the Competition Regulations. The performance of participants is evaluated in points 1 to 25. The mark of the round is calculated by deleting the highest and the lowest marks and counting together the three middle range marks.
In Round I the conducting with the piano and the work with the Mixed Choir of JVLMA are marked separately. After the end of the round the marks are summed up.
In Round II separate marks go for the work with the Latvian Radio Choir and work with the Riga Chamber Choir Ave Sol, the performance with the Latvian Radio Choir and the performance with the Riga Chamber Choir Ave Sol. After the performances all four marks for the given competitor are summed up and the marks of Round I are added to the results of Round II.
In Round III separate marks go for the rehearsal with a choir and orchestra and for the concert. Both marks are summed up. The marks for Round I and Round II are added to the mark for Round III. The resulting sum determines the prizewinning positions.
The jury reserves the right to refuse candidates, interrupt the competition, or exclude a competitor during a round without having to provide justification. If two competitors produce equal marks, the Jury has the right to divide the prize between the two competitors.
Decisions of the jury are final and beyond appeal.
JURY MEMBERS
Ainārs Rubiķis took up his position as Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin at the start of the 2018/19 season. Latvian-born, he came to international attention as winner of the 2010 Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition when he emerged from strong competition to take the prestigious competition’s first prize: “This year, as with Gustavo Dudamel in 2004, we have found an exceptional conductor” observed Jonathan Nott, president of the Competition jury. The following year, he was recipient of the second Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and subsequently conducted the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester at the Salzburger Festspiele. He served as Music Director and Chief Conductor of Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre from 2012 to 2014, and was awarded a prestigious Golden Mask Award as “Best Conductor” for the new production of Bernstein’s Mass.
Beyond new productions at Komische Oper season this season he makes guest visits to Bamberger Symphoniker, where he conducts a concert version of Rimski-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri, Ulster Orchestra and returns to the Bolshoi Theatre for their new production of Rusalka.
Ainārs Rubiķis has produced two operas at Latvian National Opera, has led several remarkable amateur choirs in Latvia and has been singer and conductor`s assistant at Latvian Radio Choir.
Vivianne Sydnes is Director of Music in Oslo Cathedral where she is the conductor and artistic director of Oslo Cathedral Choir. Her choral activities included both the a cappella repertoire and major works for choir and orchestra. She led the premiere performances of a number of works by such composers as Gisle Kverndokk, Ståle Kleiberg and Ola Gjeilo and helped to develop exciting new concepts of concert performance. Vivianne Sydnes is appointed professor of choral conducting at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo where she is responsible for the bachelor degree in conducting.
Sydnes was educated as an organist and choirmaster at the Norwegian Academy of Music and has diploma in conducting from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.
She is frequently used as an instructor in courses for choirs and conductors both in Norway and abroad, and is engaged as guest conductor by the Norwegian Soloist Choir.
Marc Korovitch has obtained a Licence in Music and Musicology, specialized in Choir Conducting, at the Sorbonne University of Paris and a Master’s Degree in Choir Conducting from the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland.
As a choir conductor, he has been working with Denis Rouger in Paris, Celso Antunes in Geneva and Amsterdam, Michael Gläser in Munich and Stefan Parkman in Uppsala, Sweden. In orchestral conducting, he worked with Dominique Rouits in Paris and Colin Metters in Berlin.
Chief conductor of the Jeune Choeur de Paris, he started a collaboration with the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart in 2013 (including a recording of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé), and also works regularly with the Chœur de Radio-France and the Choeur accentus since 2014, for tours, radio performances, recordings, preparations and A Cappella concerts. He collaborates with many personalities, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniele Gatti, Louis Langrée, Stéphane Denève, Daniel Harding, Herbert Blomstedt, Laurence Equilbey, Marcus Creed, L. G. Alarcon… He has conducted the WDR Rundfunkchor in Cologne in 2016. In July 2016, he has prepared both the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart and the NDR Chor for Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette. In 2017, he has participate to the opening of the Seine Musical conducting the choir accentus and in 2018, he started a collaboration with the Croatian Radio Choir. In 2019, he has prepared the Swedish Radio Choir for the Harmonia Mundi recording of Brahms ein Deutsches Requiem with Daniel Harding.
Marc Korovitch works for many festivals: the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Recontres Musicales d’Evian, the Festival de Radio-France in Montpellier, the festival Mozart in New-York or the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm.
He is appointed choir master of the Swedish Radio choir since the season 2018-2019.
Marc Korovitch has also a great interest in pedagogy, he is now choral conducting teacher at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Regional de Paris and gives masterclasses around Europe (The Hague, Valencia, Zagreb etc.).
Guntars Prānis is the rector and professor at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, a leader of many master classes in early music and a much-demanded lector in Latvia and abroad. His Doctoral Dissertation (2015) deals with the topic of Medieval music tradition of Riga. He has published research papers in many international journals.
He is is a conductor, singer, musicologist and the founder/artistic director of the Schola Cantorum Riga – internationally acknowledged professional vocal group which performs regularly in Latvia and abroad. In 2017 the group has been nominated for the Latvian Grand Prix Award in music. Guntars Pranis has studied music in Latvia, Germany and Austria, particularly focusing on music from the Middle Ages.
Liana Chonishvili has been the founder and president of Georgian Choral Society since 2014. She is an Associated Professor, Artistic Director and conductor of the Bachelors’ choir at the V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire (TSC) since 1996. She also is a coordinator of the Quality Assurance Service of the Choir Conducting Department. Since 2004 she’s been the head of the Choir-conducting Department at the E. Mikeladze Tbilisi Central Music School.
Liana Chonishvili is the founder and artistic director of Georgian children’s and youth choirs national contest (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019); the restorer and Director of the I international Choral Festival – “Gori 2016”. She has done active concert work in Georgia and internationally (taking part in international and republican festivals, concerts, collaboration with the Baku State Philharmonic Symphonic and Tbilisi Symphonic, Tbilisi State Opera Symphonic orchestras and choirs); The member of Jury of multiple contests and Festvials as the head of the Academic Choir Department.
Liana Chonishvili is a Musical editor of well-known Georgian Choir composers’ first edition sheet collection (Choral Compositions of composer Ioseb Kechakmadze; composer Jemal Beglarishvili’s Choral Music Collection in two volumes). From 1997 to 2004 she was a Conductor of the Opera studio choir of the TSC. She has an active Pedagogical Experience – Masterclasses, Seminars; (students’ professional success)… She also is the Facilitator and expert of multiple levels (BA, MA, DOC) of educational musical programs; the Facilitator of the Professional Development of Professional Quality Enhancement Programs: Choir Conductor; Choir Singer (National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement; Georgia).
Aira Birziņa is one of the most outstanding conductors in Latvia who works mostly with female choirs and teaches the choir conducting at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. She has been the conductor of the Riga Cathedral Girls’ Choir TIARA since 2000. She has been the principal conductor of the famous Latvian female choirs DZINTARS (Riga) and RASA (Ogre) for many years. Aira Birziņa is also one of the conductors of the Latvian Song and Dance Festival (XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI). She leads various workshops, participates in conferences, and works as a jury member at the international competitions in Latvia and abroad. She was awarded with the Acknowledgement of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia in 2018, the Order of the Three Stars and the Culture Prize “White Sparrow” of the Riga Municipality in 2015, the Annual Culture Prize of City of Ogre in 2017, and the Ministry of Culture’s Prize in Folk Art in 1999.
Aira Birziņa is an energetic and fascinating leader, inspiring her singers always perform at their best. She cherishes the traditions of her teachers, the great Latvian choir conductors Jānis Lindenbergs, Edgars Račevskis, and Imants Kokars, and passes this knowledge to her students at the Academy of Music and the Riga Cathedral Choir School. Under Aira Birziņa’s leadership, the choir TIARA has won several international competitions and prepared many wonderful concert programmes, growing from an ensemble of a few singers to one of the most prominent and most attractive participants on the Latvian concert stage.