David Ashley (United Kingdom) / high-school

Dash trained at the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) under Father John and Susan Beck and at the Tanwood Theatre School under the direction of Mollie Tanner. He holds a BA (Hons) from City University and has enjoyed a diverse professional career spanning over 37 years. As an actor, he has appeared in more than 11 West End productions, including Cats, Les Misérables, Blood Brothers, Starlight Express, Dirty Blonde, Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, Party, Ziegfeld & Me and My Girl. He has also performed in 14 pantomimes, working extensively across the UK and in Paris.As a freelance theatre director, creative and lecturer, Dash has worked with leading institutions such as the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, ArtsEd, London College of Music, London Studio Centre, Millennium Performing Arts, the Oxford School of Drama, La Cigale in Paris and the Accademia dello Spettacolo in Turin. His directing credits include Grief Chorus for Complicité; The Threepenny Opera; The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, Legally Blonde, Jack and the Beanstalk, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Summer Holiday at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon; Rapunzel in Chipping Norton; Aladdin in Hastings; The Sound of Musicals in Turin (2018, 2022, 2023); and Bad Girls for London College of Music. He has also served as musical director for Coram Boy. Dash is a proposal reviewer for Methuen Drama, an ABRSM repertoire consultant and a founding trustee of Read College.

David Bandelj / junior high school

David Bandelj studied Piano and Viola at the Slovene Centre for Music Education Emil Komel in Gorizia, graduated and obtained a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and studied Conducting with H. Lavrenčič and W. Lo Nigro, furthering his studies with W. Pfaff, S. Kuret, M. Detterbeck and A. Čopi. Since 2013 he has been conductor of the Emil Komel mixed youth choir in Gorizia, with which he has won important awards in national and international competitions (Arezzo, Maribor, Varna etc.) and has an intense concert activity in Italy and abroad. He has conducted first performances of Italian and Slovenian composers (R. Brisotto, T. Vulc, P. Quaggiato), symphonic-choral works (Bach's Magnificat, Gjeilo's Sunrise Mass), collaborates with the ArsAtelier orchestra in Gorizia and conducts the Nova chamber orchestra in Nova Gorica (Slovenia). He is a member of juries in choral competitions, holds workshops for youth choirs and is committed to popularising the music of composers from Gorica. He has published several collections of poetry and teaches literature at the Gregorčič High School with Slovenian as the language of instruction in Gorizia.

Marco Barbon / primary and junior high school

Marco Barbon is an Italian conductor based in Munich (Germany). Since 2021 he has been working as choir conductor and vocal coach at Tölzer Knabenchor in Munich, Germany. He has also been the artistic director of the men's choir since 2024. Withthis choir he has conducted concerts for international festivals such as Anima Mundi Festival in Pisa (Italy), Rheingau Musikfestival in Wiesbaden (Germany), Voci d'Europa Festival inSardinia (Italy), and in prestigious concert halls such as Herkulessaal in Munich. He is also responsible for preparing the boy soloists for repertoire and contemporary operas at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Deutsche Oper and the Komische Oper in Berlin, and the Opéra national de Lyon. For several years, he has been invited as teacher in masterclasses for choir conducting and choral singing and as jury member of choral competitions organized by various regionalchoral associations throughout Italy. He has been appointed member of the artistic committee of the Choral Association of Veneto Region and during the year 2016-2017 he conducted the Youth Choir of Veneto Region. In 2019, he won the second prize in the international choral conducting competition "Romano Gandolfi" and second prize in the Italian national choral conducting competition "Le mani in Suono." At the Conservatory of Castelfranco Veneto he completed a Master of Arts in Piano Performance and in 2022 a master's degree in choir conducting and composition cum laude and distinction in the class of M. Berrini, meanwhile enriching his musical experience at the University of Music in Saarbrücken thanks to the Erasmus+ programme. In 2019, he obtained a master's degree in Renaissance and Baroque singing at the Conservatory of Venice. In his career he obtained a Bachelor degree in Speech and Language Therapy at the University of Padua. He is highly specialized in voice therapy and vocal training for voice professionals.

Ilaria Cavalca / primary

Pianist, music educator and choir conductor, Ilaria Cavalca has an intense activity as an accompanist pianist and as a chamber musician in ensembles addressed to the research and dissemination of the contemporary repertoire. During her studies, she entered the choral scene first as a singer and then as a conductor, immediately focusing her interest towards children's choirs. She attended the Choral conducting and Composition course at the conservatorio A. Boito in Parma, where she deepened the technical aspects of conducting and composition under the guidance of the teachers Fratini, Ziliani and Poldi, a course that she flanked with numerous masterclasses dedicated to didactic strategies for children's choirs and to children's musical training methodologies (Orff and Dalcroze), studying with choir conductors and teachers such as Pavese, Valbusa, Polidori, Scattolin, Zaltron, Pecci, Paduano, Sanna and Pinotti. She is a teacher of choral singing in the pre-academic courses at the Conservatory of Reggio Emilia and Castelnovo né Monti, for which she is also a piano teacher, general propaedeutics teacher and didactic coordinator of the Cavriago (Re) venue. She is a teacher of music education at five primary schools in the province of Reggio Emilia, conductor of the I.C. Don Dossetti Choir in Cavriago, the CavriCanto Youth Choir, which she founded in 2018, and the Vocinsieme Choir in Gattatico (Re). Always convinced that singing in a choir can be a powerful means of socialisation, she has initiated several short and community choir projects. In the three-year period 2019-2022, she was conductor of the Youth Choir of Emilia Romagna AERCO and periodically collaborates as a teacher with regional choral associations. A composer and arranger, her piece Il serpente bidone (The Snake Bin) was included in the volume Giro giro canto 8. published by Feniarco.

Maria Ciavarella / high school

Maria Ciavarella (1995) was born in Brescia (Italy). After studying Violin at Conservatorio L. Marenzio in Brescia, she graduated at the Guido d’Arezzo School for choral conductors under the direction of L. Donati, N. Corti, G. Graden, P. Broadbent, A. Schweitzer, C. Pavese, L. Marzola, L. Leo. In 2018 she attended a Choral Conducting Master at the Chigiana Summer Academy with L. Donati and the Spirito Academy “Les sens de la voix” with N. Corti. From 2019 to 2022 she attended several Masterclasses for Choral Conducting (M. Sacquegna, M. Da Rold, M. Valbusa, L. Scaccabarozzi, R. Paraninfo and C. Pavese. In 2023 she obtained the bachelor’s degree in Choral Conducting and Choral Composition at Conservatorio F.A. Bonporti in Trento, with P. Grassi. In 2024 she graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Brescia. She has been a member of several Italian choirs winning many prizes in national and international choral competitions: Controcanto Female Choir (2011-present), UT insieme vocale-consonante (2020-2022), Guido Chigi Saracini Choir (2018-2023), Tuscan Youth Choir (2018-2019). In 2020 she won the Second Prize at the National Choral Conducting Competition “Le mani in suono” in Arezzo. In 2022 she won the First Prize at the National Competition “Città di Fermo” with Controcanto Female Choir and a Special Prize for Choral Conducting. She is currently the main conductor of the Torino Vocal Ensemble and of the madrigalistic ensemble Suspirium in Florence, while leading several conducting projects in Primary Schools and conducting the Controcanto Youth Choir and Controcanto Children Choir.

Raffaele Cifani / high school

Choral conductor, pianist, educator, vocal coach and Vocal Pop arranger, Raffaele Cifani has gained extensive and in-depth experience in youth and school choral music through more than twenty years of hands-on work with highly diverse choral environments. This has enabled him to develop particularly effective teaching methods and to acquire a profound knowledge of the voice across all genres and repertoires.Of particular significance is his activity in the field of Vocal Pop, where he is active both as an arranger—having produced numerous arrangements performed and appreciated at national level, earning him awards and commissions—and as a conductor. Among his major projects is the recent recording Resonating Light with the Enjoy Choir, featuring some of his most significant arrangements written for the ensemble over nearly ten years of collaboration.As a conductor, also in the field of polyphonic music, he has achieved numerous accolades, all with the Enjoy Choir, including first prizes at the competitions of Quartiano, Lago Maggiore, Vittorio Veneto and Savani; the Grand Prix at Vittorio Veneto with pop repertoire; and the Grand Prix at the Savani Competition with sacred polyphonic repertoire, where he also received the award for Best Conductor.Alongside his ongoing activity as a trainer in seminars, masterclasses and conferences—focusing in particular on vocal technique, Vocal Pop arranging and music history outreach—he currently conducts three school choirs and two community choirs. He has also recently been appointed, together with Maria Ciavarella, as conductor of the Lombard Youth Choir for the 2026–2028 biennium.

Marleen De Boo (Belgium)  / high school

Jacopo Facchini / high school

After completing a diploma in Piano and a degree in Choral Conducting and Composition, he also graduated in Singing at the L. Cherubini Conservatoire in Florence, specialising in Baroque singing with S. Mingardo, G. Banditelli, M. Bacelli, R. Basso, M. Chance, R. Jacobs and G. Lesne, and in twentieth-century and contemporary repertoire with A. Caiello.In 2017 and 2018, he conducted the choirs of the Opéra National de Montpellier Occitanie and the Opéra National de Lorraine in major operatic productions. Since 2019, he has been conductor of the vocal ensemble laBarocca in Milan, founded by G. Capuano, and in the same year he prepared the Milan Symphony Choir for Ernani. He has worked as assistant to G. Capuano in productions at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and at the Bolshoi Theatre. In 2022, he served as Chorus Master for La Clemenza di Tito with Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco and C. Bartoli, on European tour, and also created and directed the musical conception of a production at the Opéra de Montpellier. He has recently taken part in productions at the Salzburg Festival. As a singer, he collaborates with numerous early music ensembles and has appeared in productions at Teatro alla Scala, with the Milan Symphony Orchestra, the Divertimento Ensemble and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a guest at leading international festivals and has recorded for labels including Decca, Sony Music, Naxos, Glossa and Stradivarius.

Photo: Marco Borrelli

Stephan Lutermann (Germany) / junior high school

Stephan Lutermann, born in Osnabrück (Germany), studied organ, church music and choral conducting at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and at the University of Music and Dance Cologne.
As a sought after organist and pianist he performs at festivals and concert series across Europe, the Americas and Africa. His recordings and broadcasts document both his artistic range and his dedication to historical performance practice. As a conductor he shapes the choral landscape in Germany and abroad with several ensembles. International competition prizes, invitations as lecturer and juror and a professorship in Hamburg underline his profile. He founded the chamber choir Vokalconsort Osnabrück, known for innovative formats and strong artistic identity. His collaboration with choreographer Lars Scheibner led to acclaimed staged interpretations of major choral works including Bach St John Passion and Brahms German Requiem. This artistic path resulted in the founding of the European ensemble CHOREOS in 2016 which has since appeared in major halls such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Festspielhaus Baden Baden. Work with CHOREOS inspired invitations to workshops and conferences throughout Europe and the CHOREOS Method has become a reference for the integration of movement and choral performance. Since 2025 Lutermann has served as Director of the Forum Artium Academy for Music and International Masterclasses and as Artistic Director of the Musica Viva Festival.
https://stephan-lutermann.de

Marel Martens (The Netherlands) / junior high school

Merel Martens is a full-time choir leader, arranger, teacher and vocal group coach with a strong international profile. After completing two Bachelor’s degrees in Music Teaching and in Pop & Jazz Choir Leading, she obtained a Master’s degree in Vocal Leadership from RAMA (Rhythmic Music Conservatory) in Denmark in 2015, one of Europe’s leading institutions for contemporary vocal music.She is currently the vocal leader of the innovative Dutch a cappella group MAZE Voices, with whom she explores new forms of vocal expression, artistic research and contemporary performance practice. Alongside her performing activity, Merel is Head of Studies in Vocal Leadership at Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam, where she trains the next generation of vocal leaders and choir directors.Merel is highly active on the international scene and regularly travels to vocal festivals, conservatoires and universities around the world to lead workshops, ateliers and concerts. She is particularly appreciated for her inspiring teaching style, her expertise in vocal ensemble work and her innovative approach to leadership, creativity and group dynamics within vocal music.
www.merelmartens.eu

Salvatore Murru  / primary and junior high school

Graduated with top marks in Piano and Composition, at the Conservatorio Musicale San Pietro a Majella in Naples, Salvatore Murru combines his writing activity with that of choir conductor. In October 2012, he was commissioned by the MIUR to conduct a children's choir in the presence of the Minister of Education, at the Accademia dei Lincei, during the awarding of the Nobel Prize to the EU. As a composer, he was commissioned by the conservatory of Naples to orchestrate several scores for the Pergolesi Celebrations (Naples, Palazzo Reale, 2010). He has realised works in different fields, from stage music to the soundtrack of silent films, to choral writing: in June 2014, he received a special mention at the MIUR for the composition of the piece Sulla Luna, from G. Rodari's Filastrocche per un anno, for children's choir and piano and, the following year, on the omonymous ode by Horace, the first prize overall for the piece Vides ut alta for children's choir and orchestra. In 2016, he was awarded a scholarship by the UNCLA, at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture. In addition to his activities as a composer and choir conductor, he is also a teacher. In fact, he is a teacher at the Russo-Solimena institute in Naples, where he has initiated, also thanks to the possibilities offered by a Ministerial Decree, a fruitful choral practice course for the children who attend it. The school is currently listed (also in the first segment) as a music school. He is also involved in training and choral conducting at the Centro di Musica Antica Pietà de' Turchini in Naples. He has collaborated on the musical part of teaching guides for teachers for IBISCUS Edizioni.

Serena Peroni / primary

Serena Peroni is a choir conductor, singer and pianist. She graduated in Choral Conducting at the P. Righele Academy and obtained a diploma at the Italian Choral Academy studying with teachers such as A. Kirschner, D. Tabbia, L. Marzola, F. Barchi, M. Lanaro, L. Golino, P. Veleno, L. Donati, R. Rasmussen, Ursa Lah, P. Broadbent and others. She graduated with honours from the three-year academic piano course, under the guidance of M. Tezza, and from the two-year course in Renaissance and Baroque singing at the A. Pedrollo Conservatory in Vicenza, studying with G. Bertagnolli, M. Scavazza and L. Serafini. She is currently continuing her academic career by attending the two-year course in ensemble music (specialising in voices and ancient instruments). She frequently sings in ensembles, early music groups and as a soloist. She has been a member of the Italian National Choir and Eurochoir. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Revoice International Ensemble. She performs an intensive concert activity conducting the choirs Iter novum, the treble voices section, and the Ensemble la Rose. With these groups, she has won numerous awards in national and international competitions. She won 1st prize, and the prize as youngest finalist, at the National Competition for Choir Conductors Le mani in suono in Arezzo (2022). She teaches piano and singing at the S. Lorenzi institute in Lonigo (VI) and regularly holds vocal workshops and laboratories throughout the country.

Maria Carmela Ranieri / junior high school

Maria Carmela Ranieri, began her musical studies at the S. Giacomantonio Conservatory of Music in Cosenza, obtaining diplomas in Choral Music and Choir Condution, Music Didactics and Trumpet. She also completed a two-year specialisation course at the Accademia Corale Italiana in Arezzo, which enabled her to perfect her technical and artistic skills in the field of choral conducting. She holds a degree in D.A.M.S. from the University of Calabria and a Master's Degree in 20th Century Musical Cultures from the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Her career is characterised by a constant commitment to the promotion of choral music and the education of the younger generations. She conducts several choral groups, including the Piccolo Coro del Teatro A. Rendano di Cosenza, with which she carries out intense concert activity and participates in national and international competitions, winning prestigious prizes and awards. She has taught History of Music at the Conservatorio di Musica T. Schipa in Lecce, at the detached section in Ceglie Messapica (BR). She currently teaches Fundamentals of Musical Communication at the degree course in Primary Education Sciences at the University of Calabria. She is also the contact person for the Organisation of Calabria Choirs (OCC) for the youth choirs, children and school choirs section for the province of Cosenza and Crotone.

Marianna Setti/ primary and junior high school

A young conductor from Trentino, Marianna obtained both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Choral Conducting and Choral Composition with highest honours at the Bonporti Conservatoire of Trento, and graduated from the Advanced School for Choral Conductors of the Guido d’Arezzo Foundation. She also holds a degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Verona, with a dissertation on the use of music in foreign language teaching.After a semester of study at the Riga Academy of Music, in spring 2025 she founded Mosaicor, a choral ensemble based in Trento. Alongside this project, she is conductor of the Castelbarco Children’s Choir in Avio. She has received several international awards for children’s choir conducting, including First Prize and special awards in Preveza (2025), as well as Second Prize at the Aegis Carminis Competition in Koper (2023). Under her direction, the Castelbarco Children’s Choir won First Prize at the Città di Treviso International Competition for Young Musicians and Third Prize at the Città di Chiari Competition.She works as a primary school teacher and is also a lecturer at the Diocesan Institute of Sacred Music in Trento. She collaborates with various choral and musical ensembles and, as an educator, designs and delivers projects in local schools. During her training, she has conducted renowned choral ensembles and attended masterclasses with leading conductors on the national and international choral scene. She currently sings as a soprano in the Italian Youth Choir.

Giorgio Susana / high school

Sanna Valvanne / junior high school

Sanna Valvanne, founding director of the Sing & Shine Choirs and Artistic Director of the 2017 Tampere Vocal Festival, is one of the most international and innovative Finnish choir conductors. She is recognized world wide for her creative and expressive choral method “Sing & Shine with Body & Soul”. A former singer and vocal trainer of the world famous Tapiola Choir, Sanna created her method in 1994, while studying for her Master’s Degree in Music at the Sibelius Academy. She has since been a popular guest conductor with hundreds of choirs and festivals around the world. From 2005-2016, Sanna worked in the USA as the artistic director of the North American Choral Company, and choral conductor for El Sistema inspired music programs for children in underserved communities, developing her work further to support social causes. In 2016, Sanna returned to Finland to launch her own choir organization, the Sing and Shine Choirs, providing an empowering choir community and creative performance training for hundreds of enthusiastic children, youth and adults in the Helsinki Capital area.Whether with her own choirs or guest conducting, Sanna continues to expand the boundaries of choral expression, and explore new ways of sharing love and joy through singing.