Adjudicators

Josep Vila i Casañas, Spain (Chair of the Adjudicating Panel)

Conductor, composer and pedagogue, Josep Vila i Casañas was born in Sabadell, Spain in 1966. His specialism is the a cappella repertoire, as well as choral and orchestral literature down the ages.

He conducts the Lieder Càmera Chamber Choir from Sabadell and collaborates often as guest conductor with the Francesc Valls Chamber Choir, a professional vocal ensemble engaged by the Sagrada Família church and by Barcelona Cathedral. He has served as resident conductor of the Orfeó Català choral society (1998-2016), the Cor de Cambra of the Palau de la Música Catalana (2011-2016) and the Radiotelevisión Española Choir (2007- 2010).

Josep has worked as a guest conductor with choirs and orchestras such as the Spanish National Choir, the Swedish Radio Choir, the World Youth Choir (2010 and 2019), the Choir of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, the Venezuelan Simón Bolivar National Youth Choir, the Radiotelevisión Española Orchestra and the Catalan Baroque Orchestra.

As a composer, his main area of interest is music for voice and instruments, and he has written an extensive body of works for children’s and youth choirs, for mixed a cappella choirs, and for choir and orchestra.

Borbála Szirányi, Hungary

Borbála Szirányi graduated in music education and choral conducting from the Liszt Academy of Music in Hungary. From 1996 to 2015 she worked at the Music School of the Hungarian State Opera House’s children’s choir as a classroom music teacher and choir conductor. Borbála regularly teaches as a visiting professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where the Kodály programme was launched in the year 2000 under her direction, and she has subsequently conducted Kodály courses around the world.

Borbála currently teaches at the Kós Károly Általános Iskola, which is part of the Model School Program led by the Liszt Academy of Music in Hungary. In this project, she and her colleagues experiment with new music methodological techniques, based on the Kodály concept, in order to refresh and renew the Hungarian music pedagogy, making it more adaptable to the 21st century classroom.

Urša Lah, Slovenia

Urša Lah studied Musical Education at the Ljubljana Music Academy and Choral Conducting in the University of Tromsø (Norway).

With Mixed Youth Choir Veter, APZ Tone Tomšicø University of Ljubljana and the National Radio Chamber Choir, she has been involved in many première performances, and won numerous first prizes, golden plaques, special prizes and conducting awards at national and prestigious international choral competitions, including the Grand Prix of Europe (Debrecen, 2008).

In recognition of her valuable work with choirs, Urša received the highest award of the Municipality of Ljubljana for cultural achievement in 2008, and in 2009 the award of Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Cultural Activities. Urša now lives in Norway, where she conducts the Trondheim Symphony Choir. She works as Associate professor of Ensemble Leading and Choral Conducting at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and as Chorus Master for Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and the Artic Philharmonic Orchestra. She lectures at educational seminars for choral conductors, is a frequent member of adjudicating panels at international choral and conducting competitions, is a guest conductor of recognised ensembles and one of two artistic leaders of the international chamber choir Utopia & Reality.

Neil Ferris, England

Neil Ferris was appointed Chorus Director of the BBC Symphony Chorus in 2017. He is also Artistic Director of the professional chamber choir Sonoro and Music Director of Wimbledon Choral Society. Earlier this year he made his Proms conducting debut, celebrating the 90th Anniversary season of the BBC Symphony Chorus with the premiere of Jonathan Dove’s specially commissioned piece We Are One Fire.

Formerly Director of Choral Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Neil is recognised as one of the country’s leading teachers of choral conducting and has led masterclasses in the UK, US, Ireland, Denmark and, later this year, China and Singapore.

In demand as guest conductor of some of the finest choirs in the UK, Neil has worked with the London Symphony Chorus, the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, the BBC Singers and the National Youth Choir of Wales.

Róisín Blunnie, Ireland

Dr. Róisín Blunnie is a choral conductor based in Dublin, Ireland and is Assistant Professor of Music at Dublin City University. She leads DCU’s new MA in Choral Studies, and teaches a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in conducting, keyboard and aural skills, music history and analysis, form and style, and choral leadership. She studied conducting with Prof. Peter Erdei and Dr. Katalin Kiss at the Kodály Institute in Hungary, and has a PhD in Music from Trinity College Dublin.

Róisín conducts the mixed-voice chamber choir Laetare Vocal Ensemble. Laetare is active in performance, recording and competition, and recent successes include awards at the City of Derry International Choir Festival, Cork International Choral Festival, Mayo International Choral Festival, Sligo International Choral Festival and Navan Choral Festival.

Róisín also conducts the Lumen Chorale, a 60-voice choir of undergraduate music students at DCU, and leads workshops in choral technique for conductors and music teachers.