Conducting Academy

The Conducting Academy is aimed at students of choral conducting, as well as church musicians and young conductors interested in pursuing advanced studies in choral conducting. It primarily focuses on issues of interpretation, choral sound, intonation, and their implementation in rehearsal and conducting techniques in a professional context. Particular emphasis is placed on the expression of conducting through conducting technique, the participants' individual "conducting language," and effective rehearsal methods. This is achieved through individual conducting lessons with Prof. Grün, coaching via live video broadcast with international guests, exchange with a professional vocal ensemble, and passive participation in choir rehearsals as well as conducting the academy ensemble.

The Summer School cooperates with a professional video technology team that not only ensures the video transmission of the didactic offering, but also enables the creation of high-quality videos. These professional recordings are available to participants not only for private but also for professional purposes.

Work schedule

  • daily three hours of conducting lessons by Prof. Georg Grün (for passive and active participants) and other lecturers
  • daily up to three hours of active work with the KammerChor Saarbrücken (only for active participants)
  • final concert*

    * Active participants agree to conduct the final concert if selected by the musical director. There is no entitlement to conducting.

Repertoire

  • Maurice Duruflé - Tantum Ergo, Ubi Caritas
  • Johannes Brahms - O Heiland reiß die Himmel auf
  • Séan Doherty - A Nywe Werk
  • Christoph Demantius - Steh auf, und nimm das Kindelein
  • Perttu Haapanen - Readymade Alice
  • Midori Takashima - Aki Kaze Ni
  • Edie Hill - We bloomed in spring
  • Giuseppe Verdi - Ave Maria
  • Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy - Warum toben die Heiden?
  • tba.

 

Web masterclasses and online coaching

Some of the lessons and rehearsals during the 2026 Summer School will be offered free of charge via video transmission on YouTube for students from other German and foreign music academies, as well as for interested parties. Seminars, lectures, and coaching sessions with external lecturers from abroad will also be available.

The academy ensemble

One of the goals is to develop challenging choral music under professional conditions. The academy ensemble, which is available to the candidates, is made up of singers from the ChorWerkSaar Chamberchoir and professional singers from the Calmus Ensemble in every vocal group. This year, the entire lineup of the renowned Calmus Ensemble will sing in the academy ensemble and assume the vocal lead in the vocal registers. Interested passive (or active) participants are also cordially invited to join the choir, provided they have sufficient qualifications.

Foto Alexandra Vosding

Foto Anne Hornemann

Künstlerische Leitung und Dozent*innen

Artistic Director
Prof. Georg Grün

Conductor
KammerChor Saarbrücken

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Georg Grün ranks among the most sought-after choral conductors and choral sound specialists in the world. In 1990, he founded the KammerChor Saarbrücken and remains its artistic director today. With the ensemble he has won major international and national choir competitions, has performed at many renowned music festivals and has regularly produced CDs for Carus-Verlag and Rondeau. Between 2000 and 2012 Georg Grün was professor of choral conducting at the Musikhochschule Mannheim, with whose newly-formed Chamber Choir he also won numerous international prizes. In 2012, Georg Grün was appointed professor at the HfM University of Music Saar, and in 2013 took on the role of conductor of the Ev. Chorgemeinschaft an der Saar. Georg Grün travels extensively both in Germany and abroad as a guest conductor, adjudicator and teacher of international master classes in choral conducting. Since 2010, he has been a mentor of the Conductors' Forum of the German Music Council and since 2015, chairman of the jury at the renowned International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf. In 2016 concerts, adjudicator work, master classes and guest conducting engagements will take him, among other places, to Italy, France, Ireland, Spain and Poland.

Web - Coaching (South Korea)
Hyunju Kwon

Conductor

Winner of the 2022 German Conductors Award

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South Korean conductor Hyunju Kwon recently won the 5th German Choral Conducting Prize
of the German Music Council in collaboration with the RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin and also received the Audience Prize. After completing her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Choral and Orchestral Conducting in Seoul, Karlsruhe, and Mannheim, she is currently further developing her skills as part of her concert exam with Prof. Georg Grün in Saarbrücken.

Kwon has worked with both amateur and professional choirs, including the Stuttgart and Saarbrücken Chamber Choirs. She has served as musical assistant to the latter since October 2021. She has also conducted professional orchestras, including the Baden-Baden Philharmonic and the Stuttgart Philharmonic. Kwon achieved international success as the winner of the Fosco Corti International Competition for Choral
Conductors 2021 in Turin, Italy, and the International Choral Conductors Competition 2022 in Preveza, Greece.

Management | Regisseur | Coaching
Johannes Weiler
Conductor
HfM Saar | Saarknappenchor

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Johannes Weiler studied trumpet, school music, music education, and conducting at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz and the Saarland University of Music with, among others, Prof. Peter Leiner and Prof. Georg Grün. His teachers also included Prof. Toshiyuki Kamioka, Prof. Manuel Nawri, and Christian von Blohn. He received further important inspiration from Stefan Weiler, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Johannes Klumpp, Stan Engebretson (Washington D.C.), Patrick Gardner (New Jersey), Ko Matsushita (Japan), Gary Graden (Stockholm), and Brady Alred (Saltlake City).
Johannes Weiler is the chief conductor of the Saarknappenchor, with which he performs over 20 concerts a year, as well as CD productions in cooperation with Saarländischer Rundfunk. He is also the head of the Orchestra and Choral Office at the Saar University of Music and ChorWerkSaar, as well as a lecturer for choral and ensemble conducting at the Saar University of Music. Johannes Weiler is also the organizational director, lecturer, and director of the livestreaming of the Saar University of Music Summer School.

Web-Coaching (Slovenia)
Ambrož Čopi
Conductor | Composer

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At the Academy of Music in Ljubljana he studied composition in the class of Dane Škerl and piano in the class of Prof. Andrej Jarec . At the same institution he completed his specialist studies in composition in the class of Prof. Uroš Rojko . He works primarily as a composer of choral works, a pedagogue , an organizer and a tireless coastal choir conductor in the Soča region . Since 1999, he has been teaching solfeggio, harmony, counterpoint, the basics of composition and chamber music at the Koper Art Gymnasium. He led the youth mixed choir of the Koper Gymnasium (1999-2002, 2007-2013), and also led the Vladimir Lovec Orchestra (2005-2007). While still a student, he founded the Iskra Bovec Chamber Choir in 1992 and successfully led it for ten years. In 1998, he took over the newly founded Nova Gorica Chamber Choir (until 2004) and the Obala Mixed Choir (until 2007) in Koper, and from 2004 to 2014 he was the conductor of the Academic Choir of the University of Primorska. With his choirs, he received seven gold plaques at national competitions and ten first places and several gold awards abroad (Grand Prix of the city of Varna – Bulgaria (2008), Tonen 2000 – Netherlands (2006), Prèveza – Greece (2003 and 2006), Franz Schubert Vienna – Austria (2001), Cantonigros – Spain (2000), Fort Lauderdale – USA (1999) …).

He has received numerous special awards for his interpretations, and has been awarded several times for outstanding achievements with the choir and as the best conductor of the competition. He has conducted successful tours in Iceland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, England, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc. As a professional evaluator and jury member, he is invited to various choral events and choral competitions, and as a lecturer, he participates in choral seminars at home and abroad.

 

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SUMMER SCHOOL 2026
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