Professor Peter Erdei, HUNGARY

Professor Peter Erdei is Director-General of the Zoltan Kodaly Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemet, Hungary. He earned his diploma in 1968 from the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and was Associate Professor of Choral Conducting there from 1973 until 2003. He was the first guest conductor of the Hungarian Radio Choir and became Chief Conductor from 1990 until 1992. In 1996, Professor Erdei co-founded the Kodaly Musical Training Institute in Boston, MA. He has also conducted the Teachers' Choir of Kecskemet since 1976 and served as Musical Director of the Kodaly Choir of Debrecen from 1983-85, 1998-2000, and 2003-present.

Professor Peter Erdei has won several awards for his premiere performances and recordings of contemporary Hungarian choral works. Additionally he has conducted, and held master-classes and lectures all over the world; from Europe to America and from Australia to Asia. Professor Peter Erdei is often invited to adjudicate at international festivals and competitions and loves to do so. He was awarded the Liszt Prize for Performing Arts in Hungary, and has earned himself a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Capital University, Columbus, OH.

With such an extensive record it should be no surprise that in 1995, the president of the Hungarian Republic awarded him with the Order of Merit (civilian) Officer Cross.

Ite O'Donovan, IRELAND

Ite O'Donovan, a graduate of Carysfort College of Education, Dublin, holds a Bachelor in Music degree from Trinity College, Dublin and a Master's Degree in Renaissance Music from The Queen's University, Belfast. She is a lecturer in the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama where she is course tutor of the Junior Musicianship department, and teaches harmony and counterpoint to degree level students. Ite has trained choirs of all ages from Junior Choir to Choral Society. Her choirs have performed in all the major cities of Europe, in Canada, Moscow and New York and have broadcast regularly on radio and television. She was Director of the Palestrina Choir in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral from 1982 to 1995.

In 1996 Ite O'Donovan established Dublin Choral Foundation, an independent choral organisation committed to the provision of high quality music education for children and young adults based upon the long-established cathedral choral tradition. Her choirs The Lassus Scholars, a chamber choir in the university tradition and Piccolo Lasso, children's choir, are non-denominational and mainly sing independently. The choirs regularly join together to present large-scale works with orchestra, have travelled widely and have released five highly acclaimed CDs. They recently represented Ireland at Noelies 2006 in Strasbourg. Ite O'Donovan has studied orchestral conducting in the Czech Republic and has conducted a wide range of symphonic repertoire from Baroque to Modern.  She has adjudicated at many major Irish choral festivals including New Ross, Sligo, Carrickmacross, Navan, Derry and has been invited to adjudicate on many occasions at the Cork international Choral Festival.

Georg Grün, GERMANY

Georg Grün studied church music, school music, Catholic theology, musicology, and conducting, and he taught music and courses on Catholic religion for several years at a lycée for the arts.

The KammerChor Saarbrücken, founded in 1990 by its conductor Georg Grün, quickly developed into one of the best choirs in Germany and likewise enjoys an outstanding international reputation. This has been confirmed through countless appearances in Germany, in many European countries, the USA and Russia, CDs which have received achieved critical acclaim, numerous radio recordings, and last but not least, by the many prizes which the choir has won at international choral competitions and at the German choral competition in Regensburg in 1998.

In 2000 Georg Grün was appointed Professor of choral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim. He has also been very successful as a conductor of the chamber choir of this Music University (it has won prizes at the choral competitions of Cork and Maribor). Grün is active both at home and abroad as a guest conductor, juror and lecturer.

Silvère van Lieshout, THE NETHERLANDS

Silvère van Lieshout is the director of The Netherlands Children's Choir Academy, which was founded in 1990. The Academy offers an extensive education for professional conducting of children choirs, as well as a highly specialized education for children of different ages singing across different levels.

In the same year Silvère van Lieshout founded the Dutch National Children's Choir and in 1996 he founded the Dutch National Youth Choir. Both these choirs have been very successfully conducted by Silvère van Lieshout for over 10 years. Beside these two national choirs, Silvère van Lieshout is also conducting The Hague's Children's Choir, The Hague's Youth Choir' and the Musicanti Children's and Youth Choirs.

Silvère van Lieshout has furthermore developed a significant sight-singing method known as 'Jongleren' created specifically for working with children's choirs. This work in now published and is used in The Netherlands as well as internationally by both children's choirs and adult choirs.

Ragnar Rasmussen, NORWAY

Ragnar Rasmussen is Associate Professor in choir conducting at the Music Conservatory in Tromso, Norway, and artistic director as well as chief conductor of the Mimas Chamber Choir and the Vokal Nord vocal ensemble. He has studied church music at the Trondheim Music Conservatory in Norway, choir conducting with Eric Ericson and Stefan Sköld from Sweden, and orchestra conducting with Colin Metters, head of conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Mr. Rasmussen has won many prestigious prizes such as the 1st prize of the Concorso Internazionale Direttore de Coro (Italy 2001) and the Best Conductor Prize and Conductors Interpretation Prize in Concorso Internazionale di Canto Corale (Italy 2003). He has also conducted choirs and orchestra throughout Europe among which are the Tromso Symphony Orchestra and The Serbian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Furthermore Mr. Rasmussen frequently adjudicates National as well as International Choir and Conducting Competitions and gives lectures and workshops both in Norway and abroad, including The Music Conservatory in Piteå-Sweden, The Music Conservatory in Petrozavodsk-Russia and the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest-Hongary.

Brian Agus, IRELAND

Brian Agus has been involved with choirs all his life, from when he sang treble with his church in his native West Yorkshire, to the present where he is currently the director of Ballyclare Male Choir and the mixed voice Abbey Singers. Initially he taught in four schools in West Yorkshire, singing there with the Huddersfield Choral Society and studying successfully for the LRAM, LTCL and LLCM diplomas. His first choirmaster appointment was aged 23, at a Huddersfield church.

In September 1968 he joined the staff of the Belfast School of Music as a peripatetic class music teacher, became the first Head of the Singing Department, conducted their Junior

then Youth Chorales and ultimately the Belfast School of Music Chorale, whom he took to the quarter finals of the Sainsbury's Choir of the Year Competition twice and in 1990 to the Cork International Choral Festival. Having also completed an Open University degree (1st class Honours), in 1993 he was appointed Director of Music Service for the Northern Ireland's South Eastern Education Board, covering most of County Down.

His early retirement yields more time for home life, playing the organ at his church, two choirs, examining at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, adjudicating and, in the summer, umpiring cricket matches.

He is delighted to be making his sixth visit to Cork, his third as adjudicator. He has also adjudicated at the Ballyclare, Ballymena, Mossgrove and Moville Festivals, at the Londonderry Feis and for four years at the UTV School Choir of the Year Competition.

Orla Flanagan, IRELAND

A lecturer in Music at Trinity College Dublin, Orla Flanagan trained as a conductor for two years with Péter Erdei at the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music, Hungary. With the aid of Arts Council grants she has studied with Gary Graden (Sweden), Carlo Pavese (Italy) and George Hurst (England), and in November 2004 was one of four young Irish conductors chosen to participate in a masterclass with Celso Antunes (Brazil) and the National Chamber Choir of Ireland.

Orla has conducted The Mornington Singers since 2002. Under her direction, the choir was awarded First Prize and a distinction at both the 2004 and 2005 Cork International Choral Festivals and in both years, the choir was also awarded the Trofaí Cuimhneacháin Philib Uí Laoighaire.

In 2006, Orla gained the International Jury Award to a conductor at the Fleischmann International Trophy Competition. Engagements for 2007 include a concert with the Orchestra of St Cecilia as part of their Bach Cantatas series, and a tour to Festival 500 in Newfoundland, Canada.

Orla has recently assumed directorship of Milltown Chamber Choir, a nine-voice professional vocal ensemble based in Milltown Church, Dublin, and has already recorded a CD with this accomplished group. In October 2006, Orla conducted the National Chamber Choir of Ireland in a studio recording for RTÉ Lyric fm, and she has been invited to work with them again in 2007.