Jurists
Aarne Saluveer (Estonia)
Aarne Saluveer is one of the most active Estonian figures in the international music scene - a producer, conductor and educator. He serves as founding Artistic Director Estonian TV Girls’ Choir, the President of Estonian Choral Association, aBoard member of IFCM, Europa Cantat 2000-2009, a member of the Estonian Music Council and Council of World Choir Games, and a founding member of Estonian Society for Music Education and its first Chairman. He has been heavily involved in the Laulupidu Estonian Song Celebrations since 1993, where he conducts the world biggest joint choir with 30,000 singers to an audience of 100,000. Saluveer has worked as adjudicator and presentator in Europe, Asia and the Americas, and published articles in International Choral Bulletin, Europa Cantat Magazine and others. Mr Saluveer was decorated with the Order of the White Star of the Republic of Estonia in 2004, and the Arezzo Guidoneum Award in Italy in 2012. Under his leadership the Estonian Television Girl’s Choir and Children’s Choir have won awards and Grand Prix at diverse choral contests, including Tolosa, Gorizia, Arezzo, Arnhem, Pohlheim and the European Broadcast Union live-competition ”Let The Peoples Sing”. In 2009 he won Grand Prix in Estonian Chamber Choir Competition with the Tallinn University Chamber Choir. He has shared the stage with Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, Roxanna Panufnik, Neeme Järvi, Paul Hillier, Urmas Sisask, Imogen Heap, Ana Silvera, and Michael Jackson.
María Guinand (Venezuela)
María Guinand is a choral conductor, university professor and leader of many choral projects both nationally and internationally. She has specialized in Latin-American Choral Music of the 20th and 21st centuries and has won many awards including the ‘Kulturpreis’ of the InterNationes Foundation in 1998, the Robert Edler Preis für Chormusik in 2000 and the Helmuth Rilling Reis in 2009.
Ms. Guinand is the Artistic Director of the Schola Cantorum of Venezuela Foundation, and founded the ‘Academia Bach de Venezuela’ in close relationship with the INternational Bachakademie Stuttgart and the ‘Academia Nacional de Canto Gregoriano’. She served for 12 years as Latin American Vice-President of the IFCM and she is currently Advisor to the Board. For over 30 years Ms. Guinand has served as the Associated Conductor and Advisor of Choral Symphonic Performances and Activities of ‘El Sistema.’ She teaches in the Master Degree Program for Choral Conductors at the ‘University Simón Bolívar.’
In recent years she has conducted concerts as the Sydney Opera House, the Barbican (London), Casa de Musica (Porto), Royal Carre Theater (Amsterdam), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Lincoln Center (New York/White Light Festival), Liederhalle (Stuttgart/Europeanmusikfest), Hult Center (Oregon Bach Festival), among others.
Raymond Wise (Indiana, USA)
Raymond Wise serves as Professor of Practice, African American African Diaspora Studies Department, the Associate Director of the African American Arts Institute and Director of the African American Choral Ensemble at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. He earned Ph.D. and M.A. in Music Education from The Ohio State University (2002, 1996) and a B.F.A. in Music from Denison University, Granville, Ohio (1983). Studied in Opera, Art, and German at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria (1982) and African-American History, Music, and Dance at San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California (1983). His research and teaching interests include the history and performance of African American Gospel and Sacred music. He is an ordained minister and regularly serves as a singer, pianist, composer, director, conductor, lecturer, and teacher for orchestras, opera companies, churches and choral festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.