Ralf Eisenbeiß nació en 1952 en Zeulenroda. Después del examen de secundaria, estudió pedagogía, filología alemana y enseñanza musical. Se doctoró en 1979 en la Universidad Pedagógica de Zwickau. De 1978 a 1981, estudió Dirección de Coros y Orquestas en el Conservatorio Franz Liszt de Weimar.

Ralf Eisenbeiß trabajó como director del Departamento Coral de la Universidad Pedagógica de Zwickau y fue nombrado profesor de Dirección Coral y Canto Coral en 1987. Fue director de orquesta del renombrado coro de la Universidad Pedagógica de Zwickau. Con el coro interpretó un gran repertorio de composiciones para coros a capela y también con orquesta. Bajo su dirección, el coro ganó numerosos premios en concursos nacionales e internacionales de coros.

Ralf Eisenbeiß fue conferenciante en el Seminario Central para Directores de Coros en Berlín y organizó numerosos talleres él mismo. A menudo, participa como director invitado en eventos nacionales y en el extranjero. Trabaja como director artístico en INTERKULTUR desde hace más de veinte años. Ralf Eisenbeiß es fundador del Concurso Internacional Robert Schumann de Coros en Zwickau y uno de los fundadores de los World Choir Games (Juegos Internacionales de Coros). Desde 1992 ha sido responsable de la celebración de un centenar concursos internacionales de INTERKULTUR en Alemania, Italia, Corea, Indonesia, China, Austria, España, EE. UU. y otros países. Ralf Eisenbeiß recibe numerosas invitaciones a participar como jurado en concursos corales nacionales e internacionales en todo el mundo.

Giovanni Acciai was born in 1946, is a renowned Italian composer, university professor, juror, workshop leader and conductor. He studied organ, composition, and choir conducting at the Conservatory “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan, and took his master degree in musicology at Pavia University. Giovanni Acciai was conductor of the Chamber choir of the Italian Brodcast and of the Symphonic Choir of the Italian Broadcast in Turin.

Presently, he is the conductor and artistic director of the vocal and instrumental ensembles “I Solisti del Madrigale”, and the collegium vocale “Nova ars cantandi”, with which he has made concert tours and recordings; he has published several articles and reviews on early music, musicological essays, as well as recordings of unreleased works for the publishers Antes, Stradivarius, Sarx, Unda maris Archiv Deutsches Grammophon and Tactus.

His latest CD production with Nova Ars Cantandi, the "Armonici entusiasmi di Davide" by Giovanni Battista Bassani, has been nominated for the International Classic Music Award as the best CD of the year 2017 in the category Early Music.

He teaches musical history and early music semiography at the Conservatory “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan, moreover he is the artistic director of the International choir competitions of Grado and Quartiano. He is regularly invited as an international jury member and jury president in most renewed choir competitions; he is sought after as a lecturer at conferences of musicology and asked to hold masterclasses for choral conducting in Italy and abroad.

For his high-ranking international artistical achievements in 1991, he was appointed honorary member of the American Choral Directors Associations (ACDA). Giovanni Acciai was a member in the panel of the International juries at the Choir Olympics as well as the World Choir Games and since 2004 he is an active member and official representative for Italy in the international World Choir Council.

Since 2014, he is artistic director of the Accademia di Musica Antica of Milan and active member of the Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne” (REMA) of Versailles.

- in memoriam -

Christian Ljunggren nació en 1942. Estudió música en la Real Academia de Música de Estocolmo, así como musicología y teología en la Universidad de Uppsala. Trabajó durante muchos años en el Departamento de Música de la Compañía Nacional de Radiodifusión de Suecia, donde fue responsable de la presentación y programación de los programas relacionados con la música.

Fue director de orquesta del Adolf Fredrik Madrigal Choir desde su fundación (1965 y 1974). Fue el primer presidente de la Asociación de Directores de Coros de Suecia (1986-1998) y presidente de KÖRSAM, el comité conjunto de las organizaciones corales suecas (1997-2004). De 1997 a 1999 trabajó para la FIMC, la Federación Internacional de Música Coral, como secretario general de 1997 a 1999 y como agente de enlace (hasta 2005).

Fue uno de los directores artísticos de INTERKULTUR y el director artístico de los Juegos Corales Mundiales (Juegos Internacionales de Coros). Gracias a su compromiso como clínico en seminarios y talleres de todo el mundo y el desarrollo la serie de seminarios de INTERKULTUR en China, obtuvo un reconocimiento cada vez mayor a partir de 2003.

Christian Ljunggren escribió numerosos artículos en revistas suecas e internacionales y fue también un apasionado arreglista de música coral.

Maria Emma Meligopoulou holds a Master Degree in Choral Conducting from Boston University CFA and a PhD in Choral Conducting and pedagogy for Children and Youth Choirs from Ionian University. She has also studied Law at Aristotle University. She teaches Choral Conducting Techniques and directs the University Choir at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki.

She also teaches at the master’s program of Choral Conducting at Ionian University and is professor of Choral Conducting at the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki. She has performed many choral concerts and international tours in Greece, Europe (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, UK), Asia (Israel, Turkey, Singapore, China, Japan), Africa (Egypt, South Africa), USA, Canada. As Choral Director she has been several times recipient of First Prizes with her own Choir “Ss. Cyril & Methodios Choir”, among them the Moscow Sounds Festival, Interkultur Festivals, Loto Quebec Festival (Canada), etc.

She is council member of the World Choir Games, Artistic Advisor of Interkultur Festivals, and she is on demand as lecturer, guest conductor and adjudicator in international symposiums, festivals and workshops worldwide. In 1992 she founded the Ss. Cyril & Methodios Children’s and Youth Choir, the largest choral organization in Northern Greece with over 300 singers in five departments (preparatory choir, children’s choirs, mixed youth choir and chamber choir).

She is author of the textbook Introduction to the Art of Choral Praxis (2011) 3rd Edition in 2013 and the Music Editions: Choral Works for Equal Voices by Greek Composers (2014), and Christmas Choral Works for Equal Voices (2016), all of them available by Nakas - Papagregoriou Editions, Athens.

Franco Radicchia holds university degrees in different musical subjects: He passed choir conducting at the Conservatory of Perugia with distinction, completed the Master exam in Musicology at the University of Perugia and achieved the DAS (diploma in Gregorian Musicology) at the Conservatory of Lugano. He received further training by important European choir and orchestra conductors and participated in workshops at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He is the founder and conductor of the female vocal ensemble "Armoniosoincanto" with whom he intensively takes part in international concert activities and rehearses early music such as "L’Ufficio Ritmico di P. Giuliano da Spira" together with "Sagra Musicale Umbra", medieval pilgrim songs such as "O Roma Nobilis", edited by "Bongiovanni", and "Ave Donna Santissim"a, edited by "Tactus"(Bologna). Together with the ensembles Armoniosoincanto and Coro Giovanile Vivae Vocis Concentus Perugia he has achieved numerous national and international awards. Franco Radicchia is a member of the committee of the Italian section of the International Association for Studies of Gregorian Chant and is often booked for seminars and further trainings regarding early music and Gregorian musicology. Furthermore he is also working at the grass-roots level: As a teacher for music theory, music analysis and composition at the School of Music Perugia and as a conductor of several youth choirs such as the choir of the Mariotti Secondary School, the Coro di Voci Bianche del Conservatorio di Perugia and the Coro Giovanile Umbro.

Alexander Vatsek, born in 1955, is choirmaster, conductor, vocal teacher, adjudicator and is also acting as workshop leader and arranger. In 1986 he founded the choir “OREYA” Zhytomyr Municipal Folk Choir Cappella and ten years later, the “GAUDEAMUS” University Brno choir. Within the years, these choirs took part in several national and international competitions as 1993 in Meinhausen, 1995 in Tours, 1996 in Lindenholzhausen, 1998 in Montreux, 1999 in Wernigerode, 2007 in Kyiv, 2008 in Maribor, 2011 in Tolosa and 2014 in Arezzo. They achieved many first prizes under the conduction of Alexander Vatsek.

Alexander Vatsek has led workshops and was artistic director of various symphonic projects throughout Europe. He was invited as jury member to the second, third and fourth World Choir Games, which were held in Pusan (South Korea, 2002), Bremen (Germany, 2004), Xiamen (China, 2006), and also on other international choral competitions in Tolosa (Spain), and Marktoberdorf and Wernigerode (Germany), Riva del Garda (Italy), Artek (Ukraine), Bergen (Norway) and Tallinn (Estonia).

From 2006 to 2009, Alexander Vatsek was member of the Music commission in Europa Cantat as well as Choir Council member of INTERKULTUR and IFCM.

Alexander Vatsek is honorary member of art in the Ukraine.