Distinguished composer, conductor, and teacher Alberto Grau (b. 1937) has earned a place of  honor among the best contemporary  venezuelan musicians. Alberto Grau is best know for his work as a choral conductor, but as a composer he has become one of the leading figures in latinamerica and many of his works have been published by Earthsongs (USA), N.J.Kjos (USA) , A Coeur Joie (France), Oxford University Press (England), GGM editors (Venezuela) and receives permanently many commissions from choirs all over the world. His books on Choral Conducting and Composition ‘The making of a conductor’ and ‘The making of the composer’ are references for young conductors and musicians.

In 1967 he founded the Schola Cantorum de Caracas and won First Prize in the 1974 Guido D’Arezzo International Competition in Italy. Since then he has attended many important international congresses and festivals with his choirs such as ACDA Conventions, World Choral Symposia, Europa and America Cantat Festivals. Also he has been invited as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and professor of choral music in Europe, USA, Latinamerica and Asia.

Commissioned Work

Magnificat (2020, unperformed)

The composer, audio producer, sound engineer, and arranger Uģis Prauliņš was born on June 17th, 1957 in Riga. He studied at the Emīls Dārziņš College of Music (1964–1974, first in the choir class, later in the music theory department). In 1978, he enrolled in the Latvian State Conservatory, where in 1982 he completed the music pedagogy department. In 1982 he enrolled in the composition division and completed that in 1989 (he studied with Jānis Ivanovs, and, after his death, studied with Ģederts Ramans). He worked as a sound engineer at the first studio of Latvian Radio (1981–1986), was a composer of music for advertisements for Latvian Independent Television (1996–1997), and a producer for the London record company AMI International (Red Bus Recording Studios) and the film studio Cinevilla (Jūrmala). He is a member of the Latvian Composers’ Union (as of 1994), was a chairman of the board (2004-2009), and is a member of the Performing Right Society in London (as of 1998), and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society in London (as of 2003).
Music performed in Latvia, many other European countries, Japan, USA, Canada and Australia. Missa Rigensis is included in the repertoire of many well-known world choirs.

Commissioned Works

The Way Children Sleep (2017)

Stabat Mater (2019)

Paul Mealor has been described as ‘the most important composer to have emerged in Welsh choral music since William Mathias‘ (New York Times, 2001) and his music is ‘marked by something outside of himself that is beautifully spatial and evocative of landscape… it illuminates both our past and our future‘ (The Guardian, 2011).

Topping the Classical Charts for six weeks with his bestselling album, A Tender Light (featuring Tenebrae Choir and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) in November 2011, he also broke records by being the first classical composer to hold both the classical and pop chart No 1’s at the same time in December 2011, securing the UK Christmas No 1 with his piece for The Military Wives Choir and Gareth Malone, Wherever You Are. Wherever You Are entered the UK Pop Singles Chart at number 1 on 19th December, selling over 556,000 copies in one week, more than the rest of the Top 12 combined, and was nominated for Best British Single in the 2012 BRIT Awards. It has been named, by the Official Charts Company as, the fastest selling single since Elton John’s Candle in the Wind. Also, in April of 2012 Mealor was voted the nation’s favorite living composer during the UK Classic FM Hall of Fame.

Born in St Asaph, North Wales in 1975, Paul Mealor studied composition privately as a boy with William Mathias and later with John Pickard, and at the University of York with Nicola LeFanu (BA Hons, 1997, PhD, 2002) and in Copenhagen with Hans Abrahamsen and Per Nørgård. His music has been commissioned and performed at many festivals and by many orchestras and choruses and has been broadcast on every major TV and Radio station throughout the world. Since January 2003 he has taught in the Music Department at the University of Aberdeen where he is Professor of Composition.

Mealor was catapulted to international stardom in April 2011, when 2.5 billion people (the largest audience in broadcasting history) heard his Motet, Ubi caritas performed by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, conducted by James O’Donnell at the Royal Wedding Ceremony of His Royal Highness Prince William and Catherine Middleton (now TRH The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge) at Westminster Abbey. It since topped the Classical singles charts in the USA, UK, Australia, France and New Zealand.

Commissioned Work

To Seek Where Shadows Are (2015)