Advanced course in choral conducting 7/2026

07.07.2026 00:00 - 10.07.2026 00:00

Registration ends: 23.06.2026 00:00 - If registration has already closed, please inquire about course places by calling 017 570 1810.

myyntipalvelu@valamo.fi, p. 017 5701 810

, 445€/Student hotel 1 room, incl. accommodation, tuition, meals, 430€/Guesthouse 1 room, incl. accommodation, tuition, meals, 340€/Guesthouse 1 room, incl. accommodation, tuition, meals

Kuva: Heikki Tuuli

Kuva: Heikki Tuuli

Course description

The aim of the course is to deepen students' abilities to work as choir directors. The course introduces students to the key areas of choir conducting, such as percussion technique, program analysis and practice, the use of vocal equipment, and teaching voice formation in a choir. The course is excellent for both experienced choir directors and assistant directors who already have experience in choir conducting. The teaching and work methods include practicing and conducting a program (4–5 pieces), lecture teaching, and video analysis. Participants are required to have previous experience in choir conducting and choral singing, as well as the ability to read music. Piano skills are useful. A maximum of 10 active students will be accepted for the course. An unlimited number of passive students can be accepted. There are no discounts on the course price for active course participants. The teacher is Mikko Sidoroff, Master of Music.

Price for active students 445 €/OH1, 430 €/VM1, for passive students 340 €/VM1 including tuition, accommodation and meals according to the program.

Course program

Rights to changes reserved

Teacher

Sidoroff Mikko

Mikko Sidoroff (born 1985) is a Finnish choirmaster and composer living in Germany. From autumn 2018 until 2022, he worked as the choirmaster of the Landestheater Coburg, where he was responsible for the training and conducting of the full-time opera choir and an additional choir consisting of amateurs. From 2023, Mikko Sidoroff moved to the Chorakademie in Dortmund, Europe's largest choral institute, where he conducts two adult choirs: the mixed choir Collegium Musicum and the Women's Choir, which will be established in spring 2023. At the beginning of the same year, Sidoroff was appointed artistic director of the Symphonischer Chor Bamberg, which consists mainly of professional singers.

Before moving to Germany, Sidoroff has conducted numerous choirs in Finland, the longest of which were the Turku University Choir and the Wiipurilainen Osakuntan Laulaji. In 2003, Sidoroff founded the Krysostomos Chamber Choir, which performs new Orthodox church music, and he continues to serve as its artistic director. In the summer of 2016, Sidoroff worked as a guest conductor in the Europa Cantat Euro Choir project and also performed as the choir's conductor at the 2018 Europa Cantat festival in Tallinn.

Mikko Sidoroff has extensive experience as a composer and choral pedagogue. He has taught choral conducting at the University of Eastern Finland, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Valamo Folk High School summer courses, and is currently at the Bundesakademie in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, and since March 2023 at the Technical University of Dortmund. He has written compositions for almost all of Finland's leading choirs and vocal ensembles. Sidoroff is published by the Finnish Singers and Musicians' Association, Sulasol ry.

Sidoroff graduated with a Master of Music degree from the Sibelius Academy in spring 2011, in the orchestral and choral conducting program, and continued his studies at the Mannheim University of Music. He has been taught by, among others, Matti Hyökki, Jani Sivén, and Harald Jers. In addition, Sidoroff has participated in master classes by, among others, Tatjana Hitrova, Kaspars Putniņš, Hans-Christoph Rademann, and Volker Hempfling.