Silvère van Lieshout is the Director of the Academy of Vocal Arts in The Hague. He conducts the Academy’s ‘Musicanti’ Children’s Choir, the ‘Cantamare’ Vocal Ensemble and chamber choir ACVA VOCES. Silvère van Lieshout started his career as a conductor in Helmond. From 1986 to 2003 he worked for the National Choir Institute as a staff member for Children and Youth choirs. He conducted for instance the Rotterdam Boys’ Choir, the Netherlands Children’s Choir and the Netherlands Youth Choir.

As well as conducting, he also is the author of Jongleren (Learn Whilst You’re Young), the music course book that is widely used in the Netherlands and Belgium to teach children and adults sight singing. For his services to children’s choirs he was made an Ambassador of the leading European Youth Music Festival and decorated as a knight by the Dutch Crown.

The JOVENS CANTORES DE GUIMARÃES (JCG) choir was born in 2011 in Sociedade Musical de Guimarães /Conservatorio de Guimarães, a small industrial city in the north of Portugal that was European Cultural Capital in 2012. The singers of JCG are between 10 and 18 years of age and attend an extracurricular choral programme that offers the practice of choral music as a means for musical development. From 2013 to 2015 JCG staged concerts in extraordinary architectural venues under the name of JCG no patrimonio which was supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture. The choir has strong bounds with the local community but also sing concerts throughout Portugal and abroad.

The Schedrik Choir of the Gymnasium am Oelberg in Oberpleis was founded in 1992 by Irina and Pavel Brochin. Today the concert choir, the Schedrik Juniors, and the girls’ choir are part of the Schedrik family as well. Their repertoire unites works from all ages and genres, ranging from early polyphonic vocal music to Classical music and Romanticism to contemporary music.

The choir have been awarded several national and international awards, including the 2^nd prize at the 6^th German Choral Competition and the Golden Diploma at the 7^th Cantemus Choral Festival Nyíregyháza, Hungary, and sung at festivals both in and outside Germany.

The Schedrik Choir have been part of YOUTH CHOIRS IN MOVEMENT since the festival’s first edition in 2008.