Irina Brochin was born in Moscow where she received her education in conducting and music pedagogy at the School of Music of the Conservatory of Moscow and the Institute of Music Pedagogy. She founded her first choir at the age of 19 which she conducted until her departure for Germany in 1991.

Today Irina Brochin conducts several choirs in the region south of Cologne, ranging from children’s choirs to an aphasia choir, and she often leads seminars and workshops on choral singing. She also performs as a soloist and works as a voice coach.

Karina Schwarz was born in Moscow. After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory “P. I. Tchaikovsky” with a degree in choral conducting, she had worked in journalism, both in broadcasting and print media. In 2000 she moved to Cologne, after an invitation by Deutsche Welle. While working, she studied voice at the Cologne University of Music and subsequently trained as a vocal coach at the University of Osnabrück.

She works as a choral conductor, freelance singer and vocal coach in the field of solo and opera singing. For six years she has been working as a vocal coach and deputy conductor of the children’s choir at the Opera of Frankfurt where she coaches also children soloists.

Utrecht’s Cathedral Choir School is a Dutch Primary School with a special quality: alongside traditional subjects such as mathematics and language the children also receive three music lessons a week.

The Choir School was founded in 1959 to offer vocal training to young boys who could also provide the treble and alto lines in The Cathedral Choir of St Catherine’s Cathedral, Utrecht. In the meantime, The Choir School, has opened its doors to girls and the school has broadened the spectrum of its musical education beyond specialising in church music. Alongside their obligations at the cathedral the children perform on diverse podia.

In 2016 The Choir School began a partnership with The Royal Conservatory of The Hague with the school acting as practical example school for the study of The Kodaly Music Method. The principal of Kodaly’s method is that through the development of “the inner ear” all children can sing, play, read, write and fully understand music.

The Artistic directors of The Utrecht Choir School are Daniël Salbert and Margareth Iping.

Around 40 children from 5 to 13 years of age are part of the he children’s choirs of the Beethoven Music School of the City of Bonn. They rehearse in different age groups, including two boys’ choir groups, conducted since 1998 by Irina Brochin. They perform mostly during concerts of the music school but they also stage own concerts and projects, most recently the children’s opera ‘The Giant’ by Sergei Prokofiev. The children’s choirs of the Beethoven Music School have been part of YOUTH CHOIRS IN MOVEMENT since the festival’s first edition.