European Youth Choir 2026

Enjoy singing with excellent conductors!

DONKA MITEVA (DE/BG) studied choral conducting at the State Academy of Music in Sofia and orchestra conducting at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf. She worked with numerous ensembles in Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, South Africa, Panama, China a.o.

Donka was awarded the 1st Prize at the 7th Int. Competition for young conductors in St. Petersburg and the 3rd Prize at the 5th Int. Conducting Competition Jeunesse Musicales in Bucharest. 2007-2011 she was a conductor and choir director at the State Opera in Münster, Germany and in 2011 she was appointed Artistic Director and Conductor of Collegium Musicum Berlin. She also teaches Conducting since 2019 at the University of Arts in Berlin. Donka has made it her mission to offer guidance and support to young choral and orchestra conductors, offering them opportunities to work with the Collegium Musicum Berlin Ensembles on a regular basis.

Donka is a sought-after clinician, adjudicator and workshop leader at many prestigious international events such as the World Choir Games, European Choir Games, Grand Prix of Nations and is also a member of the World Choir Council. As a singer, Donka was a member of the European Youth Choir, the World Youth Choir and the European Chamber Choir.

Last year, she was one of the conductors of the EuroChoir hosted in Bulgaria in July 2024.

PIERRE-LOUIS DELAPORTE (FR) is a French conductor, laureate of several international competitions. A graduate of the CNSMD in Lyon, where he studied under Nicole Corti and Lionel Sow, he has shaped his artistic identity through encounters with prominent figures such as Sofi Jeannin (at the Eric Ericson Award 2021, Sweden), Raphaël Pichon, and Grete Pedersen, as well as through his research into the threefold relationship between sound, listening, and space.

As a guest conductor and chorus master, he works with numerous ensembles, including the Radio France Choir, the NFM Chór in Wrocław, and the Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris. Recent projects have seen him collaborate with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, Alain Altinoglu, and Simone Young, in prestigious venues including the Philharmonie de Paris, Bozar in Brussels, and the Berlin Philharmonie.

Since the 2024–2025 season, he has served as Associate Conductor of the Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris (Philharmonie de Paris) and the Jeune Chœur de Paris (Artistic Director: Laurence Equilbey). He also teaches choral conducting at the Paris Regional Conservatory and leads several Parisian ensembles as Music Director.

Dates of session including concert tour: 9 – 21/08/2026
Place for rehearsal session: Montpellier, France

More information on concerts and repertoire will be pusblished around mid-February.

Who can apply?

• Young singers between 18 and 30 years old
• Citizens or residents of a European country
• Good singers ready to prepare scores in advance
• English will be the working language.

How to apply?

Applications has to be submitted through Mubazar here.

The deadline to apply is: 10 March 2026

The audition consists of:

• an audio recording (a capella) of the bars 1-24 for the Soprano, Alto, Tenor and for the Bass until bar 33 (with dynamics) of Johannes Brahms’s “Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Mühseligen” [Score available here]
• an audio recording of a solo song (Lied / art song or folk song) of your choice. The song has to be no more than 2-3 minutes long. It can be sung a capella or with accompaniment
• an audio recording (a capella) of the following warm up exercise (your singing range), starting from suitable key for the voice and then continue to show the full range of your voice:
  

Name of files: LastName_FirstName_filecontent (ex: Miteva_Donka_Brahms.mp3)

If you have applied for the European Youth Choir before, please produce a new recording

Every applicant will receive an email informing them whether or not they had been selected for the European Youth Choir Session 2026.