Tenso CONNECT Interns

1st Day This was my first time in Ireland and my first encounter with Chamber Choir Ireland. I arrived in Dublin early in the morning on the day of rehearsal, so I was a little tired, but that did not stop me from absorbing every bit of information from the very first day. My mentor is Gabriel Crouch. Already on the first day, I realized how much I would be able to learn from him. During rehearsal breaks, we discussed the repertoire, and he asked me to conduct a few excerpts from it in front of him. Afterwards, he gave me extremely useful feedback on my conducting. I greatly enjoyed watching him work with Chamber Choir Ireland. He was very friendly, yet at the same time demanding. As we studied the scores together, I discovered that our musical perceptions were very similar, as we had independently made identical markings in our…

And on the fifth day, my hectic time in Zagreb came to an end.

Today it was observation again at the rehearsal. The choir sang for longer sections of the pieces and polished few details before dress rehearsal and concert, happening Monday and Tuesday next week. It was also attended by the organist that will play Rheinberger together with the choir (how important it is to keep rehearsals with guest instrumentalist very direct to the point and to anticipate possible difficulties!). During breaks there were still some moments to exchange impressions with singers from different sections and to listen to their feedback on my conducting.

After rehearsal I joined my mentor M. Facini for a longer discussion about choral conducting as a profession, repertoire, the development of the Croatian Radiotelevision Choir, and the choral scene in Croatia.

After all these days in Zagreb, my head is full of new inputs,…