“I have a dream – to share love and peace with the world through choral music.”

Professor Leon Shiu Wai Tong is an internationally active conductor, educator and festival organiser with over 55 years of experience. He is Founding President of the World Youth Choral Artists Association, Artistic Director and Chairman of the World Choir Festival – Hong Kong, and former First Vice-President of the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM).

Professor Tong has received the Asian Cultural Council Scholarship, the China Children’s Choir Contribution Award and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council Award for Artistic Achievement (Music). He has served as conductor, lecturer and adjudicator at major international choral festivals and competitions, including the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing.

Since the 1970s, choirs under his direction have won nearly 80 first-prize gold awards in domestic and international competitions. He has organised numerous international choral festivals and exchange programmes, promoting cultural understanding through music. A strong advocate for children’s choral education and inclusion, he believes that every child has the right to sing and continues to use choral music to connect people, cultures and communities.

Rahela Durič is from a Slovenian town called Maribor, where she started her professional musical career. After graduating in violin, she decided to study choir and orchestra conducting under the watchful eye of Prof. Johannes Prinz and Prof. Wolfgang Dörner at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. She finished her masters with honors in 2013. In 2015 as part of the International Competition for young Conductors in Turin, she received the Noel Minet prize and funding for ‘A promising young conductor’. Since 2016 she is working as a senior lecturer for choir conducting under Prof. Johannes Prinz and from 2023 under Prof. Benjamin Lack, at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz. In 2019 She received the first prize, the audience prize and the prize for the best conductor according to the choir at the International competition Aegis Carminis for choral conductors in Koper, Slovenia. 

In October 2021 she took over the position of an artistic director from the renowned choir Akademski pevski zbor Tone Tomšič, Ljubljana. They won several prizes together such as: 1. place (Folksong), 2. Place (free programme) and a special prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary piece at the international Choir Competition in Spittal (Austria) in 2023. In 2024 they won the national Competition Naša Pesem in Slowenia and a special prize for the best interpretation of a renaissance piece. In 2025 they won the first prize at the International Baltic Sea Choir Competition in Jurmala, Latvia, together with three special prizes, one of them for the best Conductor. 

She is also leading and running several courses, singing weeks and seminars in choir schools across Europe. 

Jurģis Cābulis(1992) is a Latvian conductor and teacher, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Youth Choir Kamēr… and Artistic Director of the Mixed Choir of the Riga Cathedral Choir School. He is the winner of the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing 2025, a recipient of the Latvian Grand Music Award, and laureate of several prestigious international conducting and choral competitions. In 2024, he was named Conductor of the Year in Latvia. Cābulis is a Chief Conductor of the Latvian Song and Dance Celebration and is widely recognized for creating and leading innovative, large-scale concert productions that combine artistic excellence with original musical concepts. His work bridges the highest standards of choral excellence with bold, imaginative programming, bringing together contemporary creativity, Latvian musical heritage, and large-scale artistic storytelling.

Vilija Mažintaitė is a Lithuanian-born composer, conductor, and the founder and artistic director of the women’s choir “Viva.” In 2024, under her direction, women’s choir “Viva” made history by winning, for the first time in the history of the competition, the Grand Prix at the Lithuanian Adult Choir Competition, which ranks amateur choirs from all over Lithuania. By doing so, they became the best amateur choir in Lithuania, surpassing mixed choirs.
She has been one of the principal conductors of the Lithuanian Song Festival since 2018 and also serves on juries at various international competitions. She received the Best Conductor Award at the 7th International Baltic Sea Choir Competition in 2024.
V. Mažintaitė is one of Lithuania’s most prominent composers, whose works often incorporate elements and melodic intonations of Lithuanian folk music. Among her most notable compositions are:
The mystical cantata “Axis Mundi” (“The Axis of the World”)
The oratorio “JOY, HOPE AND LIGHT”
The military epic musical drama “Išeisiu ir ašei KARAN” (“I Will Go to War Too”)…

As a conductor, Valter Soosalu’s collaborations in 2026/2027 include concerts with Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Pärnu City Orchestra, Vantaa Viihdeorkesteri, Oulu Sinfonia, Estonian National Male Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and many more.

Soosalu is the keyboardist and singer in the rock ensemble Põhja Konn, whose self-titled debut album was launched in 2016. Their second LP “Hetk. Inspereeritud Tüürist”(2019) in collaboration with Ensemble Vox Clamantis and Estonian Cello Ensemble won the “Rock Album of the Year Award” and “Ensemble of the Year Award” at the 2020 Estonian Music Awards.

“My working life has always been diverse as a result of my unstable nature and happy coincidences,” says Valter, whose hobby of playing harpejji, which began seven years ago, now takes up almost half his time.

Harpejji is an electric instrument developed in 2007 by American sound engineer Tim Meeks. Its playing technique and sound are like a symbiosis of guitar and keyboard. It is still a rare and rather uncommon instrument today. Since March 2020, Valter Soosalu has been an endorsed artist of the only harpejji maker in the world – Marcodi Musical Products.