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Thierry Thiebaut led a choir conducting training in Kinshasa, DR Congo (March 2012)

This project of Conductors Without Borders (CWB) was organized by the Congolese Federation for Choral Music, A Coeur Joie International (ACJI) and the International Federation for Choral Music.

Since December 2009 four training sessions have been organized in Kinshasa. Eleven trainees attended those sessions and two received their teaching certificates.

The recent sessions in March had two main aims: to complete the training of the choral conductors who commenced it in June 2010 and, to begin a new cycle of training lead by the two newly awarded trainees, with the assistance of Mr. Thiébaut. Nineteen new conductors and six conductors of the previous sessions attended the meeting with a choir in residence present every afternoon for practical experience.

Following Mr. Thiébaut’s suggestion, the two new instructors will lead the next sessions planned two times a year, under the guidance of an ACJI trainer. Meanwhile they will also organize four training weekends with the same group of trainees in order to develop some of the basic musical skills.

In the future, the locally trained instructors will organise decentralized sessions where there is a structural support and a greater potential to develop more choral conductors. A project to have children’s choirs conducting training is also under consideration.