ELENA SHARKOVA, U.S.A.

Re-imagining your choral rehearsal and performance

Can you imagine a choir room without chairs where singers move freely, using physical improvisation to learn and interpret choral music? What would your choir sound like if every chorister could sit, stand, move, and sing with the original alignment and breath while feeling light, invigorated, calm, free and confident to explore any genre of music?

In this session, Elena Sharkova and members of Cantabile Youth Singers will lead attendees in series of interactive exercises that nurture and train singers of all ages and abilities as well as beginning and advanced conductors.

The practice of “embodying the sound” helps singers to internalize all elements of music on a deeper somatic level, to develop healthy vocal technique and solid memory, and to awaken a keen intuition in interpretation of music.

The improvisational and interactive nature of this practice deepens the interpersonal relationships in choirs as they build trust between singers and the conductor. Through this experience, choirs greatly improve their abilities to communicate with audiences and to break barriers of any kind – cultural, social, gender, age, or language related while expressing themselves in sound.

Russian-American conductor Elena Sharkova was born in St. Petersburg and holds a graduate degree in conducting from Rimski-Korsakov State Conservatoire. Residing in the US since 1993, Elena has had a busy career as choir and orchestra director, university professor, lecturer, and music editor. At home in San Jose, California, she is the chorus master for the fully-professional Symphony Silicon Valley and Artistic Director of Cantabile Youth Singers, a choral organization with 300 singers ages 4-18.  Ms. Sharkovaregularly appears with professional artists: career highlights include directing Grammy-Award winning male choir Chanticleer in 2012 and 2014, 2016 residency with the BBC Singers at the Barbican Center (Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil), conducting series of concerts with Seraphic Fire (USA),as well as collaborations and projects with the Kronos Quartet, Houston Chamber Choir, Stanford Symphony, Ballet San Jose, and American actor Ryan Gossling.

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Ms. Sharkova enjoys working with people of all ages and abilities and has conducted in seventeen countries on three continents. She advocates passionately for the importance of informal singing and building communities through joyful and meaningful music-making, combining singing with movement and improvisation. In association with Carl Fischer Music Publishing, Sharkova edits and promotes 20th-21st century Russian choral music.

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