Summer singing is in full swing.
The World Choir Festival, Hong Kong
Ran from 12 to 16 July, bringing choirs together for competition, concerts, friendship events, workshops and masterclasses. Alongside the International Choir Competition, the programme included Starry Concerts, Friendship Concerts, interactive workshops and masterclasses. This year’s resident choral artists included Latvia’s acclaimed Youth Choir Kamēr…, the Toronto Children’s Chorus, the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, Guangzhou Children’s Choir and the Hong Kong Children’s Choir – a genuinely international line-up spanning youth, children’s and chamber choral traditions.
It is a useful reminder that the summer choral calendar is not only about competitions. Festivals like this also give singers the chance to hear very different choral traditions at close quarters, work with visiting conductors and teachers, and build connections well beyond their own ensembles.
The ZêzereArts Festival choral programme
Begins on 18 July in Tomar. Its full programme runs to 25 July, with two programmes of choral music, daily rehearsals and three concerts under Aoife Hiney and Brian MacKay, supported by professional singers from ZAVE. The week includes performances in historic settings with repertoire ranging from Marianna Martines and Haydn to Copland, Coleridge-Taylor and André J. Thomas.
For singers who like the idea of combining an intensive choral week with a summer trip to Portugal, it is worth watching for details of the 2027 course when applications open.
ZêzereArts website
Conference: AOTOS Summer 2026 – What we carry in silence
The Association of Teachers of Singing – AOTOS – is holding its 2026 Summer Conference in Edinburgh this weekend, with the thought-provoking theme What We Carry in Silence.
The three-day programme looks at some of the subjects that can easily remain unspoken in singing lessons and professional life: vocal difficulty, menopause and hormonal change, burnout, wellbeing and the complex relationship between voice and identity.
Among the sessions is Dr Jenevora Williams’s Voicelessness – the paradox of protection, alongside research into singing through and beyond menopause and presentations spanning voice science, acoustics and practical teaching.
It is an interesting direction for a singing-teachers’ conference: less about finding one more technical “fix”, and more about understanding what singers may be carrying with them into the studio – physically, psychologically and vocally.
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