Northwest High School Honor Choir Festival 2024

Enjoy a performance featuring high school students from throughout the region in a culminating concert as part of the School of Music's annual Northwest High School Honor Choir Festival. Featured guest clinician Elena Sharkova will conduct the choir performing the following works:

• Kyrie Eleison from “Missa Brevis” – Thwaites 

• O Solutaris Hostia in D major – Elgar 

• Cecílíada – Marcin Wawruk 

• My Guardian Angel – Judith Weir

• Where the Light Begins – Susan Labarr

• Freedom Train – Arr. Rollo Dillworth

Russian-American conductor Elena Sharkova has been the artistic director of Cantabile since 2004 and assumed the role of managing director in 2018. Under her leadership, the organization has grown from 80 to over 250 singers; has toured Denmark, Sweden, Spain, England, Ireland, France, Russia, Estonia, Finland, and Italy; performed at the American Choral Directors National (2019), Western Division (2016) and State (2018) Conferences; made two solo appearances on stage of Carnegie Hall; won gold medals at the 5th European Choir Games and the 2016 Golden State International Choral Trophy Competition; and released its first studio CD, Music Down in My Soul.

A native of St. Petersburg, Sharkova had a culturally and artistically rich upbringing and received rigorous professional training as a pianist since the age of 6. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music education and piano, and a graduate degree in conducting from the famed Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, alma mater to Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Schostakovich, Prokofiev, and Balanchin.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information about the festival, visit the Northwest High School Honor Choir website.