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MELODIA! 2008
Guest Conductor
Dr. Doreen Rao
 Doreen Rao's distinguished career as conductor and master teacher links the standards of professional performance with the goals of music education. Celebrated for her spirited and moving concerts, Rao's commitment to choral music education is recognized in her innovative programming, teaching initiatives, worldwide conducting appearances and her award winning publications with Boosey & Hawkes. Rao holds the University of Toronto Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting. As the Director of Choral Programs, Dr. Rao founded the Faculty of Music's Centre for Advanced Studies in Choral Music which supports and enriches the Faculty's ensemble and conducting programs, hosts the Elmer Iseler Singers and sponsors the International Bach Festival with Helmuth Rilling. Rao conducts the award-winning University of Toronto MacMillan Singers and Chamber Choirs, leads the University's graduate program in conducting, and teaches graduate research and philosophy courses related to music performance in education.
Recognized as one of the world's leading experts on children and youth choirs, Doreen Rao founded and chaired the ACDA National Committee for Children's Choirs, pioneering work that inspired the children's choir movement in America. In a national tribute presented to her by the American Choral Director's Association, eminent American conductor Robert Shaw wrote, "The world of choral music owes her special thanks. She is preparing our future." During Rao's long association with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, she served as assistant conductor to her mentor Margaret Hillis and prepared choruses for concerts and Grammy Award-winning recordings with Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, and James Levine. Her choirs also performed on numerous occasions with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival.
 Following her undergraduate education at the University of Illinois, Rao spent the first years of her career in Chicago singing professionally and teaching choral music in the schools. She served as Music Director and Conductor of the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus, an ensemble that performed and recorded regularly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Rao's innovative Sing with the Symphony school and family concerts were first introduced by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to actively involve audiences in listening as performers. In a pioneering career of "firsts," Rao conducts honor choirs, all-state choirs and festival choirs for numerous national and international conferences, associations and performance organizations around the world.
Doreen Rao is the Founding Director of the CME Institute for Choral Teacher Education, an internationally acclaimed professional development program for conductors, composers, choirs and teachers. She is also the Artistic Director and Conductor of the New Millennium Festival Concerts, an innovative peacemaking initiative with concert series in New York, Toronto and London.
Dr. Rao served as Guest Conductor for Classical Movements' inaugural Melodia! South American Music Festival in 2006. We are pleased that she is returning to conduct Melodia! 2008, and look ahead to her leadership in Melodia! 2010.
MELODIA! 2009
Guest Conductor
María Guinand
 Grammy-nominated María Guinand conducts the Cantoría Alberto Grau, the Orfeón Universitario Simón Bolívar, and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela. She has conducted the World Youth Choir, as well as numerous performances around the world of La Pasión segun San Marcos (St. Mark Passion) composed by Osvaldo Golijov.
Guinand is widely known from her association with the La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark Passion) composed by Osvaldo Golijov. The piece was commissioned by Helmuth Rilling to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the death of J. S. Bach. It was premiered at the 2000 European Music Festival with the Schola Cantorum de Caracas (now of Venezeula) and the Orquesta La Pasión. Infused with the rhythms of both the popular and classical music of Latin America, La Pasión is a singular work and has been performed around the world under Guinand's direction.
Hänssler released a recording of the Golijov’s Pasión in 2001, and a new recording by Deutsche Grammophonis is forthcoming. For her Golijov's Pasión según San Marcos recording, Guinand was nominated to the 2001 Grammy Award in the Best Choral Performance category and to the 2002 Latin Grammy Award in the Best Classical Album category.
- Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Music, University of Bristol, England.
- Choral Conductor Diploma from the Youth Orchestra Academy in Caracas.
- Professor of Music at the University Simón Bolívar in Caracas.
- Conducts the Cantoría Alberto Grau, the Orfeón Universitario Simón Bolívar, and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela.
- Edited a series of Latin American choral pieces available from Earthsongs.
Guinand has also served as:
- Dean of the Jose Angel Lamas Music School and the University Simón Bolívar in Caracas.
- Conductor of the Festivalensemble Choir for The European Music Festival from 2001 to 2004.
- Served on the Executive Committee of the International Music Council of UNESCO.
- Vice President for Latin America in the International Federation for Choral Music.
- Principal Organizer of the Americas Cantat III held in Caracas in 2000.
Itinerary subject to change
Venues are tentative and may be replaced with similar alternatives
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