Congratulations to Mark Vuorinen of Conrad Grebel University College for winning the Ontario Arts Council's Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting. He is an assistant professor in Grebel's Department of Music and also artistic director of Kitchener-Waterloo’s Grand Philharmonic. The $10,000 Leslie Bell Prize is awarded every two years to an emerging professional conductor.
WATERLOO REGION — Conducting choirs isn't as simple as it looks.
If a conductor wants a smooth sound or an agitated one, there is a gesture to make it happen, says Mark Vuorinen, winner of this year's Leslie Bell award for choral conducting.
The local choir conductor and music professor at Conrad Grebel University College at University of Waterloo was over the moon when he got the news.
"It's good news to share," he said.
The award is handed out every two years by the Ontario Arts Council and is given to an emerging professional choral conductor and comes with a $10,000 prize.
For Vuorinen, it couldn't come at a better time.
He is going to spend a year in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on sabbatical and plans to study music.
The Baltic is a place where choirs and singing are a rich part of the cultural heritage, he explained. [...] Read more in The Record.