|
The German conductor, Harald Jers, graduated in choral and orchestral conducting with Volker Hempfling and Lutz Herbig, singing with Alastair Thompson, music pedagogy Sek II/I (major singing), church music (A exam), physics (diploma and teacher Sec II / I) and mathematics in Aachen, Cologne, Stockholm and Düsseldorf. To deepen his skills in conducting, he has participated in several international master-classes with the renowned Frieder Bernius, Eric Ericson, László Heltay, Peter Erdei, Eva Kollár, Wolfgang Schäfer, Max Frey and Georg Grün, among others. He has also been conductor and participant of master-classes at the Bavarian Radio Choir in Munich.
Harald Jers’ activities as a conductor, singer, organist and accompanist took him on concert tours to Sweden, Finland, England, Scotland, France, Spain, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, China and the USA.
From 1995 to 2004 Harald Jers was leader and singer of the vocal Jazz group Picanto. At present he is the conductor of the Chamber Choir of Melanchthon-Church in Cologne. He is founder and conductor of CONSONO chamber choir. The choir consists of about 28-35 singers from all over Germany and reheases regularly at 7 to 9 weekends during the year in Cologne. A special trademark of this chior is to work out interesting unknown a-cappella-repertoire by romantic and contemporary composers from all over the world. CONSONO received several national and international first prizes at highly respectible choir competitions.
Harald Jers has won many prizes, among which 2nd prize at International Choir Competition of Belgium with Chamber Choir CONSONO and final round participant at the 2nd International Competition for Young choral Conductors in Tallinn, Estonia.
Harald Jers lectures at the Cologne College of Music (since 2005) and several other music academies, as well as at the bishoprics of Aachen and Cologne. In addition, he is guest lecturer at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and jury member at choir competitions. He teaches choral conducting, solo singing, voice training and acoustics; furthermore, he gives conducting courses in connection with choir acoustics at international symposiums and conferences. His intensive research in the field of music and room acoustics has led to important analysis results of the choral singing voice. In 2004 he secured a research contract from the European Commission at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and in November 2005 he was awarded the first prize for his research of "Acoustical Society of America" in musical acoustics.
Harald Jers researches in in the field of musical acoustics and room acoustics, which lead to important scientific basics of the analysis of the human voice in choirs. This acoustic knowledge is combined with his professional skills as conductor and singer during his rehearsals with amateur and professional choirs.
His publications include:
1998-1999 Institute of Technical Acoustics at RWTH Aachen: Diploma thesis in physics, research in room and choir acoustics
1999-2003 University of Cologne: Research in systematic musicology
2004 Royal Institut of Technology Stockholm (Sweden): Research in choir acoustics (Department of Speech, Music and Hearing), Marie-Curie-Fellowship of the European Comission
2006 University of York (England): Research
2009 University of Texas San Antonio |
