Petra Grassi (1988) was born in Trieste (Italy) as a member of the Slovenian minority. After graduating in piano and music pedagogy at the Academy of Music Conservatorio Tartini of Trieste, she received a scholarship at the Academy of Music of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Since 2012 she has been a member of the Italian Youth Choir (Coro Giovanile Italiano).
In February 2015 she won the 1st Prize in the National Choral Conducting Competition “Le mani in suono” in Arezzo (IT) and received a special prize as the youngest conductor in the final round.
At the International competition for young choral conductors organized by the Europa Choral Association in Torino 2015, she won the 3th prize and the prize for the best conductor according to the audience.
She is the conductor of the vocal ensemble Vikra from Trieste and the Children choir Krasje, and for the 2017/18 season, is guest conductor of chamber choir Dekor from Ljubljana. With the female choir Kraški slavček – Krasje (Trieste) she got several national and international awards.
Visa Yrjölä (Finland, b. 1992) studies in the master’s programme of choral conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and is spending the summer semester of 2017 doing exchange studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. He is the artistic director of two award-winning groups, the Euga Male Voice Choir and the Kaamos Chamber Choir.
In 2013, the Tampere Vocal Music Festival awarded him a special prize for a young and promising conductor. Visa Yrjölä participated in the first Tenso masterclasses for conductors in 2015, working with Cappella Amsterdam, the Helsinki Chamber Choir and the Netherlands Chamber Choir.
link to the site of Visa’s choir
In addition to the two candidates of the Tenso pool of conductors, two master students of Grete Pedersen will get the chance to work with Zbor HRT.
Julia Selina Blank (DE, 1989) is currently studying choral conducting with Grete Pedersen at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. Previously she studied with Fredrik Malmberg in Stockholm and Michael Gläser in Munich. Since 2017 she is a scholar of the Dirigentenforum des Deutschen Musikrats where she worked with Philharmonic Choir Berlin and WDR radio choir.
She founded the Young Vocal Ensemble Munich (Junges Vokalensemble München) that she conducts since 2014. Since 2015 the ensemble is engaged as guest performers at the German theatre Münchner Kammerspiele. Besides performing solo in Lied and oratory she was also member of many ensembles such as the Bavarian State Youth Choir, the Philharmonic Choir Munich and the World Youth Choir.
Tobias Stückelberger (born 1993, Switzerland) is currently working for a master degree with Grete Pedersen in Oslo, after studying with Raphael Immoos in Basel.
He conducts the semiprofessional ensemble Junger Kammerchor Basel (Young chamber choir of Basel) with whom he performs classical and contemporary choral music. As part of his studies he assists the det Norske Solistkor. He was assistant of the Swiss Youth Choir and member of the World Youth Choir.
A further interest lies in the field of music theater and interdisciplinary projects. He has worked as musical director and stage director of numerous scenic productions, ranging from Mozart Operas to contemporary, experimental performances.