Joakim Olsson Kruse (SE)

Category: Repertoire/Didactic approaches

The absence of boys in choral singing is a worldwide  issue and children’s choirs are usually girls’ choirs. Conductors think that if they  advertise choirs as ”mixed” and with the slogan ”everybody welcome”, the boys will simply appear: But they don’t. This lecture discusses  identity, role-models, growing-as-chorister and different ways to  approach boys and girls in a choir.

JOAKIM OLSSON KRUSE (1975, SE) is a Swedish choral conductor and organist, working at the Västerås Cathedral. He studied church music, conducting and performance practice in Gothenburg and Amsterdam. Joakim is specialising in questions regarding the decreasing number of boys in choir singing, has built three all-male choirs (ages 7 to 27) and is a busy lecturer on boys’ choir management and on how to include boys in cultural activities. His book, “Boys in Choir – creating choral environments for boys, teenagers and young men”, was published in 2020. He is vice-chairman of the Church of Sweden Boys Choir Association.