Jury for the Eric Ericson Award 2024

Justin Doyle
Justin Doyle is the chairman of the jury for the Eric Ericson Award, chief conductor, and artistic director of the RIAS Chamber Choir. He is a sought-after opera and orchestra conductor, guest professor of choral conducting at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, and guest lecturer at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Previously, he was the chief conductor for the University of Manchester Choir and the Essex Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director for the Ryedale and Swaledale festivals.
As a guest conductor, he has performed with the Hallé Orchestra, Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He has received critical acclaim for his opera conducting, including Mozart's Così fan tutte, Britten's Albert Herring, and Offenbach's Fantasio. With the RIAS Chamber Choir, he recorded albums featuring choral works by Benjamin Britten and music by German-Jewish composers with cantor Azi Schwartz.
He has traveled extensively in Africa, particularly Kenya and Ethiopia, arranging African folk songs for choirs. He sang in the Westminster Cathedral Choir as a child and studied music at King's College and the University of Cambridge.

Krista Audere
Krista Audere is regularly engaged as a guest conductor for the Dutch Chamber Choir, Dutch Radio Choir, and Cappella Amsterdam. Since winning the Eric Ericson Award in 2021, she has continued to work with professional choirs across Europe. In the 2023/2024 season, she has engagements with the Latvian State Choir, Hungarian Radio Choir, Bavarian Radio Choir, Danish National Vocal Ensemble, WDR Radio Choir Cologne, SWR Vocal Ensemble Stuttgart, and BBC Singers.
Krista Audere (born 1989) graduated from Riga with qualifications as a choir master and singer. She then earned a bachelor's degree in choral conducting from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music while enriching her musical experience at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart.
In 2016, Krista earned her master's degree, graduating "cum laude" from the Amsterdam University of the Arts. As a singer, she has collaborated with the Latvian Radio Choir and Cappella Amsterdam.
Martina Batič
Martina Batič is a leading choral conductor, praised for her versatility. She won the Eric Ericson Award in 2006 and has served as chief conductor for the Chœur de Radio France (2018-2022) and the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir. In the 2023/2024 season, she will be the chief conductor for the Danish Vocal Ensemble in Copenhagen.
She has guest-conducted ensembles like the RIAS Chamber Choir, MDR Radio Choir, SWR Vocal Ensemble, and the Swedish Radio Choir. Future engagements include the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Gulbenkian Orchestra & Choir, and Rundfunkchor Berlin.
Martina has conducted at festivals such as the Baltic Sea Festival and Ultima Oslo. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Ljubljana and her master's from the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. In 2019, she received the Slovenian national award "Prešeren Fund Awards" for her achievements in choral conducting.
Sofia Niklasson
Sofia Niklasson joined the Swedish Radio Choir in 2003 and has been a regular member and part of the soprano section since 2010. Besides her role in the Radio Choir, she is active as a soloist, particularly in early and contemporary music.
She is often engaged as a soprano soloist in major church music works, such as Handel's Messiah, Bach's oratorios, and Mozart's Requiem. She has also participated in several premieres, including Sven-David Sandström's St. Matthew Passion at the Berlin Philharmonic.
Sofia has performed with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gävle and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestras, Gothenburg Baroque, and the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, among others. She is a dedicated ensemble singer and enjoys exploring a cappella repertoire from all eras with smaller vocal ensembles like Ecstatic Ensemble and Vokalharmonin, with whom she regularly performs.
Kaspars Putniņš
Kaspars Putniņš has been the music director of the Radio Choir since the 2020–2021 season. He is also the artistic director and chief conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and has been the permanent conductor of the Latvian Radio Choir since 1994.
As a guest conductor, he collaborates with ensembles such as the RIAS Chamber Choir, NDR Choir Hamburg, DR Vocal Ensemble, BBC Singers, Tokyo Cantat, and the Netherlands Radio Choir. Putniņš is known for his interpretations of Renaissance polyphonic choral works and Romantic music, but he is especially dedicated to promoting contemporary choral music. Through close collaborations with various Nordic and Baltic composers, he has set high standards for performances and recordings of new choral works.
He has performed works by composers like Maija Einfelde, Mārtiņš Viļums, Toivo Tulev, Lasse Thoresen, and Gavin Bryars. He has also led various stage projects where his choir singers collaborate with actors and visual artists. His acclaimed recordings include works by Schnittke and Pärt with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, earning both a Gramophone Award and a Diapason d’Or.
Erik Westberg
Erik Westberg is an award-winning choral conductor and, since 2003, a professor of choral conducting and singing at the Department of Arts, Communication, and Learning at Luleå University of Technology. In 1993, he founded the Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble, which has commissioned and premiered around fifty works by Swedish and international composers, conducted over forty tours, and made numerous recordings.
He has also led the Oslo Philharmonic Choir and the YMCA Choir in Stockholm, and has been a guest conductor for the Radio Choir, Pro Coro Canada, the Spanish National Choir, and the São Paulo City Symphony Choir. He initiated the "Choral Singing for Peace and Justice" project, involving 8,000 choir singers in 56 countries, and the Barents Choir Center project, engaging professional singers from Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Russia.
Erik has received several awards, including the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's conductor scholarship in 1992 and H.M. The King's Medal in 2006. He studied choral conducting under Professor Eric Ericson at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.
Friederike Woebcken
Friederike Woebcken studied music education, choral conducting, and English in Freiburg and Glasgow, and took an advanced choral conducting course with Eric Ericson in Stockholm. She was appointed professor of choral conducting at the University of the Arts Bremen in 1998, where she led the chamber choir on tours to many countries and participated in numerous competitions and festivals.
She retired from the University of the Arts Bremen in 2020. Since 1990, Friederike has been the music director of Madrigalchor Kiel, regularly touring in Germany and abroad. Through various CD recordings and regular master classes at Nordkolleg Rendsburg, she has enhanced the ensemble's excellent reputation. From 1996 to 2000, she and Eric Ericson held master classes in choral conducting at Nordkolleg Rendsburg, resulting in well-received concerts at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
Friederike's ideals and vision of perfect choral sound, as well as her love for Nordic repertoire, were shaped by her studies in Stockholm and her long collaboration with Eric Ericson. She has international contacts through concerts, seminars, and symposia and is regularly invited as a judge in choral competitions. Through the Erasmus program, she has taught at various universities, including Leipzig, Vienna, Gothenburg, Piteå, and Lisbon. Since 2017, she has been a member of the artistic board for the International German-Scandinavian Music Week in Scheersberg near the German-Danish border. In 2002, she received the City of Kiel's Cultural Prize. In 2023, she and Madrigalchor Kiel were awarded the Brahms Award by the Brahms Society.

Eric Ericson Award
The world's leading choral conductor competition for young conductors under 36 years old.
About Eric Ericson
Sweden is a leading choral nation with an estimated over half a million practitioners, and we can thank, among others, Eric Ericson for this.
About The Swedish Radio Choir
The Swedish Radio Choir was founded in 1925, the same year as the Swedish Radio. The choir still operates with its 32 professional singers according to the original idea: to let the whole country enjoy high-quality music.
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