Ep. 152 - Developing Choral Skills in All Vocal Styles - Tiago Marques

"I have to say that the best experience was to conduct choirs on many levels, with amateurs who loved what they did, it was a pleasure working with them just because of that, and also working with higher-level groups and being able to do other things. I started teaching children from 6 years old up to 20. I had non-auditioned groups and more advanced students. That for me was my best teaching experience."

Tiago Marques studied Piano, Guitar, Singing and Choral Conducting at the Academia de Amadores de Música (AAM) and the Escola Artística de Música do Conservatório Nacional (EAMCN), Portugal's largest and most prestigious school in primary to secondary music education. Between 1992 and 1996 he got a Bachelor's Degree in Composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (ESML), studying under Christopher Bochmann and António Pinho Vargas.

Between 1997 and 2002 he studied Choir Conducting at the Utrechts Conservatorium and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under Daniel Reuss, Jos Vermunt and Jos van Veldhoven. His Bachelor's Degree's final exam included both classical music and close-harmony (jazz, latin and pop music for vocal ensembles), a genre in which he has been specializing for many years while singing in, conducting and writing for several choirs and vocal groups. He followed summer courses and workshops in this genre with, among others, Darmon Meader, Peter Eldridge, Kim Nazarian and Lauren Kinhan (New York Voices), Michele Weir and Phil Mattson (P.M. Singers), Anders Edenroth and Peder Karlson (The Real Group), Ward Swingle and Jonathan Rathbone (The Swingle Singers) and Jens Johanssen (Vocal Line). In 2011 and 2012 he got two Master's Degrees in Choral Conducting (both Performance and Teaching) at the ESML.

Between 1994 and 1997 he taught Choir, Chamber Music and Harmony and Musical Analysis at the AAM and the Escola de Música do Orfeão de Leiria. Since 2005 he has been a Choir teacher at EAMCN, heading the Ensemble Music Department since 2024.

In Portugal, the Netherlands and Czechia he conducted several choirs and sang in high level ensembles of music genres such as early music, opera, contemporary and close-harmony. At the moment he conducts Musaico, an advanced choir in the EAMCN, and Coro da Ermida, both of which have been gold medallists in international competitions.

Tiago Marques is also a composer and arranger, having a number of works performed and recorded by choirs and vocal ensembles in Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Czechia, as well as an award at the International Vocal Group Festival in Tilburg (2004) for Best Arrangement.

To get in touch with Tiago, you can find him on Facebook (@tpnmarques).

Email choirfampodcast@gmail.com to contact our hosts.

Podcast music from Podcast.co
Photo in episode artwork by Trace Hudson