Festival Details

DATE: February 28, 2026

Hosted by California Lutheran University 

Thousand Oaks, CA
Dr. Franco Basili, Hosting Director

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The Festival Handbook and Forms can be viewed and downloaded at this link: https://pomona.app.box.com/s/9xz2pkmfap5xzfwe2ur6cly75mx0bodj

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UPCOMING FESTIVAL SITE HOSTS THROUGH 2030

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2026 Festival Information

Our 2026 Clinician is Cecilia Rydinger

Conductor and Artistic Director of the male voice choir Orphei Drängar

​of Sweden

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Professor Cecilia Rydinger is one of the leading figures in Swedish musical life. Since 2008, she has served as conductor and artistic director of the male voice choir Orphei Drängar (OD), with whom she performs regularly in Sweden and abroad, as well as on BIS recordings. Together with OD, Rydinger has led international tours to Japan, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Switzerland, the Nordic countries, and the Faroe Islands. In October 2026, the choir will tour Iceland. From 1988 to 2009, Rydinger was the conductor of the mixed choir Allmänna Sången, leading them to numerous international tours, recordings, and competition successes, including winning the 2005 European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in Varna, Bulgaria. The same year, the choir gave a noted performance at the Nobel Dinner in Stockholm. Rydinger was also principal conductor of the Wermland Opera from 1994 to 1998, where she earned recognition for her productions of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, Die Walküre,
and Tristan und Isolde. She is frequently invited to serve on juries for choral competitions around the world and acted as President of the Eric Ericson Award for international choral conductors in October 2021. She has taught masterclasses in choral conducting internationally, including sessions
with Professor Eric Ericson at the 2006 International Choral Festival in Lund. In 2012, she conducted the World Youth Choir summer session in Cyprus, and in 2024, she led the World Youth Choir Alumni performances at the Harbour Voices Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Rydinger is currently Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she also served as Vice-Chancellor from 2012 to 2019. In 2005, she received the Litteris et Artibus medal from H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf for her contributions to Swedish musical life, and in 2009 she was named Choir Conductor of the Year in Sweden. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.