Elaine Quilichini is recognized for her exceptional musicianship and distinguished work with choral ensembles. As a Master of Music (Kodály Emphasis), she is in demand as a clinician, lecturer, adjudicator and guest conductor across Canada, the United States, Brazil, Japan, Europe and Australia.

In 1995, Ms. Quilichini founded the Calgary Girls Choir, one of Canada’s most dynamic and award-winning ensembles. She has an active private music studio. Ms. Quilichini was the conductor of the University of Calgary Women’s Choir for over ten years. A notable indication of Ms. Quilichini’s stature in the choral community is her choral series published by Alliance Music Publishing, Houston, Texas.

She was a recipient of the Alberta Choral Federation’s ‘con spirito’ award for her contributions to the choral arts. In 2003 Ms. Quilichini made her debut as maestro at Carnegie Hall with the Calgary Girls Choir directing the choral concert A Tribute to Peace and Freedom.

Ms. Quilichini was a member of the first faculty of the International Summer Academy of Choral Conducting and Music Pedagogy in Las Palmas, Canary Islands and is the Artistic Director of the Nebraska Wesleyan University and the Wichita State University summer choral programs. She also continues to serve at the New England Conservatory in Boston as conductor of their youth and children's choral summer program.

Ms. Quilichini has been privileged to conduct numerous provincial and state honour choirs, the high school choir at the Asian Pacific Activities Conference in Osaka, Japan, and has twice been the conductor of the National Honor Choir for the Organization of Kodály Educators. Ms. Quilichini was an adjudicator/lecturer at Concurso Ansilta in San Juan, Argentina in 2008 and most recently was the guest lecturer at the Boston Area Kodaly Educators Conference in Boston Mass. Ms. Quilichini was honoured to serve as the conductor of a City-wide youth choir at the Dalai Lama’s appearance in Calgary on September 30, 2009.

Ms. Quilichini has accepted invitations in 2010 to conduct the Children's Honor Choirs at both the Eastern and North Central Division Regional Conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, as well as the Virginia Organization of Kodály Educators (VOKE) Children’s Choir Festival in Fairfax.

Ms. Quilichini received a very special honour this fall, named by Global Television as a Woman of Vision. This award celebrates women whose passion, talent and commitment is reflected in their achievements, notable as distinguished Calgarians.


Teach a Child to Read: The Recipe for a Lifelong Relationship with MusicThis session will be a discussion of the importance of developing musical literacy in the rehearsal setting and ways in which to accomplish this. Rehearsal time is always so precious and as conductors we often feel the pressure to prepare the music for up-coming performances.

This leads us to feel we don’t have the time we need to teach our singers to read. Often music theory is taught separately and becomes an exercise that our students don’t see as being connected to real music. This session will help you develop strategies for pulling music reading skills directly from the music you are working on and will inspire you to continually work toward developing independent, literate singers. Who wouldn’t want that?
We all know that ultimately the accomplishment of that goal will increase the level of our own music making and the satisfaction and joy our singers experience. That joy and personal independence will lead singers to have a lifelong love of singing and the confidence to pursue it in future situations.

“Teach a man to fish and he will never be hungry” is an expression we all understand. I believe we might very well say, “teach a child to read music and they will always make music.”

Elaine Quilichini

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