Our Team

Freelance Musician, currently Visiting Professor of Organ and Church Music at the University of Kansas; Concert Organist, previously visiting professor at the music universities of Vienna and Graz; studied organ performance, church music, and musicology in Europe and the US; artistic director of numerous international music conferences. Concerts in most European countries, the US, China, Taiwan, Korea, Russia, the Middle East, etc.

R. Paul Crabb studied music education at Bethel College in Kansas, voice at Wichita State University, and choral music education at Florida State University. He has performed with his choirs worldwide and for two years directed an American guest choir as part of the Russian-American Choral Symposium at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1998-99 he was a visiting professor in Salzburg, and in 2001 he taught 18th-century music in London. In the summer of 2004 he studied 16th-century polyphony with Peter Phillips in Rimini. He was a visiting professor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and in 2007 he taught and conducted at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Since 2008 he has been guest conductor of the Conservatorio Domenico Cimarosa in Avellino. Since 2012 he has taught at the Austrian Church music weeks Laudate Dominum and REJOICE. In 2015, he spent a semester on sabbatical in Sweden, where he served as guest conductor for Lunds akademiska kör, among other roles. Truman State University honored him as Educator of the Year in 1997, and the following year, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching honored him as Missouri’s Professor of the Year.

Erik Westberg (*1956 in Stockholm) studied choral conducting with Prof. Eric Ericson at the Stockholm Music Academy (MHS Stockholm) (degrees in music education, choral pedagogy, ensemble conducting, and conducting).

Erik Westberg has conducted the YMCA Choir in Stockholm and the Oslo Philharmonic Choir, among others. He has also been a guest conductor with the Stockholm Radio Choir, the Jacobs Chamber Choir, and Allmänna Sången, among others. Internationally, Erik Westberg has been engaged as a guest conductor for Pro Coro Canada, the Coro Nacional de España, and the Coro Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. In 2018, he became artistic director and conductor of the Swedish Youth Choir.

He initiated the "Choral Singing for Peace and Justice" project, in which 8,000 choristers in 56 countries participated at the turn of the millennium. The event was watched by more than 500 million television viewers.

Erik Westberg was the first choral conductor to receive a conducting scholarship from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1992. He has also received several other awards, including the Johannes Norrby Medal (1993), the Choir Director of the Year award from the Swedish Association of Choral Conductors (1999), and the Honorary and Merit Scholarship from the Norrbotten County Council (2016). In 2008, he was elected to the Royal Academy of Music.

With the Swedish Academy of Music Chamber Choir and his own vocal ensemble, he has recorded around 20 CDs and toured internationally. Since 2003, Erik Westberg has been Professor of Choral Conducting and Choral Singing at the Piteå Music Academy of Luleå University of Technology.

Simon Erasimus serves as an assistant at the Wiener Singakademie at the Wiener Konzerthaus where he regularly performs milestones in the choral-symphonic repertoire. He studied vocal pedagogy (with a focus on choral and ensemble conducting), music education (with a major in choral conducting), conducting, and musicology in Vienna. His influential teachers include Otto Kargl, Alois Glaßner, and Johannes Hiemetsberger. He also attended master classes and workshops with Florian Benfer, Daniel Reuss, and VOCES8, among others. During his studies, he founded Momentum Vocal Music. With this professional vocal ensemble, he regularly performs concerts and workshops throughout Austria. The ensemble’s repertoire spans the entire range of choral literature as well as solo vocal music from the Renaissance to the present day.

He studied organ and instrumental pedagogy at the Vienna University of Music, where Alfred Mitterhofer and Peter Planyavsky were among his teachers. Since 1992, he has been the cathedral organist of Klagenfurt, but has also conducted major works of church music. Between 1996 and 2013, he was Peter Planyavsky’s assistant at the Vienna University of Music. He currently teaches organ as a lecturer at the Gustav Mahler Private University of Music.

A soprano from Vienna, she studied solo singing with Anton Scharinger, Edith Lienbacher, and others. As part of her concert career, she has performed at the Austria Barock Academy and at the Radiokulturhaus, St. Michael‘s and St. Augustin’s. She teaches singing at the municipal music school of Orth/Donau and offers voice training and choir conducting in various formats. Recently, she has also been intensively involved with Viennese songs and operetta.

Born in Carinthia, Austria, he is on the svoice faculty at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, director of Pro Musica and the Choral Academy Carinthia, soloist in numerous oratorios and mass settings, as well as in contemporary opera.

Voice coach at the Vienna Singverein, guest lecturer at many national and international choir conferences.

Clara Smith, originally from Ozawkie, Kansas, holds a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri. She has performed across the United States and internationally as both a conductor and vocalist. An experienced educator and ensemble leader, she has directed church choirs and youth choirs, and has taught collegiate courses in music theory, conducting, aural skills, and music history. Now based in Cologne, Germany, she serves as Assistant Director of Choirs at the University of Cologne and continues to perform with ensembles such as the VOCES8 Foundation Choir.

Studied piano, chamber music, and accompaniment at the CNSM de Paris and organ and church music at the DKK Vienna. Prizes and awards at international piano competitions.

Ksenia Reisinger is a collaborative pianist at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, she studied piano and vocal pedagogy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and piano performance at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, as well as at the Conservatory of Church Music (organ and choral conducting). From 2015 to 2024, she taught at the Himberg Music School (vocal, piano, and choral conducting) and at the Wiener Singschule (voice training and member of the Vienna Girls‘ Choir team). From 2009 to 2023, she was a collaborative pianist and voice coach at the Vienna Men’s Choir Association. She has also served as pianist and voice coach at numerous choir festivals.

Former Vicar General, Pastor of Probstdorf, Lower Austria.