English

Coro San Benito is a chamber group of amateur singers who are developing their singing as a means of enriching their lives, both artistically and personally.

Founded in 1988 under the wing of the Abadía San Benito, in Palermo, Buenos Aires, it was jointly directed by Marcela Gros and José Toccalino, with Gros remaining as director until 1994. During this period, in 1991, the group became independent of the Abbey to develop along its own lines. In 1995 Juan Martín Picarel took on the leadership of the choir for a long period up to 2013 when the Choir celebrated its 25 year anniversary.

In 2014 Lurdes Sabeckis took up the batón.

The Choir has presented programmes with music, sacred and profane, from the English, Italian, French & Spanish Renaissance (including composers such as Palestrina, Victoria, Guerrero, Mateo Flecha, Lassus, Willaert, Weelkes, Morley, Bennet), Songs and motets from German Romanticism (Mendelssohn, Schumann, Bruckner, Hensel, Rheinberger), Argentine folk music, works of French composers Debussy and Duruflé and XIX & XX English Songs (Elgar, Holst, Stanford, Parry, Finzi, Cooke, Barnby, Britten, Finzi y Howells amongst others).

Rehearsals are on Tuesdays from 20:00 to 22:00 in Palermo, Paraguay & Thames.

The Director: Lurdes Sabeckis

With degrees in Musical Arts with orientations towards Orquestral Direction, Profesor especialising in Piano, Professor with orientation in Choral Direction in, among othe institutions IUNA (Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte) and the Conservatorio de Música, Alberto Ginastera.

Musical activities include; as pianist in the trio formed with Joaquín Chibán, violín and Agustín Scheinkerman, violoncello, as well as solo concerts in the Auditorium of the Conservatorio de Música, Alberto Ginastera, entre otros. Assistant director and oboist in the Orquesta Municipal de Ezeiza and is currently studying the oboe with Professors Eugenia Marsili y Aurora Losada.

Choral activities include having been member of various choirs, for example the Coral Santa Cecilia, the Coro Juvenil de San Justo, and the Coro Molto Allegro under the batón of Oscar Mesías. Has been Professor of Choral Singing in various music schools in the Ciudad de Buenos Aires and currently teaches Choir subjects at the Escuela Superior de Música, Juan Pedro Esnaola.

She has lead various choral groups: the Coro de Niños del Colegio Santo Tomás de Aquino, the Coro de egresadas del Colegio María Mazzarello, the Coro de niños del Conservatorio de Morón, the Coral Intercanto, and the Coro del Instituto Inmaculado Corazón de María de Morón.

And, since 2008 has been member and Subdirector of the Coro de Cámara Adrogué whose director is Maestro Marcelo Ortiz Rocca…

… and as of May 2014, Diector of the Coro San Benito.