Mia Makaroff Photo: Mia Koponen
The World Choir Games 2024, the biggest choral competition and festival on the planet, will soon be coming to a close. More than 11,000 singers from over 30 countries have taken part.
The team of 36 jurors for the Games has been especially busy over the past two weeks.
Three to Seven host Bryan Crump caught up with one of the jurors, Finnish composer Mia Makaroff, to find out what's involved in judging a session, and how she's found the Games so far.
"Every choir in this competition has been warming my heart," she says. "I really appreciate the work, and... that they take part and show themselves, and do their best. It's really enjoyable."
A renowned choral composer and arranger, Mia Makaroff also talked about some of her songs, including "Spes" (commissioned by Norwegian choir Cantus) and her best-known song, "Butterfly".
"I wrote it many, many years ago... for the Finnish vocal ensemble Rajaton. It was actually my self-therapy song quite a long time before that, because I was just experiencing a divorce and life was still a bit rough then.
"I found myself just playing this song, it just came out of nowhere... This was a very special song because the lyrics and the melody came like a flash.
"At the same time, Rajaton had asked me if I could write an English song for them, and I had so much work to do - I was working as a music teacher and I had two small kids... and I was kind of overwhelmed with all the stuff that had to be done.
"So I never really met the deadline ... At the final possible moment, I just thought, 'Well, I don't have time to write any good piece so I'm just going to arrange this self-therapy song.
"Little did I know that it was going to be so [successful]."
