Claudia Franzen

Claudia Franzen is a Dutch choir conductor, music teacher and artistic director. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in music education, she further specialised as a master in the Kodály Concept and specialises in conducting children’s choirs. 

Since 2021, she has been the conductor and artistic director of the Limburgse Koorschool in Beek and Maastricht. The Limburgse Koorschool focuses primarily on children aged 4 to 20, with a diverse background. The repertoire is eclectic, from world and folk music to polyphonic (classical) music in several languages. There is attention to solfège training, voice training, and presentation skills. The choirs participate in (inter)national festivals and perform operas and musical theater performances in collaboration with Opera Zuid, a professional opera company in Maastricht. 

Claudia is dedicated to expanding youth choral singing in the Netherlands since September 2023 as Project Leader at Koornetwerk Nederland, (Dutch Choral network). Her mission here is to engage more children and young people in choral singing. As part of this role, she wrote the website geefzangdoor.nl, including guidelines for starting community choirs for children and youth. The past year, Claudia facilitated six adult choirs in the process of starting so-called ‘Kangaroo choirs’, singing groups for children connected to the already existing adult choirs. She also advised several organisations to start community choirs for children who do not have easy access to music education and organised meetings for children’s choir conductors to share knowledge and inspiration. 

In addition to working with choirs, Claudia works as a music teacher at (specialised) primary schools, a lecturer at the Music in Education department of the Conservatory Maastricht, and she gives music lessons to toddlers and preschoolers. 

Claudia’s mission is to introduce as many children and adults as possible to music, through song. Singing together is the common thread binding all of her work, to enable connections, emotional expression and a joyful experience. Claudia believes that discovering and exploring your own voice is one of the most important skills that children should develop.