The Choir Director Podcast

The Choir Director Podcast is the essential resource for choir directors, conductors and vocal leaders who want to build stronger choirs, run better rehearsals and create outstanding musical experiences.

Hosted by international conductor and festival producer Russell Scott, each episode shares practical strategies for rehearsal technique, vocal training, repertoire choices, choir recruitment, leadership, performance preparation and managing real-world community and amateur choirs.

Whether you lead a school choir, church choir, community choir or professional ensemble, this podcast gives you actionable ideas you can apply immediately — from improving blend and tuning to motivating singers and growing your choir.

Featuring expert interviews with leading conductors, vocal specialists, composers and choir educators, alongside solo coaching episodes packed with real solutions for real choir challenges.

If you’re a choir director who wants practical tools, musical insight and leadership strategies to help your singers thrive, this is the podcast for you.

Guest

Zimfira Poloz

Zimfira Poloz is an award-winning conductor, educator, adjudicator and clinician, and Artistic Director of the Toronto Children’s Chorus. She teaches vocal pedagogy for choirs at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. Her career began in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where she founded Choir School No. 1 in 1983 and directed the children’s choir Koktem on international tours. In Canada, she led Hamilton Children’s Choir for two decades and Young Voices Toronto for 15 years. She has conducted and taught at festivals and conferences worldwide, serves the international choral community through the Interkultur World Choir Council and World Alliance of Children’s Choirs, and curates The Zimfira Collection for Cypress Choral Music. Her honours include the Leslie Bell Prize, King Charles III Coronation Medal and a 2026 Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award in Hong Kong.

Guest appearance on:

Ep #34: Zimfira Poloz: Healthy Young Voices Grow When Choir Becomes Community