Since March 2008 the young Swedish mezzo-soprano Sofi Jeannin has been in charge of the Radio France choir school.  Each year she is responsible for 127 children from junior, middle and senior school as they study to become professional singers.  The school has two premises :  the Jean-de-la-Fontaine lycée in Paris and the Olympe-de-Gouges school in Bondy.  Jeannin could have pursued a career as a soloist, but in the end she found that she preferred directing an ensemble, and today she has never been busier.  Past collaborations with both Paul McCartney and the Berlin Philharmonic allow her to distinguish –as she puts it — between what is excellent and what is merely good, and to pass that knowledge on to her pupils.  The daughter of a computer programmer and a language teacher, Jeannin was introduced to classical music by a teacher at primary school.  For her, the choir school is a life choice, and her work there a way of transmitting her passion for song.

How did you, a Swedish woman,  end up directing the Radio France choir school?

I had a job  at the Royal College of Music in England, where I conducted choral practice for young instrumentalists.  When I finished my own studies, I’d been lucky enough to join the London Voices choir.  So at the time I was  both teaching professional singing, and performing too.  It was a great opportunity to be able to perform at the Lucerne Festival, to play with the Berlin Philharmonic, or to contribute to various film scores by John Williams.   In Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, all the crowd noises – the ohs and ahs – that’s us !  Then  I became professor of arts education at the Evry conservatory, where I gave a course in how to lead a choir. So it seemed perfectly natural that I should apply for the post of musical director at the Radio France choir school, and I was delighted when I got it.   It had been my dream for some years to be able to involve myself more fully in a job that combined the artistic side with teaching.

Do you think it is important for a teacher of the arts to also be a performer?

Yes I do.  In a structure built around the notion of excellence, it is important to be able to recognise excellence.  And with all due modesty, I’ve had the good fortune to be involved in projects of real excellence.  It’s enabled me to tell the difference between what is good and what is  excellent. Personally, I think that if I had never had that professional artistic experience,  I would find it much harder today to work with the great international orchestra conductors.  Because at the choir school, that’s  who we work with.  The children aren’t there because they are sweet. They are there because Mahler has marked on his score – “children’s choir”.  We are taking part in professional productions, with a real obligation for excellence.

What did you learn in your personal experience that you have been able to pass on to your pupils?

The way I work with my pupils, we are obliged to produce a given piece of work within an allotted time.  We sight-read the music.  We have to produce a good result straightaway.  But I try to achieve this without harshness.  I love the atmosphere we have at work.  We all share a feeling of pleasure, but also of responsibility and efficiency.  There is none of the stress associated with fault-finding and punishment, which is the reality for a lot of children. Personally I do not believe in punishment.  It is too closely linked to humiliation. Everyone knows that constructive criticism leads to much better results and in addition boosts the children’s confidence.

How is musical instruction in France compared to in England?

Choral singing is a highly developed art form in England. Partly that comes from the Anglican church tradition.  I used to conduct a number of amateur choirs there, men and women together. I loved it. These were people who got together in the evening having spent their days doing their various jobs.  In France, it’s different.  For too long here the teaching has been far too theoretical.  Of course, music is something that is written down, that has a notation – but it’s also  important to awaken the feelings. Here in France, we’ve lost touch with the vocal tradition. I am not really a historian, but I cannot help feeling that people are cut off today from the popular traditions of folklore and religion.  In Sweden the culture of religious hymns,  as well as the folklore heritage,  are both very much alive.  From earliest childhood, people sing.  And yet here in France, there’s an immense choral heritage.   Think of the regional singing tradition,  or more recently Piaf’s dramatic songs. It’s all wonderful.  And I adore the voices from the 50s, which you could recognise straightaway on the radio. But the French  have lost the habit of communal singing. They say that in England folklore suffered terribly as a result of the wars, especially the first world war.  In the end it was thanks to more highbrow music, to composers like Britten, that it was rediscovered.

How did you go about taking up your post as director of the Radio France choir school?

Everything was in place already. I just settled in.  There was no reason to change things. The school had existed since the second world war,  and as an educational establishment it had nothing to prove. The Olympe-de-Gouge school was in its first year of operation. I just had to keep it all going.

But have you introduced  changes?

What’s changed perhaps is my approach to teaching. Also certain items on the repertoire, and my whole musical personality.  That’s where each conductor is different.  And the place has to move on.  At the La Fontaine lycée I have now set up a choir for teenagers.  When their voice breaks, boys always face the tough decision of whether or not to keep singing.  Often they’re afraid their voices won’t be strong enough.  Peronally I think that with proper supervision they can keep going.  And if they keep singing, that prevents a complete break from musical activity during puberty , a period of life which is already complicated enough.

Does the choir have set tasks it has to perform?

Radio France is a radio station of record, so we have a responsibility to preserve for posterity.  One of our missions is to go back to tradition, the regional songs and so on, which we learn alongside the contemporary repertoire. Last year as an example we performed Henri Dutilleux’s 1954 song cycle  Les Chanson de bord, which ticked both the boxes – heritage and contemporary music.  Via these sea-faring songs, you learn about  what it was to be a sailor.  I think it’s important to have that sort of thing in one’s repertoire.  These songs of the different crafts and trades, they are our history. Personally I have always adored that musical heritage. I knew all the French sea-faring songs. My grandfather was a sailor, and he taught them to my father.  And then I learned them, even though I did not have a word of French.  There are the “going about” songs, the “hoisting” songs, the “fo’c’sle” songs – all stories in music, and a great tool for learning by memory.

What other advantages does music bring?

It is a wonderful way to motivate chldren. In learning, it’s more important that the subject- matter be inspirational than the teacher.  And music is so exciting. It helps develop the character.  It demands self-discipline. It helps the child to open up. It requires both spontaneity and deep attention.  The child concentrates for a long time – and then produces a note of music.  Already that’s quite something.  But on top of that there’s the whole effect that music has on the human-being, the way it transports the emotions.

Are there differences between the two establishments where the choir school is based: on the one hand the Jean-de-La-Fontaine lycée in the expensive 16th arrondissement, and on the other the Olympe-de-Gouges school in a deprived area of the suburb of Bondy ?

Well it’s true that at La Fontaine there are well-off kids from the neighbourhood. But there are also children there from Seine-Saint-Denis (a poor area of northern Paris) and from the provinces,  who are staying with host families in Paris. So I am not sure the differences with Bondy are that enormous.  The big difference is really that the children at Bondy are younger. CE1 and CE2 (classes for eight and nine year olds) are very important years.  They are really formative periods for the child. It’s at this age that they learn behaviour.  Another difference perhaps is that at La Fontaine, more of the children play a musical instrument as well as singing, and they practice by themselves.  At Bondy such children are  much harder to find – even though anyone who has got through the highly competitive entrance exam has had to prove they’ve had some musical experience.

Does music help children to stay on  track ?

Yes.  Working together improves the self-esteem and it can keep a child from going astray. I see children gaining more and more in self-confidence. They support each other. The Bondy school is the first time anyone has set up a course like this in that kind of socio-cultural context.  And yet the aim is not social, it’s  purely musical.  The programme is going fine, but every day I find myself asking questions about our methods and the whole pedagogical approach.  The children are very young, and sometimes I go home with a terrible feeling of failure that I have not been able to properly channel their energy. Music helps to channel that energy but sometimes it is not enough.  If a child is suffering for whatever reason, music can be therapeutic, but it is not going to resolve all his problems in life. But there are also little victories. For example, last week a mother came to a concert. Her daughter had been with us for two years, but the mother had never come. We kept on inviting her.  We could see how happy her daughter was.  Being able to focus on a personal project is like finding an oasis in the desert. And for the parents too, it does a lot of good.  At our last Christmas concert, you could see the interest growing. There was a real silence in the hall.  It was impressive the way the families adapted themselves to the concert.

How often do you give concerts ?

About 30 per season. But for Bondy, where the children are much younger, we only do three or four — at studio 104 in the Maison de la Radio, at the Salle André-Malraux in Bondy, or at the Musée d’Orsay for the Fête de la Musique (annual music festival).  The choir school idea is fairly recent. It dates from 1946. The system of dividing their time equally between school work and singing,  with the choir as the centrepiece, I think it helps them understand how important music is in personal development.  But we also make sure that they learn at the right speed and in the right conditions. That is what the first years are for, understanding what it is like to be on stage, the distance from the orchestra and the conductor and so on.  It’s a way of letting them in gently, instead of rushing straightaway into a cycle of professional concerts and recordings.

What is your seasonal programme?

It is very varied.  We take part in productions of the great symphonic works in the repertoire  alongside the two radio orchestras (the National Orchestra of France and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra).  This year for example we are taking on Mahler’s Third Symphony. We also have a series of concerts where we put on Baroque music – Bach, Haydn, Zalenka ;  romantic music – Brahms, Schumann ; but also contemporay music and various new works.  We also offer theatrical presentations of musical stories.  This year it’s La Fontaine’s fables. For the 2010-2011 season, we’re offering two contemporary pieces — La Rage de Néré by Roland Auzet with André Wilms as the narrator, and L’Atelier du nouveau monde by Julien Joubert, which we are putting on at the Silvia-Monfort theatre. Also this summer I am organising an exchange with the choir school at Stockholm, which I’d like to see continued on an annual basis.

Who pays for things like the exchange ?

The choir school, via its local partnerships.  Likewise with the scores which we get on loan, the families never have to pay. The training has always been free.  The choir school is one of four musical formations at the Maison de la Radio, and is treated as such.

What more means would you like to have at your disposal ?

What I would like to  see is our kind of structure becoming more common across the education system. The Stockholm choir school has 1,100 pupils.  Our mission is to broadcast pieces of music on the radio. Perhaps that will expand. I would like to take my pupils on more trips, go places together, do more outside courses.

What gets you going every morning ?

When you work with children, you are surrounded by enthusiasm and emptied of cynicism. That’s what gets me going.  I know that the children are motivated because they take the music so seriously. Every day we have really powerful experiences together.  Today at Bondy for instance, five children were fighting in the playground before choir practice and the children in general were being very noisy. When I got back to La Fontaine I was exhausted. So I asked the children to be patient. They made a real effort.  They understood that everyone has the right to be tired.  Every day we’re helping them grow up a little bit. That’s what gives me the motivation. And then of course there’s the fact that we’re making such lovely music. Even when I am worried about this or that person, or when I am feeling particularly stressed, they still make me laugh every day.

And how did you personally get into music ?

My parents were music-lovers but they did not listen to classical music. They listened to jazz, the Doors, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, 1960s stuff.  But me and my elder sister – who went on to become a painter – we were both able to pursue artistic interests.  For me, it was  a teacher who gave me the taste for classical music. Outside school, I played the piano and I sang.   Things really clicked for the first time when I was seven and I went on a school trip to the Stockholm opera. We saw Giselle and I was bowled over.  Today I can see how vital it is that the arts be accessible to all. In the town where I grew up, they were.  Later I moved to a small mining town surrounded by woods to the west of Stockholm.  There was a music shop there which had three classical records on vinyl.  I bought all three.  I joined a choir, where we sang bad arrangements of Simon and Garfunkel. But I dreamed of singing the Bach cantatas ! After taking the baccalaureat, I did a course in musicology specialising in choir direction in London. At 19 I had already conducted a choir and I was beginning to stand in for a music professor. I realised that teaching and working together in a group were things that came very naturally to me.