The Vancouver Chamber Choir has released its candidate list for artistic director, and its names come from as far afield as Europe.

Founding artistic and executive director Jon Washburn is to continue to lead the choir until his successor has been chosen, when Washburn will take on his new role as conductor emeritus and principal guest conductor.

The list of candidates is the following, with each appearing in performance with the VCC during this season or the 2018/19 season. (The next one is Friday [January 26] at the Dunbar Ryerson United Church, featuring candidate Timothy Shantz [see below] in a program called Rivers of Light.)

Kathleen Allan: conductor, composer, and soprano, and director of choral studies and associate orchestra conductor at the Vancouver Academy of Music; artistic director of Canzona, Winnipeg's professional baroque choir, and founding co-artistic director of the interdisciplinary chamber collective Arkora.

Erick Lichte: director of Chor Leoni Men's Choir since 2013; founding member, singer, and artistic director of the Minneapolis-based male vocal ensemble Cantus. 

Nicol Matt: German conductor and founder and conductor of the Chamber Choir of Europe; former conductor of the Amadeus Choir. A lecturer and judge at many international choral competitions.

Zoltán Pad: chief conductor of the Hungarian Radio Choir. Teacher of choral conducting at the Liszt Academy's Kodály Institute.

Timothy Shantz: chorus master of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, artistic director of Spiritus Chamber Choir, and the founder and artistic director of Luminous Voices.

John William Trotter: Canadian-born, Chicago-based associate professor of music at the Wheaton College Conservatory and principal music director of the professional ensemble Chicago a cappella; past conductor of more than a dozen professional choirs and orchestras on three continents.

Kari Turunen: artistic director of the male chorus Akademiska Sångföreningen, Kampin Laulu chamber choir, the choir of the cantors of the Finnish Lutheran Church, Chorus Cantorum Finlandiae, Ensemble Petraloysio, and the Spira Ensemble.

Michael Zaugg: Swiss-born, Canada-based artistic director and principal conductor of the professional chamber choir Pro Coro Canada in Edmonton; former chorus master of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.