Estrelita Alvares-Spandöck

Estrelita Alvares-Spandöck comes from Goa, India. She was born and grew up in Mumbai, former Bombay. In 1976 she came to Germany on a scholarship, studied the language for a year at the Herder-Institute in Leipzig and achieved a Degree in Piano at the Music Conservatory Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy also in Leipzig. In 1982 she moved to Berlin. Since then she has been a member of several choirs in the city such as the Berliner Vokalensemble, The Berliner Bach Akademie, the Ernst-Senff-Chor and other project choirs. She is a freelancer, working as a singer and music teacher.

Being an Indian citizen living in Berlin, the topic of Integration has always been of great significance to her. "Problems concerning immigrants are much too often in the News. Foreign nationals who are socially and culturally assimilated are invariably left unnoticed". It is this group that she has put together to form the Internationales Vokalensemble Berlin. It is her aim to give this minority a sustainable voice through the international language of music.