News

The World Youth Choir Foundation held their annual meeting on April 13-15 in Bonn, Germany. Beside working on the details of the next session in Inner Mongolia and China (4-25 July), the Board members planned sessions up until 2020. A very fruitful meeting! Let’s meet the Board members of the WYC Foundation:

Representing Jeunesses Musicales International: Blasko Smilevski (President) and Rob van Waaijen
Representing the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat: Victoria Liedbergius (Vice-President) and Sonja Greiner
Representing the International Federation for Choral Music: Emily Kuo Vong and Ki Adams

Thanks to the three WYC Patrons’ representatives for their dedication to the WYC!

https://www.worldyouthchoir.org/

From left to right, Ki Adams, Emily Kuo Vong, Victoria Liedbergius, Rob van Waaijen, Blasko Smilevski, Sonja Greiner

It´s still possible to register for a day-by-day participation at the EUROPA CANTAT Festival XX in Tallinn (Estonia) for:

Discovery atelier
Conductors and Composers Program
Open Singing
Festival concerts

Registrations >> https://ectallinn2018.ee/registration-info/

Beijing, China, 19 July to 25 July 2018

The four top choirs invited to the China International Chorus Festival in July have now been selected:

From Gabon, le Chant sur la Lowé, conducted by Yveline Damas.
From Hungary, the Pannon Voices Mixed Choir, conducted by Adrienne Vinczeffy.
From New-Zealand, Viva Voce, conducted by John Rosser, will be the ambassador of the coming WSCM2020 in Auckland.
From the USA, the Houston Children’s Choir, conducted by Steve Rodde.

Also part of the CICF artistic program, the World Youth Choir, composed of young singers from all over the world, will rehearse during two weeks in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, before a concert tour that will end at the CICF’s opening ceremony.

This week, discover le Chant sur la Lowé!

The Vocal Group Le Chant sur la Lowé was founded by Ms. Yveline Damas in December 1990. Composed of thirty members, the choir aims to develop, popularize and enhance Gabonese musical heritage by […]

By Maria Guinand

On Saturday, March 25, 2018, the distinguished Maestro José Antonio Abreu died in Caracas. His extraordinary legacy is known as El Sistema, which was conceived and founded by Abreu in 1975 to systematise the education and  practice of music through symphonic orchestras and choirs, as instruments of social organisation and humanistic development. This is a social and cultural project of the Venezuelan State. This pedagogical, artistic and social model, which has achieved relevance throughout the world, constitutes the program of social responsibility with the greatest impact in the history of Venezuela, through instruction and collective practice of music, dedicated to training, prevention and recovery of the most vulnerable groups in the country, both for their personal characteristics and their socioeconomic situation.

José Antonio Abreu, economist and musician, had a brilliant mind,  a very clear sense of his mission, a generosity and unlimited dedication, a great capacity for creative work […]

During the first week of March, the Jury of the World Youth Choir met in Tianjin, China, and selected the singers for the 2018 session. 67 singers from 33 countries have been selected to participate in the session led by Helene Stureborg and Jonathan Velasco, starting in Inner Mongolia on the 4th of July, and ending with the opening ceremony at the China International Choral festival in Beijing 24th of July. Congratulations to all the new singers! Thanks to all the singers who auditioned, and to all the recruiters around the choral globe!

https://www.worldyouthchoir.org/summer-session-2018

Tarik O’Regan was awarded the 2018 ACDA Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission. His work All Things Common was premiered at each of ACDA’s six regional conferences this spring. About the piece, he notes: Despite the text’s Biblical origins, I wanted to find a theme which can speak to everyone … I feel we live in a time of exceptional division, and that we are using our great and wonderful diversity (in every sense) against ourselves towards our demise, rather than embracing it for our greater good …. All Things Common is published by Novello.

Matthew Hazzard, a graduate student at California State University – Long Beach, won the 2017 ACDA Brock Student Composition Competition for his work “Peace Flows into Me.” The piece was premiered at the ACDA Western Region Conference in March 2018.

27 July – 5 August 2018 | Tallinn, Estonia

The programme is open to conductors and composers with common and separate offers, and partly also offers interesting sessions for music teachers and managers.

You will have the opportunity to meet your colleagues and exchange repertoire, tips and tricks, listen to music or look at scores together.

On several days you can also join a “Study Tour” visiting a number of selected atelier rehearsals under the guidance of Rainer Held (CH).

Participation in the conductors and composers programme (CCP) is possible for conductors from participating choirs as well as individual participants. You can participate in the full programme or pick individual offers you are interested in.

If you just want to get a taste of the festival for one or more days, you can buy one-day tickets and even register on the morning of your participation

The detailed programme for each day will be published in late […]