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Aug 30
Update on EXchange! A New Partnership Between IFCM and The Singing Network
Published: Aug 30,2019

EXchange!

The EXchange!, a new partnership between IFCM and The Singing Network, provided an extraordinary opportunity for World Choral EXPO (WCE) participants to learn from and with each other. For one and a half days during the WCE (July 30-31, 2019), international scholars, performers, conductors, pedagogues, and composers met to connect, create, share, and explore various aspects of collective singing. Presenters came from Argentina, Canada, China, Denmark, DR Congo, Gabon, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Norway, Turkey, and the United States. Additional WCE participants came from many other countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Costa Rica, France, Ireland, Lebanon, Lithuania, and Portugal. 

In the Closing EXchange session, Sonja Greiner, Secretary-General of the European Choral Association-Europa Cantat (ECA-EC), with help from Estera Mihaila, ECA-EC’s newly-appointed Communication Manager, presented a comprehensive and entertaining reflection on the EXchange! presentations. Here are the challenging, thought-provoking topics raised during the EXchange! for consideration by IFCM and the international choral community:

  • Perform more in non-traditional concert venues
  • Take gender balance seriously
  • Use choral singing to raise awareness for social issues
  • Celebrate diversity of all kinds
  • Include amateurs and professionals
  • Rethink conductors without borders
  • Identify how many people sing in the world
  • Add arts education to STEM, creating STEAM
  • Shift from autocratic to assistant, democratic leadership
  • Encourage and support research on singing and song
  • Dedicate specific attention to singing men
  • Empower singers on multiple levels
  • Focus on new repertoire
  • Clarify and expand the role of the individual in choirs
  • Fight for freedom of expression
  • Promote more co-creation
  • Advocate for values in the choral setting
  • Explore social music
  • Research the health and social benefits of collective singing
  • Understand how to preserve and adapt traditional and folk music
  • Balance musical excellence and community involvement
  • Become inclusive rather than exclusive
  • Be cautious with the notion of ‘quality’

Gatherings such as the EXchange! in which the international choral community engages in dialogue, interchange, and discourse are critical to a vibrant, relevant international choral community.  Watch for extended articles on some of these topics in future issues of ICB.  

IFCM International Choral Magazine

Official magazine of the International Federation for Choral Music, the International Choral Magazine is published quarterly in the four official languages of IFCM: English, French, German and Spanish. It is distributed in more than 80 countries on the five continents and is the official voice of choral music around the world.

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Global Choral Calendar

Our focus at the moment is to unite the choral calendars of international choral organisations. Meanwhile please consult the calendar of choral events published by the European Choral Association - Europa Cantat here.

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