With many fond memories of their time together in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, and Beijing, China, singers, instrumentalists, and conductors of the 2019 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Countries Youth Choir (SCOCYC) gathered online on 18 May 2021 to reminisce and reflect on this historic moment in the international choral world. Meeting across 16 time zones, they were joined by Emily Kuo (IFCM President), Gábor Móczár (SCOCYC committee chair), Ki Adams (SCOCYC artistic chair), and Yu Hang Tan (session manager). Special invited guest Ambassador Wang Kaiwen (recently SCO Deputy Secretary-General and now Deputy Secretary-General of Xi’an Eurasian Economic Forum) spoke about the significance of this project in bringing together singers from 16 of the 18 countries in the SCO for a cultural dialogue, i.e., rehearsing and performing together as a choir. The SCO countries represented in 2019 were Afghanistan, Armenia, Belarus, Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan.
Conductors André de Quadros (India-USA) and Maria Goundorina (Russia-Sweden) led the reflection with two questions:
Reflections from the participants will be included in the SCOCYC promotional video being prepared to promote future sessions.
The gathering ended with a video, A Time to Remember, a photo video collage of images from 2019 with a sound track by Inner Mongolia morin khuur player, Han Mu Ren. Everyone left inspired and encouraged that ‘we will meet again’ to sing together as an 'instrument' for developing mutual trust, friendship, and respect.
IFCM International Online Cafes are open to everyone! Recordings are available to IFCM members only. Since the first online meeting in 2023, IFCM has invited prestigious choral leaders, conductors and composers, from all over the world: Maria Guinand (Venezuela), Eric Banks (USA), Michael Ostrzyga (Germany), Tracy Wong (Malaysia/Canada), Luz Helena Peñaranda (Colombia), Joel Magus P. Navarro (Philippines), Ana María Raga (Venezuela), Carmen Acevedo (Puerto Rico), Jurģis Cābulis (Latvia), Lim Ai Hooi (Singap
Read moreOur 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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