AOTEAROA TO BECOME THE CHORAL MUSIC CAPITAL OF THE WORLD FOR A WEEK IN JULY 2020
Thousands of choral music performers, presenters and practitioners headed to Auckland for the
12th World Symposium on Choral Music
11-18 July 2020
Twenty four of the world’s best choirs, over 40 distinguished speakers on choral music and thousands of delegates will descend on Auckland 11-18 July 2020 for the 12th World Symposium on Choral Music (WSCM2020).
One of the most anticipated events on the international choral calendar, the World Symposium on Choral Music is a major international arts festival which also serves as a global choral congress – a triennial opportunity for a significant proportion of the world’s choral music leaders and practitioners to meet, share ideas and be revitalised.
The World Symposium on Choral Music programme offers a range of talks, masterclasses, workshops, demonstrations and performances for both choral music industry delegates and the wider public. Delegates usually include choristers, conductors, composers, music industry academics, singers, teachers and enthusiasts.
The New Zealand Symposium’s theme is He Tangata / He Whenua (People and The Land) - The connection and tensions between people and land, between urban life and the natural world. This has inspired a range of the presentations, which include indigenous music and ‘ownership’, diversity and social empowerment, respectful collaboration with indigenous artists, singing as a haven for migrants and refugees, choral singing in prisons, welcoming transgender and non-binary singers, alongside cornerstone subjects such as conducting and vocal technique, articulation, rhythm, intonation, genre exploration, repertoire, movement and programming.
An International Artistic Committee reviewed the 360 choir and presenter applications from more than 50 countries around the world to produce the final line-up of choirs and presenters for WSCM2020. It was an unprecedented number of applications.
“No other symposium, since the inaugural event in 1987, has had such a strong response,” says John Rosser, WSCM2020 Artistic Director and Chair of the New Zealand Choral Federation.
“The Artistic Committee was deeply impressed with the calibre of applying choirs and we look forward to welcoming this broad and vibrant choral community to New Zealand for a brilliant week of music discussion, participation and performance July next year. Auckland will – quite literally – be singing,” he says.
Sitting alongside the symposium is the Surround Sounds programme, in which 24 of the world’s best choirs will perform for delegates and the public. Performance venues include Auckland Town Hall, the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre at Aotea Square and St-Matthew-in-the-City, among others. Public concert tickets will be on sale from early 2020.
Attending choirs range from widely regarded ensembles such as NOTUS and Portland State Chamber Choir from the USA and Mexico’s Voz En Punto, to young performers such as the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Canada’s Hamilton Children’s Choir, Shenzhen Lily Choir from China, Australia’s Gondwana, the Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley and the New Zealand Youth Choir, national indigenous choirs including Nairobi Chamber Chorus, and all-female ensembles such as Slovenia’s vocal theatre Carmina Slovenica, Canada’s Xara Choral Theatre and Ewha Chamber Choir from Korea.
Registrations for the Symposium are now open with hundreds of delegates from over 40 countries having already signed up ahead of the recent Early Bird deadline.
Thousands of delegates attended the 11th World Symposium in Barcelona (2017) and the New Zealand event team is looking to have the same level of success. The next Advance Ticket deadline is 31 December 2019.
Registrations are available online at wscm2020.com.
The 12th World Symposium on Choral Music is supported by newzealand.com[JD1] and ATEED, and hosted by the NZ Choral Federation in tandem with the International Federation for Choral Music.
ENDS
For further information, images and interviews, please contact: Siobhan Waterhouse, Marketing and Communications Manager, P: +64 22 126 4149, E: marketing.manager@wscm2020.com
ABOUT WSCM
The first World Symposium on Choral Music was held in Vienna in 1987. Following a three-city experiment three years later, the IFCM resolved that the event’s location would thereafter alternate triennially between the five continents and would be in “a prominent and attractive city with the facilities, financial support and managerial structure to successfully plan and administer a major international event”.
The stated aim of IFCM in founding the Symposium was to encourage “artistic excellence, co-operation and exchange by bringing together the finest choirs and choral leaders … and to enhance the existing choral life in a specific region of the world”.
While beginning life as something of a global convention for the choral community, the event expanded considerably in the 1990s and has now become a major international arts festival, showcasing to the wider public the best the choral music world has to offer.
A WSCM is first and foremost a choral festival. The presence of 24 of the world’s top choirs, who perform both during the day sessions and in evening concerts around the city, attracts not only strong interest from international choral aficionados but also from the wider public. This is easily the finest line-up of choirs music lovers will ever hear in one place.
The Symposium also serves as a global choral congress – a singular opportunity every three years for a significant proportion of the world’s choir leaders to meet, share ideas and be revitalised. Providing much of the inspiration are some 30 practitioners who present a wide range of talks, masterclasses, workshops and live demonstrations for both delegates and the public.
Every WSCM hosts a trade fair – an opportunity for choral conductors and singers to peruse a vast array of sheet music, choir recordings and other items relevant to the choral industry, such as music stands, rostra, acoustic screens, sound equipment, uniforms, folders, bags and assorted novelty items. Individual countries’ choral associations often take stalls too, as do music tour companies and other travel groups.
