Press Release by Iva Radulović, IFCM Operations Manager
This year brought many changes disappointments, loss, and tears to all of us. International travel is still more or less forbidden; festivals and concerts, in most cases, have been postponed or transferred online. At this moment, what we miss the most is singing together and being together with all our friends from all over the world. We could also see this at the IFCM online General Assembly. Although not physically together, more than 70 members of IFCM from all over the world got together to discuss the past and the future of the association.
Before the meeting, IFCM organized, for the first time in history, fully online elections for the new Board of Directors. Members who had registered in advance had an opportunity to vote for 20 candidates of the board and one candidate for president. However, the members could only elect 10 board members. To ensure democratic, fair, and fully anonymous elections, the Election Committee was appointed. The results were announced during the General Assembly and, the very next day, the new board named their vice-presidents, treasurer and governance advisor.
The Board of Directors 2020-2023:
Emily Kuo Vong, President
Members of Executive Committee:
- Ki Adams (Canada), Vice-President
- Jan Schumacher (Germany), Vice-President
- Yveline Damas (Gabon), Vice-President
- Maria Guinand (Venezuela), Vice-President
- Yoshihiro Egawa (Japan), Vice-President
- Dominique Lecheval (France), Treasurer
Board members:
- Thierry Thiebaut (France), representing IFCM Founding Member, A Coeur Joie International (ACJI)
- Lynne Gackle (USA), representing IFCM Founding Member, the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA)
- Burak Onur Erdem (Turkey), representing IFCM Founding Member, the European Choral Association-Europa Cantat (ECA-EC)
- Saeko Hasegawa (Japan), representing IFCM Founding Member, the Japan Choral Association (JCA)
- Niels Graesholm (Denmark), representing IFCM Founding Member, Nordisk Korforum (NKK)
- John Rosser (New Zealand), Board member
- Gábor Móczár (Hungary), Board member
- Victoria Liedbergius (Norway), Board member
- Ana Patricia Carbajal (Mexico), Board member
- Tim Sharp (USA), co-opted Board member
- Roula Abou Baker (Lebanon), co-opted Board member.
- Sonja Greiner (Germany), Governance advisor
- The membership also appointed Montserrat Cadevall (Spain) as Internal Financial Auditor.
Creating the most choral atmosphere possible during the General Assembly was one of the main goals of the IFCM team . We wanted to make sure that members felt that they were at a live meeting. To make this possible, we included videos and pictures, but also a lot of music! At the very beginning of the session, we organized Open Singing – each member received scores of the piece by email, and on the spot, we all sang together with the recording. This Open Singing was more impressive because we sang “Cantando” by Alberto Grau, the official hymn of World Choral Day, which started two days before the GA.
After the presentation of the finalreport by the President and several IFCM board members, the meeting was adjourned, again with music! A virtual video of the World Youth Choir singing “Irish blessing” brought many emotions among attendees of the General Assembly. You could see, even through the screen, that we all sang as one, with full lungs and with teary eyes.
Overall, according to the reactions we have received from members, the Online General Assembly was a great success. It also takes a step in the history of IFCM since it was the first online GA. However, we are still all missing seeing each other in person and discussing the future of the international choral scene together!
“Until we meet again!”
Edited by Tadhg Gleeson, Italy