New Board and President Tasked with Future Development
Press Release by EC-ECA
The European Choral Association – Europa Cantat is pleased to announce that Gábor Móczár from Hungary was elected as President of the Association as successor of Sante Fornasier, whose mandate ended after a nine-year period on the Board.
The membership thanked Sante Fornasier and the outgoing Board members for their constructive work on the consolidation of the association and especially recognized the merits of the Italian choral association FENIARCO for the successful EUROPA CANTAT Festival in Turin.
The General Assembly, which met in Toulouse, France on 17th November 2012, elected a Board of 13 persons from 12 European Countries. The President will be supported in his work by four further
Executive Board members:
- Carlo Pavese from Italy as First Vice-President
- Jan Schumacher from Germany as Second Vice-President and Chair of the Music Commission
- Anneliese Zeh from Austria, re-elected as Third Vice-President
- Koenraad de Meulder from Belgium as treasurer
Further Board members are Séverine Delforge (Belgium), Martí Ferrer (Spain), Guido Helbling (Switzerland), Reijo Kekkonen (Finland), Victoria Liedbergius (Norway), Kaie Tanner (Estonia), Jean-Claude Wilkens (France) and Daphne Wassink (The Netherlands).
The General Assembly also approved of the programme of activities for the coming years including different events which will take place within the framework of the major EU-funded cooperation project VOICE – Vision On Innovation for Choral Music In Europe with fourteen partners in eleven European countries and a financial volume of 2.4 Million Euros.
The new Board will work on further developing the association’s strategy, aiming at increasing cooperation with partners outside the choral field (research institutes, other European and International music organisations), improving the connection between the choral world and the world of music educators, and on singing advocacy in music education. In this context, the association will increase its advocacy work, gathering and disseminating facts and figures that will give evidence of the benefits of choral music on the social and physical well-being of society. The association will also continue promoting inclusive activities with minorities and disadvantaged people and offering training courses and further educational activities all over Europe.
In 2013, the European Year of Citizens, the association will offer a number of activities involving citizens in most European countries. These activities will include International Singing Weeks and festivals in Bonn (Germany), Vic (Catalonia, Spain), Briançon (France), Novi Sad (Vojvodina, Serbia), Worcester (UK) and Lignano (Italy) as well as a ‘Golden Cantat’ in Novi Sad, a special event for senior citizens inspired by the 2012 European Year for Active Ageing. There will be training offers for conductors in Pomáz (Hungary), Fano (Italy) and Vaison-la-Romaine (France) as well as a Competition for Young Conductors and an International Conductor’s Forum in St Petersburg (Russia), a Eurochoir session for individual young singers in Pécs (Hungary), a Hearts-in-Harmony event bringing together disabled and non-disabled singers in Novi Sad (Serbia), a Hearts-in-Harmony conference in Barcelona and the Conference Voices of the Mediterranean in Girona (Catalonia, Spain), a conference in connection with the next General Assembly (8-10 November 2013) about the VOICE project in Pécs (Hungary), and further smaller activities. The brochure with the complete programme of events can be ordered from the General Secretariat, updated information is available on www.EuropeanChoralAssociation.org-> Events -> Events 2013.
For 2014 the federation announced the seventh EUROPA CANTAT junior – the festival for equal voice children’s and youth choirs. Concerning 2015, preparations have already begun for the festival EUROPA CANTAT XIX in Pécs (Hungary), a city which also hosted the tenth iteration of the EUROPA CANTAT festival in 1988, and the festival ‘Pécs Cantat’, the Singing Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010. Stay updated about the 2015 festival on www.ecpecs2015.hu.
The General Assembly was hosted by several French members and partners of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat: A Coeur Joie, IFAC, La Plate-forme interrégionale, the choir La Lauzeta from Toulouse and the Atelier Régional des Pratiques en Amateurs (ARPA), and was combined with a programme of workshops and presentations under the title ‘Colours of (Young) European Voices’. Information and material from this programme will be made available on the website www.EuropeanChoralAssociation.org. The programme of the weekend also included concerts by the choir La Lauzeta, the Chœur National des Jeunes A Coeur Joie and the Maîtrise du Conservatoire de Toulouse.
For further information please contact the General Secretariat of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat, Haus der Kultur, Weberstr. 59a, 53113 Bonn, Germany, Tel: +49 228 9125663, Fax:+49 228 9125658, info@eca-ec.org, www.eca-ec.org
Edited by Gillian Forlivesi Heywood, Italy