5th IFCM Multicultural and Ethnic Choral Conference
Girona, July, 29 – August, 2 – 2013
Martí Ferrer i Bosch, Moviment Coral Català and Mediterranean Office for Choral Singing (Catalonia-Spain)
The Mediterranean Sea is the world’s largest inland sea and it is inhabited by over 400 million people from three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa). Imagine the variety of vocal sounds of the Mediterranean Voices … The Mediterranean Sea is the cradle of cultures, religions and customs that make this area unique. This diversity of regions and people is the result of the history of numerous civilizations who built their ancestral houses on these shores. Would you like to experience the Mediterranean Voices?
This richness and diversity that was inherited is alive in this unique area of social, cultural and political varieties. Don’t miss this historic opportunity to listen to the Mediterranean Voices.
Following Voices of the Baltics in Tallinn in 2007 and Voices of South-Africa in Stellenbosch in 2009, the next Voices Conference will be in Girona, Catalonia, during 2013. Girona will host musicians, musicologists, composers, conductors and choral singers from different countries in the northern and southern Mediterranean area. We will discover the rich and diverse way of singing from the Mediterranean Sea: from cante jondo of Andalusia to the call to pray of Istanbul, from the Sephardic songs to the Sardinian vocal groups and to the most intimate style of familiar lullabies, as well as the expressive vocal demonstrations.
Thanks to a program consisting of seven concerts, documentaries , exhibitions and more than 12 conference sessions, panels and workshops, participants and visitors will enjoy performances by a rich diversity of artists (composers, soloists, choirs and vocal groups) from more than ten countries.
Each day of the Mediterranean Voices Conference will start at 09:00 with a plenary session. This plenary session may be either a conference, a workshop or a panel discussion. It will be open to the general public as well as music specialists, musicologists, conductors and composers. The morning session will finish at 12:30with a short concert.
The afternoon session will start at 16:30. It will consist of three different programs; each program will focus on a different topic and will be addressed to musicologists, composers and conductors. However, it will also be open to the general public if they are interested in the topic. In addition activities will be organized in the afternoon, such as documentaries or museum visits. Dinner will be served at 19:30 and the day will end with traditional repertoire and a gala concert.
This program is designed by an international team: Jaume Ayats (Catalonia, ethnomusicologist, Director of the Catalan Music Museum and among other things curator of the Mediterranean Voices exhibition), Dolf Rabus (Germany, Director of the Musica Sacra International Festival and the International Chamber Choir Competition of Marktoberdorf), Kifah Fakhouri (Jordan, Director of the Arab Academy of Music of the League of Arab States), Theodora Pavlovich (Bulgaria, choir conductor and vice president of the IFCM), Sonja Greiner (Germany, General Secretary of the ECA-EC), Montserrat Gual (Catalonia, board member of the ECA-EC) and Martí Ferrer (Catalonia, conductor of choirs and orchestras, president of the MCC and head of the Mediterranean Office for Choral Singing). In addition there are 32 advisers (conductors, composers, musicians and ethnomusicologists) representing the Mediterranean countries.
The Mediterranean Voices Conference (5th IFCM Multicultural and Ethnic Conference) is organized by the Moviment Coral Català (Catalan Choral Umbrella Organization – MCC) jointly with the Mediterranean Office for Choral Singing (regional center of the ECA-EC managed by MCC) and with the collaboration of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat (ECA-EC) and the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM).
The program will be announced in January 2013 on the Moviment Coral Català website (www.mcc.cat) and the deadline for registration will be April 30th, 2013.
Mediterranean Voices will benefit you if:
- You are a choir conductor: it will be a unique opportunity to discover and learn new styles of singing by the best choirs and soloists, new repertoires by famous composers and new ideas for working with our popular conductors of the Mediterranean area.
- You are a composer: it will be a unique opportunity to present your work, your methods and strategies while working on folk music, to learn new techniques and new styles to expose the choir and the voice as an instrument, to discover new tones and tunes and to learn new instrumental and old technical resources hidden behind seemingly simple folk music forms. Mediterranean Voices will be a meeting extravaganza for sharing and exchanging ideas and resources between the participating composers.
- You are a choir or vocal group: it will be a perfect setting to present your productions and programs based on folk music from every perspective, to promote your group and your heritage, to work with conductors and composers from all over the Mediterranean area and to experience four unforgettable days in Girona with artists such as yourself.
- You are a musicologist: For four days you can share the results of your studies and work with other musicologists, musicians, conductors and composers. You will also learn from other participants thanks to the rich diversity of activities and people.
- Mediterranean Voices will be a meeting point for sharing and exchanging knowledge and resources between the participating musicologists.
- You are a college student: it will be a world of learning through the best speakers and the best performances. Mediterranean Voices will give you the opportunity to meet people like you from across the Mediterranean. With your attendance you will earn college credit.
MEDITERRANEAN VOICES, part of VOICE – Vision On Innovation for Choral music in Europe
Mediterranean Voices Conference is part of VOICE, a project coordinated by European Choral Association – Europa Cantat (Germany) in cooperation with Chorverband Österreich (Austria), Expertisecentrum Stem (Belgium), Koor&Stem (Belgium), Epilogi (Cyprus), UCPS (Czech Republic), A Coeur Joie (France), Polyfollia (France), Moviment Coral Català and Mediterranean Office for Choral Singing (Catalonia-Spain), KÓTA and Central-Eastern European Centre (Hungary), Zsolnay Heritage Management Nonprofit Ltd – ZSÖK (Hungary), FENIARCO (Italy), Länsmusiken with the Swedish International Choral Centre Örebro (Sweden) and the University of York (UK), as well as many other associate partners. This project has been selected under the European Union program “Culture”.
More information at:
Website: www.mcc.cat
Twitter: @MedVoices , @movicoralcat
Facebook: Moviment Coral Català
Edited by Sue-Ann Struwe, South Africa