ICB, the IFCM Magazine

Eurasia Cantat, 16-19 April 2013 (Page 39)

A Choral Festival on the Verge of Two Continents

Andrea Angelini, ICB Managing Editor, choral conductor and teacher

Ekaterinburg rides the line of the recognised border between Europe and Asia, placing it in a unique location as a transcontinental city. Dividing the largest landmasses in the world, Europa and Asia, the Ekaterinburg area boasts monuments celebrating the meeting of East and West.

I arrived at Koltsovo airport on a early flight out of Helsinki. Just like in old movies featuring Hawaii, where arriving passengers are greeted by locals in hula skirts, I expected to be greeted in Ekaterinburg with a bowl of borsch and shot of vodka. Incidentally, I did not see any Russian drinking vodka during my entire trip. Maria and Anna, who were waiting in the arrival hall, drove me to my hotel, just in front of a very busy railway station. My first impressions of the city were the familiar ones: trams and trolleybuses, Soviet-style block apartments, construction works, and there was even a tent at the end of the street selling Uzbek food. Going beyond the familiar signs and wonders I began to encounter some surprises. First were the businesses. Banks and fur shops are the on almost every corner, Gucci and Givenchy stores…Next were the people: warm inside and very gentle, ready to help you on every occasion.

The International Choral Festival and Competition Eurasia Cantat (this was the second year) is in the international scene quite a new event. It would be all too easy to complain. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see that entire organization, at whose summit sit Helena Bartnovskaya and Natalia Egorova, worked like a Swiss watch.

I was really impressed by the venues of the competition. All the categories of the competition took place in the historic and quite fascinating concert hall of the Ekaterinburg Conservatoire of Music. The closing ceremony was held in a splendid and capacious cultural centre, with a huge stage, plenty of backstage facilities and comfortable seating. Between one event and the next there was also time for some official meetings with the city officials, who thanked the organizers of the festival for their dedication and commitment.

The total number of participating choirs was really high, not often seen in such a contest: I counted 75 choral groups that competed in the various categories. This demonstrates that Russia (which will be discussed in detail in the next ICB) enjoys excellent health and still evinces a 'desire to sing'.

Ekaterinburg is today best known as the place where Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered in 1918. The house where they lived was demolished in 1977, on the orders of Boris Yeltsin, who then was a local Ekaterinburg leader. Yeltsin later, in 1998, represented the people when the Tsar and his family finally we granted a state funeral; the family members are now buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. At the very location where their house stood one can, since 2003, still find the ‘Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land’, commemorating the Romanov family and their sainthood. Visiting this place is touching and it can easily evoke ghosts from the past. I recommend one visits too Ganina Yama, 16 Km away from the city, a huge monastery still being built on the site where the remains of the last Tsar and his family were found. It is but a shallow pit where the Soviet revolutionaries had attempted to dissolve, burn and otherwise erase any evidence of the bodies after the execution.

Due the big number of participating choirs it would be impossible to nominate all the winners of the several categories. I just want to mention some of them that impressed the members of the jury, consisting of the President Milan Kolena (Slovakia), Jean-Claude Bernard (France), Nina Grigoryevna Groshikova (Russia), Andrea Angelini (Italy), Victor Emel'yanov, Vladimir Zavadskiy, Elena Nakishova and Dmitriy Rozvizev (Russia). First of all the best choir selected, Vita in Canto, directed by Yuliy Kopkin, then the winners of the category 'children choirs up to 16 years’ (choir Rainbow, conducted by Oksana Abakumova) and of the ‘youth choirs SATB’ (Orpheus, conducted by Svetlana Dolnikovskaya). The entire list of the award winning choirs can be found on the festival website at www.eurasia-cantat.ru/en/.

The organizers really hope and count on the support and enthusiasm of the city administrators to launch the next festival in order to share the joy and music shared between the two oldest continents (at as far as culture is concerned) of the Earth.

Edited by Graham Lack, Germany

Eurasia Cantat, 16-19 April 2013

By: Andrea Angelini

On: July 15, 2013

In: Choral World News

With: 0 Comments

A Choral Festival on the Verge of Two Continents

Andrea Angelini, ICB Managing Editor, choral conductor and teacher

Ekaterinburg rides the line of the recognised border between Eu…Read More →

Interview with Paul Van Nevel, Director, Huelgas Ensemble

By: Jeffrey Sandborg

On: July 15, 2013

In: Choral Technique

With: 0 Comments

By Jeffrey Sandborg, Director of Choral Activities and Wade Professor of Music, Roanoke College

Belgian conductor Paul Van Nevel (b. 1946) is the artistic director of Huelgas Ensemble, which he founded in 1970….Read More →

First Xinghai Prize International Choir Championships - Guangzhou, China, 2012

By: Zimfira Poloz

On: July 15, 2013

In: Choral World News

With: 0 Comments

International Symposium on Children and Youth Choral Music: The World of Young Singers

By Zimfira Poloz, choral conductor and teacher

The First Xinghai International Choir Championships …Read More →

The Benjamin Britten Centenary: New Choral Editions

By: Philip Brunelle

On: July 15, 2013

In: Repertoire

With: 0 Comments

By Philip Brunelle, IFCM Vice President, VocalEssence Founder & Artistic Director

The year 2013 marks the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth, and for a greater part of the composer’s career Boosey &a…Read More →

A Carol Competition in Minneapolis

By: Philip Brunelle

On: July 15, 2013

In: Choral World News

With: 0 Comments

Philip Brunelle

IFCM Vice President, VocalEssence Founder & Artistic Director

Christmas carols have been part of holiday celebrations for centuries. The question is – how to keep carols fresh and int…Read More →

A Brief Conversation with John Rutter

By: Cara Tasher

On: July 15, 2013

In: Composers' Corner

With: 0 Comments

By Cara Tasher, choral conductor and teacher

Cara Tasher: Yours is a household name in choral music, especially for American church musicians, and it is rare for a choral musician to be intervi…Read More →

We Move The World - A ‘Free’ Proposal for All Choirs

By: Branko Stark

On: July 15, 2013

In: Choral World News

With: 0 Comments

Branko Stark, President of The Croatian Choral Directors Association

The Croatian Choral Directors Association is a relatively young association, the goals of which are to improve both the profession of ch…Read More →