Sixty singers from 37 countries were invited to Oslo by Jeunesses Musicales Norway
Press release by Vladimir Opacic World Youth Choir Manager
On October 19th, 2011 it was announced that the World Youth Choir will participate at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert! The Peace Prize concert was held in Oslo on December 11th – the annual musical tribute to the year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Featuring an international selection of musical artists and celebrity hosts, the concert honored the spirit and message of the Nobel Peace Prize. It was musical celebration like no other.
The choir has also sang at the Nobel Peace Prize Award giving Ceremony in Oslo City Hall on December 10th, where the three 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman received the award for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.
Lastly, the choir gave a solo concert in Oslo University’s Ceremonial Hall on Friday December 9th. The University’s Ceremonial Hall, since its creation in 1911, has been the important debut stage for Norwegian composers and musicians. Until the 1960 was the “home stage” for the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. It contains 232 square meters with paintings of the world famous painter Edvard Munch! The hall was built for the 100th year Anniversary in 1911 and was renovated for this year‘s anniversary of the University of Oslo. This Hall used to be the place for the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony until 1990.
The World Youth Choir is one of the most original and important international choirs that exists nowadays. Made of young singers between the ages of 17 and 26, of different nationalities, the World Youth Choir is a remarkable educational and social experience through different vocal traditions at the highest artistic level. For the concerts in Oslo, the choir was consisting of 60 singers from 37 different countries, conducted by Norwegian conductor Grete Pedersen.
Socially speaking, the World Youth Choir contributes to the raising of new generations of “Citizens of the World.” Besides this, many countries represented by the singers in the choir and by the music in the repertoire, emphasize the World Youth Choir as a school of understanding between different cultures, people, music and traditions. The World Youth Choir is a project of the World Youth Choir Foundation which has its seat in The Hague, The Netherlands. Patrons of the choir are the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat, the Jeunesses Musicales International and the International Federation for Choral Music.
The choir has been invited to Oslo by Jeunesses Musicales Norway in cooperation with the University of Oslo at the occasion of its 200th anniversary. The project was sponsored by Bergesens Almennyttige Stiftelse. We also thank the Norwegian Culture Council and Skipsreder Tom Wilhelmsens Stiftelse for their kind support to this project.
The Foundation World Youth Choir and the three patron organizations wish to thank to the Jeunesses Musicales Norway, singers of the World Youth Choir as well as to the all partners in the world auditioning singers, representatives of their respected countries, every year. We do thank you all for your support all these years. The extraordinary event the World Youth Choir has been performing at is a success of us all! Congratulations! Nobel Peace Prize concerts will be legacy of the World Youth Choir for significant development of the World Youth Choir project in general, as well as the highlight legacy for future generations of young singers while all together are “building bridges between young singers from diverse cultures”!
All full report from the Nobel Peace Prize session is Oslo, will be published in the next edition of the ICB. Meanwhile, stay tuned at www.worldyouthchoir.org for more information.