The competition for the European Grand Prix of Choral Music organized within the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition ended with the victory of the Ukrainian Sophia Chamber Choir in Debrecen over the weekend, the Kodály Philharmonic announced.
As it was written, three choirs were able to compete in the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (EGP), founded by six illustrious international choir competitions, thanks to their previous competition victories: the Swedish En Kör, the Basque Youth Mixed Choir and the Ukrainian Sophia Chamber Choir.
In the announcement, they said that only choirs that have won the grand prize in the past year in Arezzo (Italy), Debrecen, Maribor (Slovenia), Tolosa (Basque Country, Spain), Tours (France) or The five-member international jury were looking for the best of the best at the renowned competitions in Varna (Bulgaria).
The winner of the Grand Prix was the Ukrainian Sophia Chamber Choir (conducted by Oleksandr Samritskyi), whose members thanked the jury led by the British Peter Broadbent and the applause of the audience with a joyful song.
In the announcement, competition director Katalin Daróczi is quoted as saying that life slowly returned to the choral movement after the epidemic, but based on the festivals and competitions that have already been held, it can be clearly stated that this year the ensembles are going out into the world with renewed strength and a renewed repertoire.
Our goal is that, by holding the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition again next year, Debrecen can once again become the home of one of the most high-quality, but at the same time really community-building, events from an artistic point of view,
– she emphasized.
Dániel Somogyi-Tóth, Debrecen’s chief music director, said that the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition, a cultural event of the cívisváros dating back more than half a century, will alternate with Debrecen’s instrumental competition, the Zoltán Kodály International Music Competition, in a biennial system from next year. The latter will be a conductor’s competition based around the Kodály Philharmonic, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, and the Psalmus Hungaricus, which is also 100 years old, at the end of August, for which more than 300 applicants from all over the world have applied, he added.
MTI
