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World Youth Choir 2016 Summer Session Report

By Inês Moreira and Victoria Liedbergius

AUDITIONS The auditions opened in January and consisted of 2 prepared pieces, one sight-reading exercise and a scale. A pack with the information about how the audition process would be processed was sent to all the recruiters from past sessions and to the patrons. Due to the situation with the session in 2014, the applications of singers who applied in 2014 were also accepted. The deadline to receive applications was March 31st and we received 68 applications from singers who applied in 2014 and 112 new applications, adding up to 180 applications from 43 different countries.

SINGER SELECTION A meeting was held in Brussels from 15th to 17th of April 2016, where the Artistic Committee and the session manager met for the selection of the singers for the Summer Session of 2016. The Artistic Committee was composed by Iva Radulovic (JMI), Joy Hill (IFCM) and Victoria Liedbergius (ECA). After reviewing all the applications sent, the AC selected 42 singers from 28 countries. However, due to cancellations from some singers after the selection procedure the final numbers were 39 singers from 29 countries. For the first time in the history of the choir, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon were represented. There were also singers invited from Syria and Iraq, but they couldn’t attend due to visa issues.

REHEARSAL SESSION The rehearsal session took place from July 13th to July 23rd at the music academy of JM Germany, in Weikersheim, Germany. The 39 singers and the conductor, Filippo Maria Bressan (Italy), had an intensive schedule to rehearse the programme (see below) for the concert tour. The session manager, Inês Moreira, accompanied the singers during the full rehearsal session and the WYC Foundation President, Victoria Liedbergius joined for the first 3 days and last day of the session. On one of the days, the singers were joined in the morning by the students of a local school which also has choral singing in their curriculum. The activity was inspiring for both the singers and the children, we performed some warm-up exercises and learnt a South African song together. The session went overall very well; the singers really liked the venue and organized integration activities during their free time, which contributed to a great group atmosphere.

CONCERT TOUR The concert tour took place from July 24th to July 31st, with the first concert on the 23rd of July in the rehearsal place, Weikersheim. Overall the tour was very well-received by both the singers and the audience members. Concert list: 23rd July – Saint George’s church, Weikersheim, Germany Organised in cooperation with Jeunesses Musicales Germany 24th July –Katholische Kirche, Romanshorn, Switzerland Organised in cooperation with Jeunesses Musicales Thurgau 25th July – Saint Stephan’s church, Mainz, Germany Organised in cooperation with Kultur Sommer, in the context of the Mosel Musikfestival 26th July – Saint Martin’s church, Cochem, Germany Organised in cooperation with Kultur Sommer, in the context of the Mosel Musikfestival 28th July – Notre-Dame du Sacre Coeur, Brussels, Belgium Organised in cooperation with Jeunesses Musicales International 29th July – Saint Trinitatis church, Bonn, Germany Organised in cooperation with the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat, in the context of the Bonner Schummanfest 31st July – Saint Trinitatis church, Wolfenbüttel, Germany Organised in cooperation with Arbeitskreis Musik in der Jugend Due to the fact that a lot of the singers in this session were studying conducting, they were given the chance to conduct some pieces in concerts. This further increased the unity of the choir and the trust between the singers and conductor. The audience count for each of our concerts during the tour ranged from about 300-400 people in the smaller churches such as Weikersheim, Mainz, and Cochem, to about 600-800 people for concerts in the larger churches such as Romanshorn, Brussels, and Bonn. In the final concert in Wolfenbüttel the choir reportedly had over 1,000 people in the audience.

The concerts in Bonn and Wolfenbüttel had an added component, where before the concert the singers had a singing session with refugees hosted in the corresponding cities. Having singers from Arab countries, we were able to sing songs in the refugee’s own language, as well as teaching them other songs. This element of the project was treasured by both the singers and refugees. The singers expressed that this opportunity really increased their understanding of the project and how strong the choir’s impact can be.

REHEARSAL SCHEDULE

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PROGRAMME

DONA NOBIS PACEM Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Agnus Dei U.S.A. Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) Os Justi Austria Christus factus est Urmas Sisask (*1960) Benedictio Estonia Sven-David Sandström (*1942) Four Songs of Love (2008) Sweden Let him kiss me Until the Daybreak Awake, O North Wind His left Hand Giovanni Bonato (*1961) Audi filia Italy (for 4 choirs and glasses)

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Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen Germany arr: Clytus Gottwald (*1925) (for 16-voice choir a cappella) Jean Françaix (1912-1997) Cantique des colonnes, France (from "Trois poemes de Paul Valery") Goffredo Petrassi (1904-2003) Nonsense I Italy text: Edward Lear (1812-1888) Nonsense III Nonsense V Eric Whitacre (*1970) Leonardo dreams of his flying machine U.S.A. Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) Se equivocò la paloma Argentina Ēriks Ešenvald (*1977) Amazing Grace (2004) Latvia (for solo soprano and 8-voice choir)

SINGERS Meet the World Youth Choir SOPRANO Cheuk Yan Ng / China Cornelia Elmelid / Sweden Cynthia Hagelstein / Belgium Eva Vačovnik / Slovenia Giulia Montanari / Italy Jia Jin Ling / Malaysia Kathrin Lorenzen / Germany Marielly Minaya Cardenas / Peru Raoul Carlo Angangco / Philippines Rosiane Queiroz / Brazil Seung Min Han / South Korea ALTO Ana Arán Parra / Spain Anna Szabo / Australia

Deena El-Ziftawi / Egypt - Canada Julia Blank / Germany Karl Amando San Jose / Philippines Laura Chareun / Switzerland Marilyn Viloria / Venezuela Pınar Çanakçı / Turkey Shannon Romba / USA TENOR Franco Ezequiel Páez / Argentina Gabriel Sánchez / Argentina Gert Pottas / South Africa Nathaniel Adams / USA Niall Stafford / Ireland Rami Aidamouni / Lebanon Shih-Hao Lai / Taiwan R.O.C.

Yi-Chiang Chiu / Taiwan R.O.C. Yulbin Kim / South Korea BASS Bryan Pei En Chong / Malaysia David McCune / Canada Faris Abbasi / Jordan Franco Basili / Argentina Guilherme Roberto / Brazil Jarod Spence / South Africa Nathan Tax / the Netherlands Timothy Ferguson / UK Víctor de Jesús González García / Mexico Yonathan Villarreal / Venezuela

FILIPPO MARIA BRESSAN

Conductor

Filippo Maria Bressan is one of the few Italian conductors to be regularly invited to conduct and collaborate with the most prestigious italian institutions, like Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra & Choir in Rome, Teatro La Fenice Orchestra & Choir, in Venice, RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin. Usual guest of the greatest Italian Festivals of early, symphonic and contemporary music (Accademia Chigiana Siena, Monteverdi Festival in Cremona, MiTo Settembre Musica, Biennale di Venezia and many others). Filippo has conducted in many Theaters and concert halls in Italy, Europe and South America, collaborating with many orchestras, choirs, singers and renowed musicians. Pupil in Wien of Karl Österreicher, of masterclasses with Sir J. E. Gardiner and F. Leitner, assistant of Jurgen Jürgens, great connoisseur of the vocal Italian tradition and of the German symphonic school he is considered among the most important Italian conductor in the choral and symphonic-choral repertoire, that always passionate him, and one of the finest specialists in XVIII and first XIX centuries Opera. Permanent conductor of the Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, between 2000 and 2002,- the youngest in the 500 years of the Choir’s history, where he is regularly invited at now - he has conducted many choral institutions, like the Teatro Carlo Felice Opera Choir, the Teatro Verdi Opera Choir, the Theater Wielki Opera Choir, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liége choir and orchestra, the World Youth Choir (2005), the Estonian National Male Choir , the Italian Youth Choir (between 2003 and 2005), and Le Choeur National des Jeunes.