European Grand Prix for Choral Singing

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The European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (in French, Grand Prix European de Chant Choral, commonly abbreviated as European Choral Grand Prix or GPE) is an annual choral competition between the winners of six European choral competitions. It was inaugurated in 1989.

Despite its name, the GPE is not limited to European choirs; this is because choirs from any country can join the choral competitions in any of the GPE's member-cities. As of 2007, one choir from Japan and two choirs from the United States have won the GPE, while a choir from the Philippines has won the GPE twice. In addition, the contest is not limited to adult choirs; two of the grand prize-winning choirs are children's choirs.

As of 2008, two choirs have won the EGP twice: the Philippine Madrigal Singers^[1][2] (1997 and 2007) and A.P.Z. Tone Tomšič (2002 and 2008).^[3]

Contents 1 Organizing committee and member cities 2 Regulations 2.1 Eligibility 2.2 Repertoire and choir membership 2.3 The grand prize winner 3 List of Winners 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Organizing committee and member cities

The GPE is organized by the organizing committees of the following choral competitions, from which the GPE contenders are selected:

1. Concorso Polifónico Guido d'Arezzo (International Guido d'Arezzo Polyphonic Contest) - Arezzo, Province of Arezzo, Italy
2. Bela Bartok International Choir Competition - Debrecen, Hajdú-Bihar county, Hungary
3. Concorso «Cesare Augusto (C.A.) Seghizzi» (C.A. Seghizzi Competition) - Gorizia, Province of Gorizia, Italy (also known as the Seghizzi contest)
4. Concurso Coral de Tolosa (Tolosa Choral Competition) - Tolosa, Basque Country, Spain
5. Florilège Vocal de Tours (Tours Vocal Competition) - Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France
6. International May Choir Competition «Prof. G. Dimitrov» - Varna, Varna Province, Bulgaria

Each individual contest is usually referred to by the name of its host city instead of the competition's official title. The grand prize winners of each contest are automatically eligible to compete at the GPE.

The hosting of each annual GPE competition is rotated among the six member cities. In 2007, the City of Arezzo hosted the GPE; the next installment of the GPE will be held in Debrecen^[4]

[edit] Regulations

[edit] Eligibility

As mentioned earlier, the contest is open only to the grand prize winners of the six member European choral competitions in the previous year. In other words, if a choir wins the grand prize in any of the six cities' choral contests, it is eligible for then next year's GPE. Consequently, this also means that, unlike other choral competitions, the GPE does not solicit participants to the contest; no choir may directly apply or audition in order to join the GPE. If an eligible choir backs out, a substitute choir may take its place; as a penalty, any choir that backs out will not be eligible to compete in any of the six qualifying contests for the next year.

No choir may win the grand prize in more than one qualifying competition in a single year. For example, if a choir is named the grand prize winner in Arezzo, it is automatically disqualified to compete in the contests from the five remaining cities for the rest of the year.

There are no specific regulations prohibiting a former finalist (or even a former laureate) from competing in (or even winning again) the GPE more than once. The Philippine Madrigal Singers (laureate of the 1997 GPE) have won the 2006 Florilège Vocal de Tours^[5], going on to win the Grand Prize in 2007 in Arezzo, Italy. In the same competition, the Madrigal Singers competed with the Vesna Children's Choir (laureate of the 2000 GPE), who won the grand prize of the 2006 Tolosa competition^[6].

[edit] Repertoire and choir membership

Each competing choir is required to sing in the same group/category as they performed in respective competitions. Choirs are encouraged to perform songs from various era and composers. Songs with accompaniment (by any instrument) are allowed as long as the total length of accompanied songs does not exceed ten (10) minutes. The host city determines the total maximum performance time allowed to each finalist.

Each competing choir is also required to have the same number of singers it had from the qualifying competition, plus or minus ten percent (10%) of that number. The total number of singers per choir may be a minimum of 12 singers and a maximum of 60 singers regardless of the number of voice sections or groups; this is because the eligibility requirements vary for each of the six qualifying competitions. Because of this, it is possible for mixed-voice choirs to compete directly against all-male and all-female choirs; it is also possible for children's choirs to compete against adult choirs (and even win, as in 2000 and 2001).

[edit] The grand prize winner

The GPE grand prize winner, or laureate, is awarded a diploma, a trophy and additional prizes to be determined by the host city, including a cash prize of up to 4,000 Euros (usually awarded).

The GPE winner is not allowed to compete in any international choral competition, member of the European Grand Prix Association, for two years.

[edit] List of Winners

The following are the list of grand prize winners for the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing. ^[7][8][9]

Laureates of the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing

Year	Host	Choir	Director/Conductor	City of Origin	Country of Origin
1989	Arezzo	Kammerkoret	Poul Emborg and Fleming Windekilde	Copenhagen	Denmark
1990	Debrecen	(postponed)	NA	NA	NA
1991	Tours	Chamber Choir of the Conservatoire	Tadas Sumskas	Vilnius	Lithuania
1992	Gorizia	St Jacobs Kammerchör	Gary Graden	Stockholm	Sweden
1993	Varna	Jauna Muzika	Vaclovas Augustinas and Romas Skapas	Vilnius	Lithuania
1994	Tolosa	The Mats Nilsson Vocal Ensemble	Mats Nilsson	Stockholm	Sweden
1995	Arezzo	Kallos Choir	Fumiaki Kuriyama	Tokyo	Japan
1996	Debrecen	Pro Musica Leanykar	Denes Szabo	Nyiregyhaza	Hungary
1997	Tours	Philippine Madrigal Singers	Andrea Veneracion	Quezon City	Philippines
1998	Gorizia	University of Mississippi Concert Singers	Jerry Jordan	Oxford, MS	United States
1999	Varna	Lunds Vocal Ensemble	Ingemar Mansson	Lund	Sweden
2000	Tolosa	Vesna Children Choir	Alexander Ponomariov	Moscow	Russia
2001	Debrecen	Magnificat Children Choir	Valeria Szebelledi	Budapest	Hungary
2002	Arezzo	A.P.Z. Tone Tomšič	Stojan Kuret	Ljubljana	Slovenia
2003	Tours	Ensemble Brevis	Gintautas Venislovas	Vilnius	Lithuania
2004	Gorizia	Jauniesu Koris "Kamer..."	Maris Sirmais	Riga	Latvia
2005	Varna	Allmånna Sangen	Cecilia Rydenger Ahlin	Uppsala	Sweden
2006	Tolosa	The University of Utah Singers	Brady Allred	Salt Lake City	United States
2007	Arezzo	Philippine Madrigal Singers	Mark Anthony Carpio	Quezon City	Philippines
2008	Debrecen	A.P.Z. Tone Tomšič	Urša Lah	Ljubljana	Slovenia

Here are the tally of winners by country as of 2008:

•  Sweden produced the most number of laureates at four (4) choirs.
•  Lithuania has three (3) laureates, all from Vilnius).
•  Hungary,  United States each have two (2) choirs winning the grand prize.
•  Philippines and  Slovenia have one choir winning twice Philippine Madrigal Singers and A.P.Z. Tone Tomšič
•  Denmark,  Japan,  Latvia and  Russia each have one choir emerging as the GPE laureate.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• European Grand Prix for Choral Singing - GPE Official home page
• Official web sites for each member-city:
  • Arezzo
  • Debrecen
  • Gorizia (Seghizzi)
  • Tolosa
  • Tours
  • Varna
• Laureates of the GPE (Official websites, except where noted; arranged by year)
  • Jauna Musica (1993)
  • Philippine Madrigal Singers (1997 and 2007)
  • Lunds Vocal Ensemble (1998)
  • University of Mississippi Concert Singers (1998)
  • Vesna Children Choir (2000) - information page from another website, not an official web site
  • A.P.Z. Tone Tomsic (2002 and 2008)
  • The University of Utah Singers (2006)