108 new choral works to date

Under the patronage of the ISCM (International Society for Comtemporary Music), which will be celebrating its 100th anniversary next year, the Swiss section, together with three other sections, has launched an international composition competition for contemporary choral music in order to provide new impetus for the choral scene, which has suffered greatly in times of coronavirus.

The Swiss ISCM section (Swiss Society for New Music SGNM) covers the category of equal voices (women's and men's choir). The deadline for submissions was the end of June; the response was exceptionally high: a total of 108 compositions by 78 composers from all over the world were received. The decision - in addition to David Rossel and Javier Hagen from the SGNM, Jan Schumacher, Vice President of the International Federation for Choral Music IFCM, is also on the jury - is expected in September. The prize-winning works of the SGNM will be premiered by the Männerstimmen Basel under the direction of Eric Whitacre at the Stadtcasino in Basel and by the Zurich Youth Choir under the direction of Marco Amherd in Andelfingen.

As announced, the competition will be continued in three further categories: Children's Choirs and Mixed Choirs separated into amateur and professional. While the calls for entries for the Basque and Estonian sections will be launched later in the year, the Latvian section's call for entries has just gone online: Works for children's choirs can be submitted until January 10, 2022. The winning works will then be premiered and recorded by the Riga Cathedral Girls' Choir Tiara, one of the best girls' choirs in Europe, under the direction of Aira Birziņa in the studios of Latvian Radio.

The competition rules can be found under the following link:
http://iscm-switzerland.ch/PDF/ISCM_Latvia_Choir_Competition_2021.pdf