2017 European Choir Games, Riga

[Oldcrofter]

Anyone know of any British choirs participating in the 3rd European Choir Games in Riga, Latvia this July 16th - 23rd ? (Much too late to enter now, of course.)

To quote from the website:

"This event invites all non-professional choirs of the world to participate, offering fair and realistic competition to experienced competitive choirs as well as to choirs with relatively little international experience.

The Grand Prix of Nations Riga 2017 combined with the 3rd European Choir Games offers the Open Competition, the European Champions Competition and the Grand Prix of Nations. These three competitions allow choirs the opportunity to participate at the appropriate level and even to qualify for the higher levels"

And, no, I don't particularly like the term "Games" in the title but these festivals originally were the World/European etc. "Choir Olympics" - I presume the IOC stopped them from using the term.

Just wondering if anyone knows of any British choirs entering.

[Gabriel Jackson]

Anyone know of any British choirs participating in the 3rd European Choir Games in Riga, Latvia this July 16th - 23rd ? (Much too late to enter now, of course.)

To quote from the website:

"This event invites all non-professional choirs of the world to participate, offering fair and realistic competition to experienced competitive choirs as well as to choirs with relatively little international experience.

The Grand Prix of Nations Riga 2017 combined with the 3rd European Choir Games offers the Open Competition, the European Champions Competition and the Grand Prix of Nations. These three competitions allow choirs the opportunity to participate at the appropriate level and even to qualify for the higher levels"

And, no, I don't particularly like the term "Games" in the title but these festivals originally were the World/European etc. "Choir Olympics" - I presume the IOC stopped them from using the term.

Just wondering if anyone knows of any British choirs entering.

The British participants appear to be: Funky Voices, TGS Motet Choir, Open Arts Community Choir, Cantamus Girls Choir, Barnsley Youth Choir

[Oldcrofter]

Thanks for the info, Gabriel. Hope they all enjoy the experience and enjoy the pleasure of meeting choir members from around the world. Hope also they begin to appreciate what choral singing means to people in the Baltic countries - a very powerful, almost visceral statement of identity and hard-won independence.

[greenilex]

Lovely place for a choral holiday. I remember the fairytale centre, rebuilt after the war, and the nearby beach resort at the estuary.

[Oldcrofter]

The five British choirs participating in Riga did extremely well - all won medals in a wide variety of categories - and apologies if I've missed one or two awards in the very long list of results:

Funky Voices won a silver, TGS Motet Choir (Tonbridge G.School, Kent) 2 golds and a 1st place, Open Arts Community Choir (Belfast) 2 golds & a silver, Cantamus Girls' Choir Mansfield, Notts.) 3 golds and a silver and Barnsley Youth Choir 4 golds.

In February of this year, Cantamus were 5th in the Youth Choir Interkultur world rankings and Farnham Youth Choir 35th. Barnsley may well move into the top 50 youth choirs after their success in Riga. The points gained in specific international competitions are cumulative over several years so placings reflect consistent success over those several years.

[DracoM]

Wouldn't it be good if the BBC broadcast some extracts.............not holding my breath.

[Oldcrofter]

I think it would be good if more UK choirs entered international events - for all sorts of reasons: listening to an enormous range of choral singing, meeting people from other countries, performing informally around the city, raising the choir's aspirations and performance level - memories and an experience that will last a lifetime.

The next European choir games are in Gothenburg, Sweden in two years time - an easy place to get to and no language problems (if that's what makes choirs hesitant ?) There are numerous videos on YouTube from this year's festival in Riga which give an idea of the atmosphere and range of performances.

e.g. TGS Motet Choir (Tonbridge Grammar School)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0EcKHbgYfE&t=629s

http://www.interkultur.com/events/european-choir-games/gothenburg-2019/