Basics

Basic Pillars

• Focus on the child

• Collaboration with composers

• Promoting children’s and youth choirs as a quality and distinct artistic instrument

• Multicultural education: global understanding and international friendship 

Collaborators

Initially, Songbridge was held under the auspices of the International Music Council's/UNESCO's 2000-2001 programme "Music and Peace” and is endorsed by the IFCM. Songbridge is organized in cooperation with international choir festivals and symposiums, such as the World Symposium on Choral Music (IFCM), Europa Cantat, America Cantat, and other reliable organizers.

About the Event

The participating 3-4 choirs, conductors, and composers arrive a week before the culminating concert. They stay together at the Songbridge Village, where they experience each other’s cultures, develop friendships and prepare for the Songbridge Gala Concert.

At the Gala Concert each choir presents a short program of their own representing their culture. Each choir then premieres a newly commissioned Songbridge composition, written by a composer representing their country. The Songbridge premiere compositions include the following sections, involving everyone present in the singing:

• a primary section for the commissioning choir

• shorter sections for the other participating Songbridge choirs to join in

• a section for the audience to sing along

Finally, all the participating choirs perform together, as one big choir, a traditional song from each country, and end the Gala Concert with Hymn to Freedom, by Oscar Peterson.