MUSICA MUNDI Choir Competitions
The first step of the „MUSICA MUNDI” series founded in 1988 was the 1st Budapest International Choir Competition, which laid down the bases of one of the biggest and most successful choral event series.
Meanwhile the name Musica Mundi has become the symbol of a globally unique artistic concept. The essence of the idea is to allow average choirs making up the backbone of the choral movement to take part at competitions alongside top choirs of the world.
This is a crucial point because the doors of grand international contests were practically closed for these choirs.
This fundamental idea in manifested in a system where the competition is announced on various difficulty levels with or without compulsory pieces and in a wide range of categories from madrigals through, classical and modern, avant-garde choral music to jazz.
Beside Grand Prizes, special and category prizes given to the best groups of the competitions the international jury hands out golden, silver and bronze diplomas to each participant based on a standardised evaluation system, which truly reflects the achievement of the choirs.
The initiative found enthusiastic followers all over the world and it served as a professional model for a long row of events in Hungary (Budapest, Eger, Veszprém), in Europe (Italy – Riva del Garda, Grado, Venice, Salo, Salsomaggiore Terme, Germany – Zwickau, Pohlheim, Wernigerode, the Czech Republic – Litomysl, Sweden – Helsingborg), in Israel (Netanya), and the United States (Fort Lauderdale – Florida).
The highlight of the series is the Choir Olympics organised every second year, which similarly to the Olympic Games is a noble competition where every age group may compare their knowledge in nearly all the genres of the choral literature.
The 1st Choir Olympics took place in Linz in 2000 that was followed by further events in 2002 in South Korea, in 2004 in Bremen (Germany) and the last edition was in 2006 in Xiamen (China). The next gathering of choirs will be in 2008 in Graz (Austria).