NOTICE

Financial News, October 17, 2022, 11:16 AM / Updated October 17, 2022, 12:17 PM

The 2022 Busan International Choral Festival will take place from October 19th to 22nd at various venues, including Haeundae’s Film Center Sky Theatre and Sohyang Theater Shinhan Card Hall. The festival will kick off with choral workshops and a performance by the renowned British ensemble, The Swingles.

Over the past two years, the Busan International Choral Festival had to be held virtually due to the pandemic, with choirs participating in a virtual format. While the event has not fully recovered from the effects of COVID-19, this year marks the first in-person festival in three years.

On the first day, October 19th, the festival will begin with a choral workshop at 4:30 PM led by British judge Bob Chilcott at the Film Center Sky Theatre. The evening's opening performance will feature The Swingles, a world-class ensemble known for their versatility across genres from classical to pop, jazz, and folk music. The Swingles, with five Grammy Awards and over 50 albums to their name, will grace the stage at Sohyang Theater.

On October 20th, there will be intense choral competitions in the Youth and Classical categories, again at the Film Center Sky Theatre. At 4:30 PM, an Indonesian folk music workshop will be conducted by Tommyanto Kandisaputra. The first Gala Concert of the festival will follow at 8:00 PM, featuring the After Hours barbershop quartet from the United States, the 2018 Barbershop Harmony Society champions.

October 21st will see a pop a cappella competition in the morning, with a dazzling folk music competition in the afternoon. A festival choir rehearsal will take place at 4:30 PM, conducted by Lithuania’s Vytautas Miskinis. The evening performance at Sohyang Theater will feature the Telkom University Choir from Indonesia, which won three grand prizes at the 2021 Busan International Choral Festival and the 2019 Taiwan International Choral Festival.

The final day, October 22nd, will begin with a concert at the Busan Station Eurasia Platform, where participating choirs will perform for local citizens. The festival will conclude with the Grand Prix Final and Awards Ceremony at 5:00 PM at the Film Center Sky Theatre. The Grand Prix will feature the gold-winning choirs from each of the festival’s four categories, competing for a $20,000 prize.

Following the Grand Prix, the awards for the 2022 Busan International Choral Composition Competition will be presented. The winning composition, "Amihan" by Ily Matthew Maniano from the Philippines, will be performed by the Imusicapella choir, conducted by Tristan Ignacio.

The festival will wrap up with performances from the Youth and Adult Festival Choirs and the awards ceremony for the four competition categories. The event will close with a moving rendition of "Arirang," as participants and the audience join together to mark the conclusion of the 2022 Busan International Choral Festival.

This year’s festival, which began with the announcement of the choral composition competition results in July, will bring together 36 choirs from 6 countries, with around 1,500 participants, despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic.