The University of Kansas’ top choir is heading to Greece to compete with choirs from around the world in the 40th Preveza International Choir Competition, reports the Lawrence Times media outlet.
“I believe it brings the chance for everybody to grow in all plausible aspects — human aspects, number one, and professional aspects, number two,”said Eduardo García-Novelli, KU’s director of choral studies and the Chamber Choir conductor.
“I also believe in putting the bar high, so you establish a goal to work for and ask people to actually jump as high as they can, and when you do that, you actually get surprised that people do it simply because you aim high.”
According to the news report, the 40-member university choir traveling to Greece plans to enter into two categories of the competition: the mixed choir category and the free category. The free category only has the requirement of performance time — between 15 and 20 minutes of uninterrupted music — the mixed choir category has specific requirements and restrictions, such as performing sacred music inside of a church and including songs from four historical eras. Those four selections must be from the Renaissance period, from the Romantic period, from the first part of the 20th century, and by a living composer.
“This competition is essentially a festival for choirs to compete and to have the opportunity to share the love of the arts and to share the abilities and skill sets that choirs from around the world have,” said incoming senior Elizabeth Webster Webster, who sings the first soprano vocal part in the Chamber Choir.
The festival will be held from 4 to 10 of July 2022 in Preveza. The International Choral Festival of Preveza counts 39 interesting and exciting years of high-quality choral music, challenged by excellent choirs which are continuously raising its standards and a great variety of intercultural experiences with participants from all over the world.
The festival includes numerous concerts given at idyllic locations of the area like the seaside fortress of Preveza and the historic Ancient Auditorium of Nikopolis “Odeon”.
For visiting choirs, Preveza provides an opportunity not only to perform; but also, to experience some of the world’s best choral music, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the mingling, singing and fun, and explore the picturesque city of Preveza and its surrounds.
The festival will be managed by the Choral Society “Armonia” of Preveza, under the patronage of the city of Preveza. Choirs are eligible to join the festival as non-competitive choirs participating in all the performances of the festival.
