9th International Competition for Young Conductors – October 18-20 2019

• Les Pages et Chantres du CMBV (children and adults choirs)

Since its creation in 1987, the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles has a choir, Les Pages & les Chantres, which the number remind the one in activity at the Royal chapel at the end of Louis XIV reign. This choir gather the Pages (25 children) and the Chantres (17 adults, students in superior training of baroco vocal training) – female voices (dessus) et male voice (bas dessus, hautes-contre, tailles, basses tailles et basses) – accompagned by a continuo, the Symphonistes, conduct by Fabien Armengaud.

This training resuscitate the orginal configuration « à la françoise » that gives this unique sound design in Europe. With Olivier Schneebeli as conductor, it has become one of the most appreciate instrument to resuscitate the French musical heritage of 17th and 18th centuries, of the French royal court and the great catherdral time. The choir sings in France and beyond and participate to lyrical production

• Le Chœur des étudiants en direction de chœur d’Île-de-France (Choir of Île-de-France conducting students)

This choir has been created specially for the competition. It gathers students in choir conducting from conservatories of Île-de-France (Paris region) : Conservatories of Boulogne-Billancourt, Cergy and Paris.

• Le Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris (Choir of Paris Orchestra)

Cecilia McDowall will join the jury for the Final round.

The Institut français d’Art choral, commissions in collaboration with ECA-EC and SACEM, to Cecilia McDowall one piece that will be a part of the final of the competition.

The finalists will perform this piece with the Choir of Paris Orchestra.

The piece will be published by Oxford Univesity Press (more information soon).

Specifications

• Secular piece
• Language : English
• Length : 3-5 minutes
• a cappella choir : The Choir of Paris Orchestra.
• The choir is composed by 70 singers Soprano, alto, Tenor and Bass.
• Difficulty : Medium, so that « normal » amateur choirs can also sing it
• The commission a piece that would present different difficulties for the competitors. It has to make use of  the different competitors’ skills.

Text

Brightest Star

Composer

Cecilia McDowall

The International competition for young conductors is open to young experienced conductors under 30 years of age, born after 21st October 1989 and before 21st October 2001.

Application process

Any incomplete application will not be treated

1. Application and payment of the application fee to the competition until 31st May 2019
2. Results on 30th June 2019
3. Registration of selected applicants and payment of competition fee until  31th July 2019

Admission process – Application form

Admission process requires filling in of the online application form and uploading in the application form or sending (via Wetransfer, Dropbox or other file sharing software) the following documents to competition@artchoral.org:

• ID document (passport)
• Curriculum vitae / biography (in English)
• One colour photo (digital, maximum size 1MB)
• A recommendation letter of a conducting professor / a reputable choral expert / the national choral organisation of the candidate’s country (in English).
• A video recording of a choir concert or rehearsal on which the conducting skills of the candidate can be clearly seen (max. 10 minutes), recording date may not be prior to 1st January 2018

Deadline for applications : 31st May 2019

Applicants will be informed by 30/06/2019 if they have been accepted

Application Fee

1. Application to the competition until 31st May 2019
   Application fee:

   	ECA-EC direct member	ECA-EC indirect member	No member
   Country group 1	40 €	50 €	60 €
   Country group 2	30 €	40 €	50 €
   Country group 3	20 €	30 €	40 €

   > Pay the application fee

2. Registration of selected applicants and payment of competition fee until  31th July 2019
   Competition fee:
   

   	ECA-EC direct member	ECA-EC indirect member	No member
   Country group 1	280 €	300 €	320 €
   Country group 2	200 €	220 €	240 €
   Country group 3	130 €	150 €	170 €

Country groups: people from different countries pay a different participation fee.
The countries are the usual codes for internet domains.
Country group 1: AT, BE, CA, CH, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, HK, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, LU, NL, NO, SE, SG, UK, US
Country group 2: AR, CN, CO, CY, CZ, EE, GR, MT, PL, PT, SL, SK, TW, ZA and some overseas countries
Country group 3: AL, AM, BA, BG, BY, GE, HR, HU, KZ, LT, LV, MD, ME, MK, RO, RS, RU, TR, UA
If your country is not listed or you are not sure which country group you belong to, please write to competition@artchoral.org

Scholarship: check the Noël Minet Fund // Apply until 31/03/2019
The Noël Minet Fund can cover between 250€ and 500€ of the costs for conductors and composers under 30 to participate in the competition.

The applicants must be in agreement with the below rules.

• The decision of the Jury is final.
• Using the original pieces is the responsibility of the competitors.
• Official language of the competition is English, also for the rehearsals with the choirs. The choirs will have good knowledge of the repertoire.
• The competition consists of three rounds.

• 2001 : Budapest (Hongrie)
• 2002 : Tallinn (Estonie)
• 2004 : Vienne (Autriche)
• 2007 : Budapest (Hongrie)
• 2009 : Ljubljana (Slovénie)
• 2011: Budapest (Hongrie)
• 2013 : St. Petersbourg (Russie)
• 2015 : Turin (Italie)
• 2019 : Paris/Versailles (France)

Prize-winners of the different competitions include conductors such as Carlo Pavese, Florian Helgath, Dani Juris, Maria Goundorina, Mirga Grazinyte and Maud Hamon-Loisance, who have been and will be conducting Ateliers at EUROPA CANTAT Singing Weeks and festivals, as well as Peeter Perens and David Gálvez Pintado who were invited to the jury in 2011 and Michal Hájek who won the special prize of ECA-EC in 2011, an (assistant) conductorship at a EUROPA CANTAT festival.

Choral organisations in Europe are encouraged to also invite the newly discovered conducting talents from the competitions as workshop leaders to their events.