The 16^th China International Chorus Festival

16th-20th July, 2022

1.    Introduction

Founded in 1992, China International Chorus Festival (CICF) is currently the only state-level international chorus festival in China which approved by the state council. As the largest-scale and highest-level international chorus festival held in China, CICF is a comprehensive choral event integrating professional and amateur choirs at home and abroad. It is held once every two years, and the past 15 CICFs have been proved a great success. According to incomplete statistics, more than 3,000 choirs in 90 countries and regions from five continents have participated in the festival. More than 120,000 choral members have directly participated in the online and offline choral activities and 10 million choral lovers were covered.

During the one-week festival, China international Chorus Festival will hold opening ceremony, China Choral Education Summit Forum, choir evaluation, international choirs’ online performances, China new choral works concert, master class (workshop), chorus public welfare activities, China annual award ceremony, closing concert and other colorful activities, which will provide the best platform for chorus lovers to exchange skills and show their talents.

Let's meet at the China International Chorus Festival - Come to Beijing, listen to the songs of the world!

2.    Evaluation Regulation

(1) Categories

According to the regulation of the Committee, a maximum of 10% of the singers may exceed the age limit.

Note: Those who do not meet the requirement in each category will be disqualified.

For choir that participate in multiple categories evaluations, each choir can participate in a maximum of two categories evaluations. Participating in each category is required to pay the corresponding evaluation fee.

(2)  Requirement of the repertoire

*Subject of the composition

The content of the composition should be healthy, positive, and the ideological orientation shall be correct. The original composition is supported and encouraged.

*Accompaniment

The forms of accompaniment include piano, accordion, unaccompanied or musical instruments with regional and ethnic characteristics (5 accompanists or less).

*Repertoire

Considering the current situation of COVID-19, the participating choirs could select two pieces.

For the published musical scores, legitimate musical scores or authorized musical scores shall be used; unauthorized copies shall not be used. Musical scores shall not be adapted without permission from the authors. Liabilities for any legal disputes arising from the copyright shall be borne by the performing choirs.

*Score

Each evaluation score must be submitted to the committee, and the score should be the internationally accepted stave, and the name of the song, songwriter and adaptor (if has) shall be included. The provided scores should indicate the order of singing. The organizing committee will no longer accept changes of the scores after June 1.

*Duration of singing

The singing time for participating choirs shall not exceed 12 minutes. The singing time starts from the beginning of the prelude to the end of the performance. Points will be deducted if the choirs sing beyond 12 minutes. For overtime less than one minute, 0.3 points will be deducted from the final score; for overtime more than one minute, 0.5 points will be deducted from the final score.

(3)  Evaluation

*Evaluation Committee and Evaluation System

China International Chorus Festival has set up an Evaluation Committee, under which an evaluation group is responsible for professional evaluation for participating choirs. The Evaluation Committee is composed by senior experts in the music field, including composers, conductors, theorists, singers, scholars, etc., and each evaluation group will be composed of 5-7 evaluation experts.

The experts of the Evaluation Committee will judge the performances of the participating choirs in accordance with the Evaluation System of China International Chorus Festival, which mainly focuses on the Basic Skills, Vocal Techniques and Artistry of the choirs. Details are as follows:

ⅠBasic Skills: Intonation (the distance of interval & absolute pitch), Faithfulness (Rhythm, Beat, Speed & Tempo, Dynamics, Style, Accuracy of Expression Mark);

ⅡVocal Techniques: Tone Production, Diction, Blending, Balance, Overall Harmony;

ⅢArtistry: Stylistic Performance of structure, moderation, rhythm and color & General Impression and Dynamics;

To make the evaluation more scientific and accurate, experts will give scores according to the criteria (Ⅰ) Basic Skills, (Ⅱ) Vocal Techniques, (Ⅲ) Artistry. The maximum score for each above three items is 10 points, and the average score which given by the five experts is the final score. The fraction is kept to two decimal places. Example is as follows:

The evaluation regulation is fully in line with international standard, and the evaluation system has been unanimously recognized by the International Federation for Choral Music and China Chorus Association. In order to reflect the international authority of China International Chorus Festival, an independent scoring system has been established instead of presetting number of awards.

(4)  Evaluation results

There is no proportion for each evaluation awards diplomas, and the proportion of the awards for each category will be determined by experts. The Organizing Committee will award the digital certificates to the choirs that have won diplomas.

1) The final evaluation results will be divided into four diplomas: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

2) Peace and Friendship Reward: award to overseas choirs with digital certificates.

3. Registration

Please provide the video recording and following documents via Wetransfer (https://wetransfer.com/) and send all above materials to our official email (cicifbj@163.com) before June 1, 2022.

*Documents:

1. Brief introduction of your choir (word file, within 200 words)

2. Three photos of your choir (jpg, at least 300 dpi)

3. Biography of your conductor (word file, within 150 words)

4. Two photos of your conductor (jpg, at least 300 dpi)

5. Music scores (pdf files)

Please write the name of the song, songwriter and adaptor (if has) in your file. The provided scores should follow the order of singing.

*The video recording must meet the following requirements:

1.      Please send MP4, AVI, MKV, WMV, MOV form;

2.      The video recording should be created no earlier than January 1, 2022;

3.      The provided video should be of high quality resolution (preferably 1920 × 1080 with a video aspect ratio of 16: 9);

4.      The choir should wear uniformed clothing;

5.      Modified video recording is not allowed;

6.      The sound should not contain extraneous noise;

7.      The theme of the video should be healthy, positive, and the ideological orientation shall be correct;

8.      Sacred or religious compositions are not allowed.

4. Participation Fee

To participate in the evaluation, the following registration fee has to be paid.

USD250-- for participation in one category,

USD500-- for participation in two categories.

The account information is as follows:

Account Name: CHINA CULTURAL INTERNATIONAL TOURS COMPANY LTD

Account Number: 0200080709004606256

Name of the Bank: INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA BRANCH DONG CHENG

Address of the Bank: NO.24 DONGSISHITIAO, DONGCHENG DISTRICT, BEIJING

PC: 100007

SWIFT Code: ICBKCNBJBJM

Please note the name and contact person of your choir when remitting.

5. Contact

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Ms. Guo Xin

Tel: +86-10-64000573

E-mail: cicfbj@163.com

F16 Easyhome Tower, A3 Dongzhimen South Street, Beijing, China