As the largest and most influential international choral art event in China and the Asia-Pacific region, the China International Chorus Festival will gather top choral groups from all over the world on July every year. Featuring the opening ceremony, high-level concerts, masterclasses (workshops), choral public welfare initiatives, and a host of other diverse and vibrant events, it serves as the premier platform for choral enthusiasts to exchange expertise and showcase their talents.
With immense joy and honor, we are delighted to officially introduce the lineup of Honored Guest Choirs for the 2026 Festival. (Sorted by the English alphabetical order of countries/regions）
Let us meet in Beijing, and listen to the songs of the world!
The Hesse Youth Choir (LJCH), Germany
The Hesse Youth Choir (LJCH) was initiated by the Hesse state government in 2008. Since then, it has brought together outstanding young singers from all over the state, aged between 16 and 27. The choir has over 80 members, all selected through public and regular competitions across the state.
Concerts in Hesse usually take place at the Limburg Archbishop's Cathedral, the HR Radio Concert Hall, the Frankfurt Paul Church, and the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden. The choir also frequently participates in international cultural exchange and cooperation projects. In recent important performances, the choir performed Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and Haydn's "The Creation" choral symphony.
Since April 2023, Axel Pfeiffer has taken on the role of artistic director of the Hessen Youth Choir. Prior to this, he led the choir together with Jürgen Faßbender. Additionally, the choir frequently collaborates with guest conductors from both domestic and international sources, such as Oskar Egle from Austria, Justin Doyle from the UK, Maud Hamon-Loisance from France, Robert Sund from Sweden, Anne Kohler from Germany, and Franz Herzog from Austria.
Personal vocal training courses will be provided for each work stage. Since the establishment of the choir, two vocal teachers - Prof. Katharina Kutsch and Claudia Ramroth - have been continuously contributing to the development of the members' voices. Since 2021, they have also received support from additional rotating vocal teachers.
The choir's first concert tour was to Forralberg, Austria in 2010, and in 2015, it visited the friendly region of Hesse - the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. In 2023, to celebrate its 15th anniversary, the choir collaborated with the Hesse Youth Orchestra to perform Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana". In 2024, it also collaborated with the Hesse Youth Symphony Orchestra and performed Joseph Haydn's "The Creation" at the Weilburg Court Music Festival.
Choir of the State Symphony Capella of Russia, Russia
Choir of the State Symphony Capella of Russia was founded by the conductor Valery Polansky in 1971. In 1975, the Capella won the International Competition "Guido d'Arezzo" (Italy), winning the Gold Medal in the category "academic singing" and "Golden Bell" - the symbol of the best choir of the contest. In 1980, the Choir took part in the cultural program of the Summer Olympics in Moscow. The fame of the collective went well beyond Russia: the choir was invited to different festivals such as ``Singing Wroclaw`` and ``Prague Autumn`` (Czech Republic). They performed in Merano (Italy) , Izmir (Turkey), Naarden (Holland); memorable participation was in the famous "Promenade Concerts" of Royal Albert Hall (Great Britain) and in historical cathedrals of France - in Bordeaux, Amiens, Albi. The choir was invited many times to a festival in Spoleto (Italy), where it took part in the performance of Prokofiev's opera ``War and Peace``, Wagner 's Lohengrin, and also performed Orff`s cantata ``Carmina Burana`` in Geneva. It constantly tours the USA, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Croatia, Slovenia, Belarus. Over the years, the Choir of the State Symphony Capella has sung almost all the masses, oratorios, requiems and other spiritual opuses of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Liszt, Verdi, Dvorak, Rachmaninoff, Reger, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Schnittke. The noble, ideally balanced sounding and crystal-clear and precise intonation always distinguishes the choir of Valery Polyansky, for whom there are no unperformed music scores.
Somerville College Choir, University of Oxford, the United Kingdom
Somerville College Choir was founded in 2001, 6 years after the college went co-educational, the college having been founded in 1879 to allow Women to study at Oxford. The Choir is made up of 32 singers from Somerville College and the wider Oxford community. Consisting of choral scholars and volunteers, the choir meets twice weekly and is the only Oxford College Choir that sings primarily secular events.
Members of the Choir also sing in the National Youth Choir, the Rodolfus Choir, Gabrieli Roar, Genesis Sixteen, and Schola Cantorum of Oxford, and former members can be found at various music colleges, and as part of VOCES8. Recent highlights include workshops with Ben Parry (Former director of the National Youth Choir), the King’s Singers, Giles Underwood, Dame Emma Kirkby (an alumna of the college), and Rachel Nicholls, performances of Bach St John Passion and Mozart Requiem with the Instruments of Time and Truth, as well as a concert for refugees from Afghanistan with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, a gig with the Basin St Brawlers, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, and Handel Solomon with Imperial College Chamber Choir and the Oxford Baroque Players.
As well as numerous european tours, the choir was the first Oxford College Choir to tour to India engaging in outreach with multiple charities and performing three concerts to capacity audiences in Mumbai and Goa in 2018, revisiting the country in 2023 and additionally travelling to the USA in 2025.
The Portland State Chamber Choir, the Unites States
Classics Today calls The Portland State Chamber Choir “amongst the finest choirs in the world.” Since its founding in 1975, the Chamber Choir has performed and competed in venues across the country and around the world, earning over 30 medals and awards in international choir competitions including being the only American choir to have won the Seghizzi International Competition for Choral Singing in Italy in 2013, and the Bali International Choral Festival in Indonesia in 2017. They were a featured headline performing choir at the 2022 World Choral Exposition in Portugal.
The Chamber Choir records for Naxos, the largest Classical label in the world. Their 2012 album, A Drop in the Ocean was a finalist for the American Prize in Choral Music. Their 2014 recording Into Unknown Worlds, was named a “Recording to Die For” by Stereophile and was a finalist for the CARA Award for Best Classical Album. In 2015, the Chamber Choir’s recording of Sperry’s arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah was the soundtrack for a short film that was commissioned by Pope Francis for his Moral Action on Climate Change rally on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Their 2017 album The Doors of Heaven debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart (a first for a University choir), and was also a #1 seller on Amazon and iTunes. Their 2020 album Translations was named Album of the Year in both Gramophone and Stereophile.
The Portland State Chamber Choir collaborates regularly with the Oregon Symphony performing Classical masterworks such as Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony #2 “Resurrection”, and Beethoven’s Symphony #9, and even a fully staged production of Stravinsky’s Persephone directed by Michael Curry whose credits include The Lion King and Cirque du Soleil. In the summer of 2014, the Chamber Choir served as the chorus for the world premiere of the opera The Canticle of the Black Madonna by Ethan Gans-Morse. In 2015, members of all the choirs sang for the PICA Festival’s production of The Night Tripper, which involved singing Norwegian music in a park in the dark; joined a professional orchestras to perform Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses and Final Fantasy: Into Unknown Worlds; and became the North American Champions of Sangeeth Samraaj: The Carnatic Premiere League, an Indian reality television show similar to American Idol but devoted to the classical music of Southern India. D.C.
The UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, the United States
The UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, sponsored by the Department of Music, is the university’s premier concert choir. The chorus performs a cappella and choral-instrumental works and is particularly acclaimed for its readings of early and contemporary music. In 2009, it performed Handel’s L’Allegro with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the Mark Morris Dance Group. In 2010-2011, it performed Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel with the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio and James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words with the Berkeley Symphony under Joana Carneiro and works by Purcell under the direction of Matthew Oltman (emeritus director of Chanticleer). In 2012, the Chamber Chorus performed the Vaughan Williams Mass in G at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and Berg’s Wozzeck under Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen in Berkeley and in Los Angeles at Disney Hall.
In March, 2014, the chorus was one of three prestigious U.S. choirs to sing a concert of contemporary a cappella music at Carnegie Hall. In April 2015, it performed the Bach B minor Mass in Hertz Hall and choruses from John Adams, Death of KlinghoZer in Zellerbach Hall. In March 2019, in collaboration with Cal Performances, the chorus sang the world premiere of the oratorio Dreamers, music by Jimmy Lopez and libretto by Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, along with the professional choral ensemble Volti and the London Philharmonia under Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen in both Zellerbach Hall and Bing Hall at Stanford University. The Chamber Chorus has also appeared in concert tours to the East Coast, Canada, and Europe. Its performances have been featured in broadcasts of the Voice of America, Public Radio International, and Austrian Radio. Critics from the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Opera News alike have praised the chorus as “excellent,” “splendid,” “electric.” “The UC Chamber Chorus leaves no syllable unarticulated and no musical marvel unexplored” (San Francisco Examiner). Among Chamber Chorus recordings, its Handel Susannah on the harmonia mundi label won a Grand Prix du Disque. In 2022, Chamber Chorus won The American Prize in Choral Performance - college/university division (small program).
