European Grand Prix for Choral Singing

Organizing committee and member cities

The EGP is organized by the organizing committees of the following choral competitions, from which the EGP contenders are selected:

:# Concorso Polifónico Guido d'Arezzo (International Guido d'Arezzo Polyphonic Contest) - Arezzo, Province of Arezzo, Italy :# Béla Bartók International Choir Competition - Debrecen, Hajdú-Bihar county, Hungary :# International Choral Competition Gallus Maribor - Maribor, Slovenia :# Certamen Coral de Tolosa (Tolosa Choral Competition) - Tolosa, Basque Country, Spain :# International Baltic Sea Choir Competition (IBSCC) - Jūrmala, Region of Jūrmala, Latvia :# International May Choir Competition «Prof. G. Dimitrov» - Varna, Varna Province, Bulgaria

Each individual contest is usually referred to by the name of its host city instead of the competition's official title. The grand prize winners of each contest are automatically eligible to compete at the EGP.

The hosting of each annual EGP competition is rotated among the six member cities.

History

The European Grand Prix for Choral Singing was created in 1988 through the initiative of the competitions of AREZZO (Italy), DEBRECEN (Hungary), GORIZIA (Italy) and TOURS (France) Two others have also been associated: VARNA (Bulgaria) in 1989, and TOLOSA (Basque Country/Spain) in 1990. In 2008 Gorizia stepped out of the Association and MARIBOR (Slovenia) joined it. In 2024, JURMALA (Latvia) became a new member and TOURS (France) ceased its activity.

Regulations

Eligibility

As mentioned earlier, the contest is open only to the grand prize winners of the six-member European choral competitions in the previous year. In other words, if a choir wins the grand prize in any of the six cities' choral contests, it is eligible for then next year's EGP. Consequently, this also means that, unlike other choral competitions, the EGP does not solicit participants to the contest; no choir may directly apply or audition in order to join the EGP. If an eligible choir backs out, a substitute choir may take its place; as a penalty, any choir that backs out will not be eligible to compete in any of the six qualifying contests for the next year.

No choir may win the grand prize in more than one qualifying competition in a single year. For example, if a choir is named the grand prize winner in Arezzo, it is automatically disqualified to compete in the contests in the five remaining cities for the rest of the year.

There are no specific regulations prohibiting a former finalist (or even a former laureate) from competing in (or even winning again) the EGP more than once. The Philippine Madrigal Singers (laureate of the 1997 EGP) have won the 2006 Florilège Vocal de Tours, going on to win the Grand Prize in 2007 in Arezzo, Italy. In the same competition, the Madrigal Singers competed with the Vesna Children's Choir (laureate of the 2000 EGP), who won the grand prize of the 2006 Tolosa competition.

Repertoire and choir membership

Each competing choir is required to sing in the same group/category as they performed in respective competitions. Choirs are encouraged to perform songs from various eras and composers. Songs with accompaniment (by any instrument) are allowed as long as the total length of accompanied songs does not exceed ten (10) minutes. The host city determines the total maximum performance time allowed to each finalist.

Each competing choir is also required to have the same number of singers it had from the qualifying competition, plus or minus ten percent (10%) of that number. The total number of singers per choir may be a minimum of 12 singers and a maximum of 60 singers regardless of the number of voice sections or groups; this is because the eligibility requirements vary for each of the six qualifying competitions. Because of this, it is possible for mixed-voice choirs to compete directly against all-male and all-female choirs; it is also possible for children's choirs to compete against adult choirs (and even win, as in 2000, 2001, 2017, and 2018).

The grand prize winner

The EGP grand prize winner, or laureate, is awarded a diploma, a trophy and additional prizes to be determined by the host city, including a cash prize of up to 4,000 Euros (usually awarded).

The EGP winner is not allowed to compete in any international choral competition, member of the European Grand Prix Association, for two years.

Laureates

The following are the lists of grand prize winners for the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing.

Laureates per year

Laureates per country

Laureates per continent

References

Notes

References

1. [http://www.polifonico.org/index.php/polifonico_ita_it/notizie/primo_piano/polifonico_2007_dedicato_a_giovanni_maria_nanino] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-09-29 List of winners at the 2007 Arezzo competition, including the GPE)
2. link. (2007-10-11 "Madrigal Singers win European Grand Prix for the second time". The Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 27, 2007.)
3. "EGP Winners 1989 – present".
4. {{usurped
5. [http://www.euskosare.org/kultura/certamen_tolosa_ganador_06-es] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-09-27. News article in Spanish)
6. {{usurped
7. [http://www.gpeuropa.com/text/palmares.html] {{Webarchive. link. (2006-05-09 List of GPE Winners, from GPE official website.)
8. link. (2011-09-05 List of GPE Winners, from Concurso Tolosa official website.)
9. xabiero. "42nd International Choir Competition "Prof. Georgi Dimitrov" and 34th EGP finale".