The winner of the 70th International Polyphonic Competition »Guido d’Arezzo« 2022 is En Kör from Stockholm, Sweden. Congratulations!
Also this year the magic of the Polyphonic has been accomplished: the 70th edition took place in the best way in the setting of the city of Guido Monaco and Petrarca.
70 years is certainly an important age and the Polyphonic is aware of it: 70 editions as a cultural vehicle of international importance with the participation of hundreds of choirs and thousands of choristers from all over the world, of countless personalities of the musical and cultural world broadly speaking, who have contributed, with their participation and their expertise within the various juries, to qualify “the Polyphonic” as the oldest and most prestigious choral competition in Europe, becoming a model for all the competition events born in the following years.
We wanted to underline the importance of this important anniversary by actively involving our partners of the European Grand Prix of Choral Singing: the jury was in fact composed, in addition to Georg Grün (Germany) and Dario Tabbia (Italy), by all our partners of this extraordinary initiative that came to life in Arezzo and has celebrated its 32nd edition this year in Tours: Gabriel Baltes representing Toulouse – Spain, Sébastien Durand of Tours – France, Gancho Ganchev of Varna – Bulgaria, Zoltán Kokcis-Holper of Debrecen – Hungary and Tadeja Vulc of Maribor – Slovenia.
As always, the “Guido d’Arezzo” Polyphonic Competition was not only a choral competition, but also a moment of cultural-musical in-depth analysis, in collaboration with the “Centro Studi Guidoniano” and the magazine “Polifonie” a conference-roundtable was organized on Franchino Gaffurio on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his death (Lodi, 14 January 1451 – Milan, 24 June 1522) and also a seminar on Cecilianism dedicated to the 75 years of Cesarino Ruini.
Also for the students of the School for Choir Conductors the Polyphonic represented an important experience: in addition to two masterclasses specifically dedicated to them, the students were the protagonists of the Study Tour led by M. Vladimiro Vagnetti, teacher of the school itself, carrying out analysis and evaluations, according to various parameters, of the performances of the choirs in competition.
There were also Concerts in the Province of some choirs registered for the Competition as well as evening exhibitions with two exceptional groups: the Ensemble Odhecaton, for the opening concert, and the Italian Youth Choir for the closing concert.
In addition to the 12 choirs in competition from Estonia, Israel, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the event was enhanced with an extraordinary event: the “Sophia” Choir of Kiev – Ukraine, celebrated the anniversary of the independence of its country on August 24, in the wonderful setting of the Church of San Domenico, under one of the artistic masterpieces present in this city: the Christ of Cimabue. The whole audience, who welcomed the choir with a standing ovation, experienced choral music as an extraordinary and moving vehicle of brotherhood, friendship and solidarity.
To sum up how much this year’s Polyphonic has meant, we think images are more meaningful than many words. See you next year!
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