The 12th Incheon International Choral Festival, hosted by the Incheon City Chorale (artistic director Yoon Eui-jung), concluded its five-day schedule held from September 8 to 12 at the Art Center Incheon Concert Hall and the Grand Theater of the Incheon Culture and Arts Center. With 54 choirs and some 2,500 participants from Korea and abroad, it was staged on the largest scale in its history.
 [코리안투데이] The combined chorus stage at the 12th Incheon International Choral Festival © 장형임 기자 |
Launched in 2012 as the ‘Our Neighborhood Choral Festival’, the event has expanded in size and scope year after year. This year the number of participants reached 54 teams and some 2,500 people, making it the largest stage since the festival began.
What stands out in particular is that the festival is run not as a ranked competition but as an exchange in which participants appreciate and share one another’s performances. Rather than determining winners and losers, the practice of singing together and building friendships served as a device offering both performers and audiences a musical experience free of pressure.
Invited choirs from overseas added an international flavor. The Philippines’ ‘Los Cantantes de Manila’, Indonesia’s ‘Medan Community Choir’, and Burundi’s ‘Umucyo Youth Choir’ presented the music and choral traditions distinctive to their countries, drawing enthusiastic responses from the audience. As choirs of different languages and nationalities gathered in one place, the festival became a window through which Incheon citizens could encounter choral music from around the world without leaving their region.
The participation of local Incheon choirs was also notable. A total of 32 choirs — including children’s choirs as well as citizen, women’s, men’s, senior, and choirs of people with disabilities — took the stage, showing the breadth of a regional choral culture spanning generations and social groups. In that citizens of different ages and circumstances each presented their own performances while also watching those of others, sharing the value of ‘a song sung together’, the festival clearly took on the character of a citizen-participatory cultural event rather than one for professional performers alone.
Toward the close of each performance, a combined chorus featuring all the performers followed. Accompanied by percussion melodies, hundreds of choral artists sang ‘Incheon Arirang’, composed by Woo Hyo-won, as one voice, creating a vast harmony, and cheers erupted from the seats. It was a moment in which stage and audience alike affirmed the intrinsic value of choral singing — coming together beyond competition.
Artistic director Yoon Eui-jung said, ‘Through this festival, we were able to reaffirm once again the power of choral music to communicate with one another and become one through song’, adding, ‘We will continue to create various venues for exchange and encounter so that the Incheon International Choral Festival can grow into a choral culture platform connecting not only the region but also Korea and the world’.
The Incheon City Chorale plans to continue its activities as a cultural and artistic organization representing Incheon, carrying on performances that breathe together with citizens and choral exchanges at home and abroad.
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