Kamarikuoro Kaamos

Organised now for the 19th time, the Tampere Vocal Music Festival came to a close on Sunday with the concluding concert of the international Chorus Review, where the jury distributed a total of EUR 8,500 in awards.

The Chorus Review was of a very high standard. The rarely awarded Grand Prix and the highest accolade of three gold stamps went to Chamber Choir Kaamos from Helsinki, Finland, together with a prize of EUR 2,000. Two other choirs were awarded three gold stamps and a prize of EUR 1,700 each.

The choirs awarded three gold stamps were:
– Chamber Choir Kaamos (Helsinki), Grand Prix, conductor Dani Juris
– Aino-kuoro (Turku, Finland), conductor Satu Luukkonen
– Kauppakorkeakoulun Ylioppilaskunnan Naislaulajat (KYN)
[Women’s choir of the Helsinki School of Economics], conductor Kaija Viitasalo

The following choirs were awarded two gold stamps and a prize of EUR 1,300 each:
– Anglo-Chinese Junior College Alumni Choir (Singapore), conductor Valarie Wilson
– Graabrødre Chamber Choir (Copenhagen, Denmark), conductor Gorm Larsen

Also, conductors Satu Luukkonen and Kaija Viitasalo received a special prize of EUR 250 for best stage performance.

The Chorus Review formed part of the Tampere Vocal Music Festival. This year, 48 choirs from eight countries participated in the Chorus Review, thirteen of them from outside Finland. Out of the 48, thirteen were selected by the jury to perform in the concluding concert to provide a cross-section of the best performances. The jury members were Matti Hyökki (chairman) and Juha Kuivanen from Finland, Aarne Saluveer from Estonia, and Sofia Söderberg Eberhard and Mats Nilsson from Sweden.

The Chorus Review is not a competition, but choirs are ranked according to their skills and performance on a scale of one, two or three stamps of bronze, gold or silver, the lowest ranking being one bronze stamp and the highest three gold stamps. All types of choir may participate. The purpose of the Chorus Review is to raise the standard of choral singing, to encourage choirs to set goals for themselves and to give choirs the opportunity to receive feedback from a professional jury. Participants are free to choose their repertoire, although a cappella music is encouraged. Each performance is limited to 15 minutes from entrance to exit.

Earlier during the Festival in the Contest for Vocal Ensembles, Postyr Project from Denmark was awarded first prize, followed by Sonic Suite from Germany with second prize and Egregor Vocal from France and Cappella’A from Lithuania with third prize ex aequo.

The Festival featured a wide range of concerts that reached out to a wide audience. The overriding theme of the festival was boundlessness, which manifested itself in the great diversity of the programmes presented: everything from classical and popular choral and vocal ensemble music to Bulgarian ethno-jazz and electronically processed Medieval music. A series of workshops featured topics such as composition, voice production techniques and performance skills. There was also a very productive panel discussion about the funding of choral activities in Finland.

Preliminary estimates indicate that the total number of visitors at the concerts and numerous free public events of the Festival was more than 27,000.

The next Tampere Vocal Music Festival will be held on 5 to 9 June 2013. The Artistic Director of the next festival is Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, one of Finland’s internationally best-known choral composers.