A bigger than life choral singing movement

The renowned artist who has a reputation for thinking big, says nonetheless that he gave himself a few years to get the project off the ground. It should go without saying and without denigrating it, that this year's first edition of the Laval World Choral Singing competition will hardly match the scope and extent of the Olympics of Choral Singing held in Xiamen, China and at which the Collège Vocal finished second.

To the large Olympiad involving 300 choirs from all over the world was added the large-scale presentation undertaken by the host country. From the first moments of the opening ceremonies held in a hall in front of 8,000 people, the audience easily concluded that China was going to do this in a very big way. The evening would have been that much spectacular had a typhoon not forced the cancellation of the march of the choral singers onto the site.

The Collège Vocal choral singers were not alone in Xiamen. They were accompanied by representatives of Mondial Choral and the city of Laval, since both groups dreamed of some day bringing the event to Laval. The members of these delegations were amazed both by the extent of the event and their exposure to Chinese culture.

Until then, Mondial Choral had allowed for the discovery of the various aspects of choral singing, but the festival mostly featured local groups. The Choral Singing Olympics afforded a look into other repertoires and traditions associated with the presentation of musical pieces, in relation to both body language and costumes. Asian choirs represented two-thirds of the participating groups.