59th Choral Art Festival Jihlava 2016

3th June – 5th June 2016, Jihlava

The Festival is organized by NIPOS-ARTAMA Prague and by the Společnost pro FSU, o. s. Jihlava [The Society for CAF, c. a. Jihlava], both authorized by the Ministry of Culture and with financial support of that Ministry.

I. THE FEATURES AND THE MISSION OF THE FESTIVAL
The Festival is a prestigious choral art event with many years’ tradition that allows the presentation and mutual interpretation comparison of top Czech amateur choirs with choirs from abroad.
59th Choral Art Festival Jihlava 2016 is designed as a choirs’ festival accompanied by the international competition of choirs and by the specialized course – atelier. The organizer’s effort is to realize so called ‘satellite’ concerts in cities and villages of the Vysočina region and accompanying festival concerts in Jihlava before or after the term of the Festival. 
One part of the Festival will be the presentation of results of the present and previous years of the International Compositors Competition Jihlava, whose mission is to give rise and to support the formation of new artistically valuable and in terms of sound interesting works that will be understandable for interpretation by the biggest possible number of non-professional vocal groups. 
The official anouncement of the results of the 13th year of the International Compositors Competition Jihlava 2016 will be held in the frame of the 59th year of the CAF.

II. THE ORGANIZATION AND THE COURSE
59th year of the Festival will be composed from four Festival concerts in Jihlava, the International Choirs’ Competition and workshop. The choirs from abroad will participate in the festival (non-competitive) part together with domestic choirs that won in last competitive years, or as the case may be other outstanding domestic choirs. The Gustav Mahler Philharmonic Orchestra is tipped to co-participate in one of Festival concerts. The Festival Committee is charged with the control of Festival preparations.
The Czech public will be informed about the Festival via the Cantus bulletin issued by the Czech Choirs’ Union, than on the web site of NIPOS (www.nipos-mk.cz), on the web site of the Society for CAF, c. a. Jihlava (www.fsujihlava.com), on the web portal ‘Czech Choirs’ (www.ceske-sbory.cz) and in the catalogue of choral activities in the Czech Republic ‘Choral Life’ (http://festivaly.ucps.cz).
The foreign professional public will be informed in the ‘ICB’ journal issued by IFCM (International Choral Federation) and in the English yearbook ‘Bri­tish and Inter­nati­o­nal Music Yearbook 2016’.

II.A/ THE FESTIVAL (NON-COMPETITIVE) PART 
Programme of the Festival part
Friday 3th June 2016 at 7 p.m., – 1st Festival concert;
Saturday 4th June 2016 at 3 p.m.,– 2nd Festival concert; 
Saturday 4th June 2016 at 7 p.m.,– 3rd Festival concert
Sunday 5th June 2016 at 10 a.m.,– 4th Festival concert.

II.B/ THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION OF CHOIRS CAF JIHLAVA 2016 
Date: 4th June 2016
The organizers NIPOS-ARTAMA Prague and Společnost pro FSU, o.s. Jihlava [The Society for CAF, c.a. Jihlava] announce following competition categories:
Category 1A – Chamber choirs up to 24 members (male, female, mixed) with the obligatory composition – i.e. first performed new composition or composition from the Composer Competition
Category 2A – Big mixed choirs up to 60 members (male, fiale, mixed) with the obligatory composition (see the Category 1A)
Category 1B – Chamber choirs (male, female, mixed) with the free programme (without the obligatory composition)
Category 2B – Big mixed choirs up to 60 members (male, female, mixed) with the free programme (see the Category 1B).

The winning choirs from A-categories will perform at the closing evening concert.
The winning choirs from B-categories will perform at some of outdoor concerts (i.e. Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning).

III. THE CONDITIONS OF THE PARTICIPATION AND APPLICATIONS:

For the Festival Part of the CAF could apply Czech and foreign choirs that achieved demonstrable success in inland or abroad. 
The dramaturgy of the programme of the Czech Festival choirs should bring beside other things compositions of contemporary authors or compositors from 20th and 21st centuries. The programme of foreign choirs should give information about the choral production of given country and its contemporary compositors’ trends. The performance of foreign choirs is limited to the time of 30 minutes. 
The choirs selected into the Festival part will choose and perform (upon agreement) one of awarded compositions from the International Compositors Competition Jihlava.
The choirs will send the short information (choir characteristic, number of members, address, contacts, conductor’s CV, programme draft with sacred and secular themes with times of individual compositions), the present DVD recording or link to the present video at the public network to: NIPOS‑Artama, Iva Daňková, P. O. BOX 12 / Fügnerovo náměstí 5, 120 21 Praha 2 Czech Republic or via email: dankova@nipos-mk.cz till 31st January 2016.

Czech and foreign choirs could participate in the Competition Part. Each choir can apply for one category only. The Competition is ruled by the independent Competition Rules, which is mentioned in a separate point below (See the Competition Rules for the Category 1A + 2A and the Competition Rules for the Category 1B + 2B).
The applicants for Competition will send their applications to: NIPOS-Artama, Iva Daňková, P. O. BOX 12 / Fügnerovo nám. 5, 120 21 Praha 2, Czech Republic or via email: dankova@nipos-mk.cz till 31st January 2016The application form will be for downloading at www.nipos-mk.cz or www.fsujihlava.com.
Till 29th February 2016:
The confirmation of the participation in the Competition will be sent to the applied choirs;
Other details will be sent to the accepted choirs.

IV. THE SELECTION AND THE EVALUATING

The Festival Committee shall assess the received applications; it will sort the choirs into the Festival concerts and into the Competition. The Festival Committee reserves the right for the selection of choirs and the sorting them into respective categories. The results of the selection will be introduced to all applied choirs till the end of February 2016. The selected choirs will receive in consequence the schedule and other details.
The participation at the Festival will be confirmed to all choirs till the end of February 2016.

V. THE FINAL PROVISIONS
The Fes­ti­val is financed on the base of multi-resources principle. The main financial sources are non-investment grants and contributions from the Ministry of the Culture, statutory city of Jihlava and Vysočina region. The conditions of the participation of the choirs in the festival part will be specified in the official invitation.
In the case of economic problems the Festival programme should be reduced or cancelled.

 

 

THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION OF CHOIRS FSU [CAF] JIHLAVA 2016 (see II.B, III.)

Date: 4th June 2016
The organizers NIPOS-ARTAMA Prague and Společnost pro FSU, o.s. Jihlava [The Society for CAF, c.a. Jihlava] announce following competition categories:
Category 1A – Chamber choirs up to 24 members (male, female, mixed) with the obligatory composition – i.e. first performed new composition or composition from the Composer Competition
Category 2A – Big mixed choirs up to 60 members (male, female, mixed) with the obligatory composition (see the Category 1A)
Category 1B – Chamber choirs (male, female, mixed) with the free programme (without the obligatory composition)
Category 2B – Big mixed choirs up to 60 members (male, female, mixed) with the free programme (see the Category 1B).

The winning choirs from A-categories will perform at the closing evening concert.
The winning choirs from B-categories will perform at some of outdoor concerts (i.e. Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning).

Competition Rules for the Categories 1A + 2A: A:
Non-professional youth and adult choirs only in the number up to 24 members (chamber choirs) or up to 60 members (big mix choirs) can take part in the Competition. The conductor can be a professional. Potential instrumentalists are not counted into the number of singers.
The organizers could limit the number of competing choirs or cancel any of the Category on the grounds of capacity and of economic reasons.
The total time limit of the competition programme is 20 minutes (i.e. including the entrance and leaving of choir). The sequence of compositions is of choir’s own choice.
The Competition is public.
The Competition will take place at Saturday 4th June 2016, the announcement of results at the following evening concert.
The verbal consultations of conductors will be held on 4th June 2016 in the frame of the evening encounter with jurors.
The ‘first performed new composition’ will be evaluated as anonymous (the name of the composition and numerical code will be published in the programme) and separately.
The competition performance of choirs will be evaluated by the professional jury appointed by the organizers.

The Composition of Competition Programme:
1. The ‘first performed new composition’ – we understand under this term:
EITHER the composition of a Czech composer on any text a cappella or accompanied with 1–2 instruments that has never been performed in the Czech Republic before (the choir procure the composition itself [e.g. via addressing of selected composer] or support it with the declaration that the composition has not been performed in the Czech Republic till now);
OR the composition from the Composer Competition of CAF that has never been performed before (the previews of selected compositions from the Composer Competition are published at www.fsujihlava.com; the organizers provide it in the case of interest).
2. The free choose of compositions a cappella or accompanied with acoustic music instruments till the time limit (the compositions of 20th and 21st centuries’ composers take precedence).

The Evaluation Criteria:
Technical Merit – vocal culture and singing technique, intonation, rhythm;
Interpretation Criteria – using the means of music expression (dynamics, tempo, agogics, timber), composition and phrasing, stylishness of the interpretation, dramaturgy of the competition performance, grade of difficulty;
General Artistic Presentation – expression impact to the audience, contact of the choir with the conductor; 
General Final Impression from the performance of the ‘first performed new composition’.

The Jury:
The competition performance will be evaluated by the professional jury appointed by the organizers that will by composed of Czech or as the case may be of foreign professionals. It evaluates (with points) on the one hand the total interpretation level of the choir (on the basis of ‘a-c’ points of the Evaluation Criteria) an on the other hand the interpretation of the ‘first performed new composition’ (according to the ‘d’ point of the Evaluation Criteria).

Awards:
The professional jury can to rank the choir according to the competition result into the golden, silver or bronze level. The most successful ‘first performed new compositions’ will be awarded separately. The special awards could be awarded.
The best choir – the choir which obtains the high score in points in the golden level, got the financial award of CZK 10,000.
The organizers could arrange for the concerts of the best choirs from the Competition in the frame of Festival concerts.

Financial Requirements:
The participation fee for choirs from abroad is EUR 15 for a member.
The organizers try to provide a subsidy for the accommodation (one night) and for the transport inside the Czech Republic; the food allowance will not be included into the services provided. In the case of economic problems could be one of abovementioned services cut down.


Applications:
The applicants for Competition will send their applications to: NIPOS-Artama, Iva Daňková, P. O. BOX 12 / Fügnerovo nám. 5, 120 21 Praha 2, Czech Republic or via email: dankova@nipos-mk.cz till 31st January 2015. The application form will be for downloading at www.nipos-mk.cz or www.fsujihlava.com.
Till 29th February 2016:
The confirmation of the participation in the Competition will be sent to the applied choirs;
Other details will be sent to the accepted choirs.

Competition Rules for the Category 1B + 2B:
Non-professional youth and adult choirs only in the number up to 24 members (chamber choirs) or up to 60 members (big mix choirs) can take part in the Competition. The conductor can be a professional. Potential instrumentalists are not counted into the number of singers.
The organizers could limit the number of competing choirs or cancel any of the Category on the grounds of capacity and of economic reasons.
The total time limit of the competition programme is 20 minutes (i.e. including the entrance and leaving of choir). The sequence of compositions is of choir’s own choice.
The Competition is public.
The Competition will take place at Saturday 4th June 2016, the announcement of results at the following evening concert.
The verbal consultations of conductors with jurors will be held in the frame of the Saturday social encounter (4th June 2016).
The competition performance of choirs will be evaluated by the professional jury appointed by the organizers.

The Composition of the Competition Programme:
The free choose of compositions a cappella or accompanied with acoustic instruments till the time limit.

The Evaluation Criteria:
a) Technical Merit – vocal culture and singing technique, intonation, rhythm;
b) Interpretation Criteria – using the means of music expression (dynamics, tempo, agogics, timber), composition and phrasing, stylishness of the interpretation, dramaturgy of the competition performance, grade of difficulty;
c) General Artistic Presentation – expression impact to the audience, contact of the choir with the conductor.

The Jury:
The competition performance will be evaluated by the professional jury appointed by the organizers that will by composed of Czech or as the case may be of foreign professionals. It evaluates (with points) the total interpretation level of the choir (on the basis of ‘a-c’ points of the Evaluation Criteria).

Awards:
The professional jury can to rank the choir according to the competition result into the golden, silver or bronze level. The special awards could be awarded.
The best choir in the golden level got the financial award of CZK 5 000.
The organizers could arrange for the concerts of the best choirs from the Competition in the frame of Festival concerts.

Financial Requirements:
The participation fee for choirs from abroad is EUR 15 for a member.
The organizers try to provide a subsidy for the accommodation (one night) and for the transport inside the Czech Republic; the food allowance will not be included into the services provided. In the case of economic problems could be one of abovementioned services cut down.

Applications:
The applicants for Competition will send their applications to: NIPOS-Artama, Iva Daňková, P. O. BOX 12 / Fügnerovo nám. 5, 120 21 Praha 2, Czech Republic or via email: dankova@nipos-mk.cz till 31st January 2016. The application form will be for downloading at www.nipos-mk.cz or www.fsujihlava.com.

Till the end of February 2016:
The confirmation of the participation in the Competition will be sent to the applied choirs;
Other details will be sent to the accepted choirs.