In this week's My Soapbox, Managing Editor Sean Rhiney talks with Interkultur founder and President, Gunter Titsch, whose organization founded the World Choir Games
coming to Cincinnati in 2012. And this is no simple choral competition: this year's Games, held in Shaoxing, China, included 470 choirs representing 83 nations that competed in two categories, the 'Champions' for more seasoned choirs, and an 'open' competition for less experienced choirs. Titsch was in town with a delegation that included Maestro Gabor Hollerung, the Games' Artistic Director, to meet with city officials and hand over the Game's ceremonial flag to Mayor Mark Mallory.
Cincinnati will host the seventh edition of the biannual
Games and mark the first time they have been held in North America.
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Q: The games are ten years old this year and were previously hosted in Austria, Germany, Korea and China - so why North America, and why Cincinnati now?
A: The cities are chosen by application and for the World Choir Games in 2012, quite a few US cities applied, North American cities, amongst them LA and Toronto, and the committee chose Cincinnati. Why the US? The US is a wonderful country and it will be a very unique experience for all of the foreign choirs, for the young participants to come here. They will like to come here and experience the US firsthand.
Q: Part of your selection process included scouting locations - what about Cincinnati made us of interest to the World Choir Games?
A: Cincinnati has wonderful venues to offer, the quality of the venues, the acoustics and last but not least it's all within walking distance. Not only walking distance between locations but with accommodations, the whole environment, which is very important to make the event successful - Cincinnati has to offer all of that. Also the outdoor venues, the common spaces, not to mention that no bus rides are necessary- you don't have to spend hours on the bus to get somewhere - you can walk everywhere and all of that in good quality.
Q: Part of the WCG are the unplanned choir encounters in public spaces, where choirs meet and sing outside of the competition program - could you tell us more about these unique opportunities?
A: Of course such an event is a very structured and very carefully planned event and the professionalism that the Cincinnati organization team has shown so far is outstanding, however you're totally correct, the unplanned happenings are what makes this event fascinating at the same time. Not only the choirs that come from all over the world, but when they mix with Cincinnati citizens and they sing together, that's what makes it special and wonderful. One example for such an unplanned event was just recently in Shaoxing, China where a choir from Iran and a choir from Israel that were planned to be separated and kept separate really to avoid any possible problems actually got together and sung together and basically started singing and hugging while singing music from the US.
Q: I'm curious, there will be a lot of international visitors who are part of the choirs competing but who attends the Games?
A: It's hard to give a concrete estimate at this point but there will probably be about 70-80 different nations. The reason why it's difficult is because it's a free application process. Everyone is allowed to apply and some countries have qualification competitions in their own country before they send the choirs, but most countries are open. Traditionally the delegates or participants come from Russia, South Africa, Indonesia, China, Germany or middle Europe in general. Just to give you an example of how these choirs can evolve, in 2000 in Linz (Austria) there were seven choirs from China- in 2008 in Graz (Austria) there were 53 choirs from China, and in July 2010 in Shaoxing there were 260 choirs from China. That shows you their involvement that they use this tool to actually get together and form relationships and friendships over time and over the world.
Q: How many US choirs have participated over the years?
A: Over the last ten years a total of 140 North American choirs have participated (it's estimated that 30-40 US choirs have participated). If you think about the number of choirs that the US has, 270,000 choirs, that is a number that can grow. But that's exactly the purpose of the World Choir Games in Cincinnati- to raise the interest and also to raise the consciousness for American choirs to start participating not only here in 2012 but beyond that for future world competitions.
Q: What are your expectations of a host city and what can we do to better prepare to make this a great experience for visitors and competitors who are coming in two years?
A: It's actually quite simple, just be what you are: friendly, open, warm, and welcoming. Because that is exactly what Cincinnatians have to offer. And that's the important thing for the foreign participants to feel welcome, to feel warm and comfortable. That will bring them back. Of course there is a lot of organizational detail, a lot of volunteer work that goes into this, but in the end it comes down to your heart, it comes down to welcoming them. To elaborate on this, President Obama had written a greeting letter to the World Choir Games in Shaoxing that was read to the participants there together with the invitation to come to Cincinnati in 2012. Of course now that will be the challenge for Cincinnati - to fulfill that invitation.
Photography by Emily Maxwell.
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