We are proud to announce that we have won the London International A Capella Choral Competition 2017.
This year’s featured composer was Estonian Arvo Pärt, a behemoth among choral composers, who was present during the competition week and handed over the grand prize after the final. For CAMERATA and our conductor Jakob Hultberg, it made the experience extra grand that Pärt was there to hear our interpretation of his music. It definitely added to our nerves as well, but it also made the performance extremely intense.
In addition to Pärt, CAMERATA performed three other pieces in the final. We opened the programme with dynamic extremes in Purcell/Sandström’s “Hear my Prayer oh Lord”, followed by Mogens Pedersøn’s overlooked renaissance gem “Gloria” from his “Missa Quinque vocum ex Partum Spirituale” and Pärt’s magical sounds and silences in “The Woman with the Alabaster Box”, before ending with a bubbling interpretation of Ola Gjeilo’s “Unicornis Captivatur”.
Should you want to hear our interpretations of Pärt and others, we will perform parts of our competition repertoire in a series of “Open Secret” concerts this autumn. These are meditative concerts featuring music be the biggest composers in the Holy Minimalism style: John Tavener, Henrýk Gorecki, and of course Arvo Pärt. These are in Søllerød Church on 24 August and Solrød Strand Church on 8 October.
CAMERATA’s participation in the London International A Capella Choral Competition has been made possible by generous support from the Oticon Fonden, Augustinus Fonden, Kapelmesterforeningen, Beckett-Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, and Konsul George Jorck og Hustru Emma Jorck’s Fond. We thank you for your support.
You can read more about the finale at Planet Hugill and Classical Music.
