European Grand Prix for Choral Singing

The European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (in French, Grand Prix Européen de Chant Choral, commonly abbreviated as European Choral Grand Prix or EGP) is an annual choral competition between the winners of six European choral competitions. It was inaugurated in 1989.

Despite its name, the EGP is not limited to European choirs; this is because choirs from any country can join the choral competitions in any of the EGP’s member-cities. As of 1995^[update], one choir from Japan, one choir from Argentina, two choirs from Indonesia, and two choirs from the United States have won the EGP, while two choirs from the Philippines and United States have won the EGP twice. In addition, the contest is not limited to adult choirs; three of the grand prize-winning choirs are children's choirs.

As of 2022, four choirs had won the EGP twice: the University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers^[1][2] (1997 and 2007), APZ Tone Tomšič (2002 and 2008), University of Utah Chamber Choir (renamed from the University of Utah Singers) (2006 and 2015), and Vesna Children's Choir (2000 and 2017).

The 30th European Grand Prix for Choral Singing taking place in Maribor, Slovenia, on April 21, 2018 had the first win from an Indonesian choir. The Resonanz Children's Choir (TRCC), led by conductor Avip Priatna, has won an award at the EGP 2018.^[3]

In the summer of 2019, Youth choir "Kamēr..." became the 1st and currently the only choir having won the EGP three times (2004, 2013, and 2019).

As of 2022, two conductors have won the EGP twice: Stojan Kuret (2002 and 2010) and Avip Priatna (2018 and 2022).

The EGP is organized by the organizing committees of the following choral competitions, from which the EGP contenders are selected:

1. Concorso Polifónico Guido d'Arezzo (International Guido d'Arezzo Polyphonic Contest) - Arezzo, Province of Arezzo, Italy
2. Béla Bartók International Choir Competition - Debrecen, Hajdú-Bihar county, Hungary
3. International Choral Competition Gallus Maribor - Maribor, Slovenia
4. Certamen Coral de Tolosa (Tolosa Choral Competition) - Tolosa, Basque Country, Spain
5. International Baltic Sea Choir Competition (IBSCC) - Jūrmala, Region of Jūrmala, Latvia
6. International May Choir Competition «Prof. G. Dimitrov» - Varna, Varna Province, Bulgaria

Each individual contest is usually referred to by the name of its host city instead of the competition's official title. The grand prize winners of each contest are automatically eligible to compete at the EGP.

The hosting of each annual EGP competition is rotated among the six member cities.

The European Grand Prix for Choral Singing was created in 1988 through the initiative of the competitions of AREZZO (Italy), DEBRECEN (Hungary), GORIZIA (Italy) and TOURS (France) Two others have also been associated: VARNA (Bulgaria) in 1989, and TOLOSA (Basque Country/Spain) in 1990. In 2008 Gorizia stepped out of the Association and MARIBOR (Slovenia) joined it. In 2024, JURMALA (Latvia) became a new member and TOURS (France) ceased its activity.

As mentioned earlier, the contest is open only to the grand prize winners of the six-member European choral competitions in the previous year. In other words, if a choir wins the grand prize in any of the six cities' choral contests, it is eligible for then next year's EGP. Consequently, this also means that, unlike other choral competitions, the EGP does not solicit participants to the contest; no choir may directly apply or audition in order to join the EGP. If an eligible choir backs out, a substitute choir may take its place; as a penalty, any choir that backs out will not be eligible to compete in any of the six qualifying contests for the next year.

No choir may win the grand prize in more than one qualifying competition in a single year. For example, if a choir is named the grand prize winner in Arezzo, it is automatically disqualified to compete in the contests in the five remaining cities for the rest of the year.

There are no specific regulations prohibiting a former finalist (or even a former laureate) from competing in (or even winning again) the EGP more than once. The Philippine Madrigal Singers (laureate of the 1997 EGP) have won the 2006 Florilège Vocal de Tours,^[4] going on to win the Grand Prize in 2007 in Arezzo, Italy. In the same competition, the Madrigal Singers competed with the Vesna Children's Choir (laureate of the 2000 EGP), who won the grand prize of the 2006 Tolosa competition.^[5]

Each competing choir is required to sing in the same group/category as they performed in respective competitions. Choirs are encouraged to perform songs from various eras and composers. Songs with accompaniment (by any instrument) are allowed as long as the total length of accompanied songs does not exceed ten (10) minutes. The host city determines the total maximum performance time allowed to each finalist.

Each competing choir is also required to have the same number of singers it had from the qualifying competition, plus or minus ten percent (10%) of that number. The total number of singers per choir may be a minimum of 12 singers and a maximum of 60 singers regardless of the number of voice sections or groups; this is because the eligibility requirements vary for each of the six qualifying competitions. Because of this, it is possible for mixed-voice choirs to compete directly against all-male and all-female choirs; it is also possible for children's choirs to compete against adult choirs (and even win, as in 2000, 2001, 2017, and 2018).

The EGP grand prize winner, or laureate, is awarded a diploma, a trophy and additional prizes to be determined by the host city, including a cash prize of up to 4,000 Euros (usually awarded).

The EGP winner is not allowed to compete in any international choral competition, member of the European Grand Prix Association, for two years.

The following are the lists of grand prize winners for the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing.^[6][7][8][9]

Laureates of the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing per year

Year	Edition	Host	Choir	Director/Conductor	City of Origin	Country of Origin
1989	1	Arezzo	Kammerkoret Hymnia	Poul Emborg and Fleming Windekilde	Copenhagen	Denmark
1990	2	Debrecen	(postponed)	NA	NA	NA
1991	3	Tours	Chamber Choir of the Conservatoire	Tadas Šumskas	Vilnius	Lithuania
1992	4	Gorizia	St Jacobs Kammarkör	Gary Graden	Stockholm	Sweden
1993	5	Varna	Jauna Musica	Vaclovas Augustinas and Romas Skapas	Vilnius	Lithuania
1994	6	Tolosa	The Mats Nilsson Vocal Ensemble	Mats Nilsson	Stockholm	Sweden
1995	7	Arezzo	Kallos Choir	Fumiaki Kuriyama	Tokyo	Japan
1996	8	Debrecen	Pro Musica Leánykar	Dénes Szabó	Nyíregyháza	Hungary
1997	9	Tours	University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers	Andrea Veneracion	Quezon City	Philippines
1998	10	Gorizia	University of Mississippi Concert Singers Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine	Jerry Jordan	Oxford, MS	United States
1999	11	Varna	Lunds Vocal Ensemble	Ingemar Månsson	Lund	Sweden
2000	12	Tolosa	Vesna Children Choir[a]	Alexander Ponomariov	Moscow	Russia
2001	13	Debrecen	Magnificat Children's and Youth Choir	Valéria Szebellédi	Budapest	Hungary
2002	14	Arezzo	A.P.Z. Tone Tomsic	Stojan Kuret	Ljubljana	Slovenia
2003	15	Tours	Kamerinis choras Brevis	Gintautas Venislovas	Vilnius	Lithuania
2004	16	Gorizia	Youth Choir "Kamer..."	Māris Sirmais	Riga	Latvia
2005	17	Varna	Allmänna Sången	Cecilia Rydinger Alin	Uppsala	Sweden
2006	18	Tolosa	University of Utah Singers	Brady Allred	Salt Lake City	United States
2007	19	Arezzo	University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers	Mark Anthony Carpio	Quezon City	Philippines
2008	20	Debrecen	A.P.Z. Tone Tomsic	Urša Lah	Ljubljana	Slovenia
2009	21	Tours	Coro Universitario de Mendoza	Silvana Vallesi	Mendoza	Argentina
2010	22	Varna	Vokalna akademija Ljubljana	Stojan Kuret	Ljubljana	Slovenia
2011	23	Tolosa	The Swedish Chamber Choir	Simon Phipps	Gothenburg	Sweden
2012	24	Maribor	Sofia Vokalensemble	Bengt Ollén	Stockholm	Sweden
2013	25	Arezzo	Youth Choir "Kamer..."	Jānis Liepiņš	Riga	Latvia
2014	26	Debrecen	S:t Jacobs Ungdomskör	Mikael Wedar	Stockholm	Sweden
2015	27	Tours	University of Utah Chamber Choir Archived 2015-06-08 at the Wayback Machine[b]	Barlow Bradford	Salt Lake City	United States
2016	28	Varna	UT Insieme Vocale Consonante	Lorenzo Donati	Santa Firmina	Italy
2017	29	Tolosa	Vesna Children Choir[c]	Nadezhda Averina	Moscow	Russia
2018	30	Maribor	The Resonanz Children's Choir	Avip Priatna	Jakarta	Indonesia
2019	31	Arezzo	Youth Choir "Kamer..."	Aivis Greters	Riga	Latvia
2020	32	Debrecen	(postponed)	NA	NA	NA
2021	(not held)	(not held)	NA	NA	NA	NA
2022	33	Tours	Batavia Madrigal Singers	Avip Priatna	Jakarta	Indonesia
2023	34	Debrecen	Chamber Choir Sophia	Olexii Shamrytskyi	Kyiv	Ukraine
2024	35	Varna	Zero8	Rasmus Krigström	Stockholm	Sweden
Total			33 laureates (none in 1990,2021)

Laureates of the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing per country

Country	Laureates	Notes
Sweden	8 wins	Five choirs from Stockholm
Lithuania	3 wins	All from Vilnius
Slovenia	3 wins	All from Ljubljana; APZ Tone Tomšič winning twice
United States	3 wins	University of Utah Chamber Choir (renamed from University of Utah Singers) winning twice
Latvia	3 wins	Jauniesu koris "Kamer..." winning thrice – 1st choir to win three times
Russia	2 wins	Vesna Children's Choir winning twice
Hungary	2 wins
Philippines	2 wins	Philippine Madrigal Singers winning twice - 1st choir to win twice
Indonesia	2 wins	All from Jakarta
Argentina	1 win
Denmark	1 win
Japan	1 win
Italy	1 win
Ukraine	1 win
Total	33 wins

European Grand Prix for Choral Singing - GPE Official home page

• Official web sites for each member-city:
  • Arezzo
  • Debrecen
  • Maribor
  • Tolosa
  • Tours
  • Varna