We saved the best for last

Afghanistan, Croatia, the Philippines, Poland and the host country USA - these are the nations that will stir up sunny California in the coming days. From November 20-24, 17 choirs will celebrate together the Golden State Choral Trophy - American International Choral Festival in Monterey.

It will be exciting tomorrow evening already, when the festival is opened with concentrated choral music. Eight choirs will present a varied choral program at Opening Concert in the Pacific Grove Performing Arts Center at 7 pm, including traditional spirituals, works by Zoltan Kodaly, Ken Stevens, Lars Jansson and Polish pop music.

The following choirs will perform at the Opening Concert:

• Cantabile Youth Singers (USA), conducted by Elena Sharkova
• Monterey Peninsula Voices (USA), conducted by Sean Boulware
• Bay Area Showcase Chorus (USA), conducted by Julie Starr
• Salinas High School A Cappella (USA), conducted by Michelle Boulware
• New Choir (USA), conducted by Eileen Chang
• East Central University Chorale (USA), conducted by Steven Walker
• Vox Singers and Positive Vibrations (Poland), directed by Robert Majewski
• Aria Women's Choir (USA), conducted by Sean Boulware

Morten Lauridsen, the Artistic Honorary President of INTERKULTUR does not miss the chance to welcome the participating choirs with a few personal words in his home town of California.

At the end of the Opening Concert, all choirs will sing together a choral medley of popular American folk and pop songs. The mass choir will be conducted by Johan Rooze, Artistic Director and juror of the festival.

The competition in ten categories will take place on November 21 and 22 at the Pacific Grove Performing Arts Center. All performances will be judged by an international jury consisting of Vijay Singh (USA), Cheryl Anderson (USA) and Johan Rooze (Republic of Korea / Netherlands). The festival program will be completed by Friendship Concerts on Monday and Tuesday evening as well as workshops with two renowned choral experts, Prof. Morten Lauridsen (USA) and Prof. Vijay Singh (USA).

Before all choirs will celebrate Thanksgiving and Black Friday with their families throughout the United States, the best choirs of the festival will once again perform at the Grand Prize Competition on November 23 at 5 pm at the Golden State Theater, followed by the announcement of the happy winners during the Awards Ceremony.

All concerts and competitions are free of charge. The entrance fee for the workshops will be charged on-site.

More information about the Golden State Choral Trophy - The American International Choral Festival can be found on the website and on Facebook.