Exotic singing
Sopot will host choirs from Brazil, Colombia, Singapore, Sweden, Hungary, Ecuador, England, Russia and Lithuania.
The 7th annual International Choir Festival Mundus Cantat will be held in Sopot from the 21st to the 29th of May 2011. This year, young people from around the world will take over the town, because the majority of participants are from youth and children’s choirs. The popularity of choral singing is growing among younger people, evidenced by the fact that more and more younger people are taking part in the Choir Festival Mundus Cantat.
Festival Mundus Cantat is a unique music event in that so many choirs from around the world take part. Awards are presented in the following musical categories: sacral; secular and folk; and gospel, jazz and spiritual. All combined, this festival has in the past hosted over three-thousand participants from 21 countries such as the USA, Colombia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Japan, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, and Bosnia - Herzegovina. The festival’s main organizers are Baltic Artistic Agency BART, the City of Sopot, the Mundus Cantat Foundation and the Sopot Festival Choir Mundus Cantat.
The festival is organized and directed by an Artistic Board under the supervision of Professor Marcin Tomczak, Pro-Chancellor in Artistic and Student Affairs at the Music Academy of Gdansk and conductor of the Academic Choir of the University of Gdansk.
Festival organizers have planned ample additional concerts in various local venues as well as a colorful opening ceremony commencing with a Parade of Choruses through Monte Cassino Street. This year, because Sopot’s famous Forest Opera is closed for renovation, the Festival’s
Final Concert will be held at a special open-air stage on the famous Sopot pier. Auditions in all categories will be held in the Stella Maris Church.
One of the special events will be the presentation of three extraordinary concerts by the chamber choir Academia Concerto from Brazil. Academia Concerto is a professional group of 24 singers with international experience as a chorus, along with soloists and singing teachers.
Another special event will be a recital of songs from different places in the world including Mexico, Spain, Russia, and Poland by soloist Susana Mijangos, an accomplished soprano from Mexico. Susana Mijangos is a graduate of the National Music Conservatory of Mexico, in the class of Alicia Tores Garza.
To celebrate the 270th anniversary of Antonio Vivaldi’s death, Ms Mijangos and contratenor Mr. Michał Wajda-Chłopicki, a graduate of the StanislawMoniuszkoMusicAcademy in Gdansk, will present the “Credo” and “Gloria” oratories. Two choirs from Sopot, the Sopot Festival Choir MUNDUS CANTAT and PRO ANIMA, will participate in the concert.