An open site on children’s and children’s choral formation: Corinfesta.

BY LUCA BUZZAVI · PUBLISHED 28 DECEMBER 2017 · UPDATED 1 JANUARY 2018

Article published on Farcoro

That the school chorus, of the Italian youth and white voices need a new and valid repertoire is a fact, just take a look at the auditorium programs of concerts and shows to notice it. From this year AERCO has tried to give a convincing answer, focusing first on the chorus of white voices, launching the 1st International Composition Competition for choruses of white voices Corinfesta. This competition starts from the pre-existing context of the homonymous choral festival founded in 2015 in Mirandola (MO) within the CG Andreoli School of Music Foundation, under the artistic direction of the masters Luca Buzzavi and Gianni Guicciardi and with the support of the master Mirco Besutti, director of the school. From 2017 the event is sponsored by AERCO, which also includes one of its designate, the m ° Fabio Pecci.

The rules. In this context – we said – the compositional competition starts, with the main objective of catalyzing the creation of new songs that respond both to the teaching needs and to aesthetic parameters. For the first edition it was decided to restrict the field only to compositions with 1 and 2 voices with use of piano and / or small percussion or body percussion, on texts in Italian or Latin, even if there are already several new developments and extensions for the second edition, whose announcement will be published in 2018.

The prices. There will be a first prize and some reports and both the winning track and those mentioned by the jury are published on FarCoro, while only the best placement receives a cash prize (for this first edition, set at 500 euros) and public performance during the Mirandolese Corinfesta review.

The results. First of all, it should be noted with great satisfaction that, despite the ban only remained open from June to mid-July, 28 compositions were received from Italy, Poland, Great Britain, Switzerland, the United States and Indonesia. The jury, formed by the masters Daniele Venturi (president), Manolo Da Rold, Fabio Pecci, Luca Buzzavi and Gianni Guicciardi, decided to assign the following awards:

First Prize

  • Festive Sanctus – Angelo Bernardelli (Italy)
  • Special mention for pedagogical – didactic value
  • Aria – Maurizio Santoiemma (Italy), text – Elisa Gastaldon
Special mention for the timbre-compositional research
  • Sanctus – Anna Rocławska-Musiałczyk (Poland)

The winning composer was on the front row on Saturday 21st October 2017 in Corinfesta to listen, together with the numerous audience, his own piece performed by the Aurora choir of Mirandola expressing gratitude and satisfaction not only for the appreciable performance, but also for the solidity of the project . The review, which arrived in October 2017 at the sixth edition, takes place in Mirandola twice a year, the first in spring dedicated to the school choirs and the second in the autumn designed for artistic choirs. This has allowed us to offer over time an educational offer to the choirs and to the very wide audience that has opened important reflections on the centrality of the education of today’s children and youth, also and above all through choral singing. Everything happened according to the winning formula of the comparison between different experiences, repertoire choices, formations, creating a network of contacts, friendships and exchanges that went well beyond the single meeting days. The choirs that have taken the stage of Corinfesta so far have been 16 and many others are in the projects of the artistic directors who, together with all the parents and collaborators co-organizers of the project, do not want to stop dreaming.

Here are the links to the winning songs.