Description

The International Choral Festival was founded in 1983 in the town of Preveza as an initiative of the “ARMONIA” choir and has a long history. Since its inception, the choral festival has taken place every year during the first week of July.

Its program features opening and closing ceremonies, concerts and choir performances given in various parts of the town. Since 1985 an International Choral Competition of Sacred Music also takes place during the time of the festival.

For eighteen years now, the art director of the festival has been the conductor Valentin Stefanov. The opening ceremony usually takes place at the Municipal Garden Theatre of Preveza. The choirs parade from the coastal avenue of the town and reach the theatre where an initial performance is given. In the evenings throughout the entire week of the choral festival one can find choirs singing freestyle in various parts of the city. The closing ceremony is usually organised at an archaeological site (ancient Odeon or Nikopolis old museum). During this ceremony the Competition prizes are awarded and the best choirs of the festival perform. In the last few years the choral festival has spread throughout the Prefecture of Preveza. In 2007 there were concerts in the Louros area and the Nekromanteion (Oracle of the Dead). Numerous choirs from Europe have visited Preveza during the festival and especially from countries of Eastern Europe which have a tradition in choral music, as well as from other parts of the world. In 2001 during the official festival program there were 31 choral groups from countries such as Armenia, Bulgaria, Italy, Taiwan, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Poland and Greece. In 2002, 35 choirs participated in the festival and for the first time the groups performed outside Preveza as well, in Nea Sinopi of the Zalongo municipality. The following year, among the 30 participant choirs there were groups from Turkey, Canada, Norway, Denmark and South Africa. During the following festivals the number of groups varied but the show and the quality remained consistent. A particularly memorable performance was given in 2005 by the choir of the Asian and the Pacific university from Philippines with their traditional costumes and their exquisite program. Equally spectacular was the choir from Johannesburg which presented an act from Africa representing the rain, the wind and everyday scenes from the lives of Africans using only the voices and bodies of the singers. In 2008 the choir of the university of Taipei, Taiwan distinguished itself by the unique way it used to experiment with the notion of the choral theatre.