KYN has won a gold medal in World Choir Games choir contest in Riga on 12 July. The Finnish women’s choir participated in the Champions Competition for women’s choirs. Five gold medals were awarded in the tight competition. Aarhus Pigekor’s performance earned the highest score, making the Danish choir the Champions of the World Choir Games.
“The artistic merit of the Champions competition was exceptionally high, which makes KYN’s gold medal even more precious”, says KYN’s artistic director Kaija Viitasalo. “The competition has inspired us to face new challenges in the future. It was wonderful to get the chance to display KYN’s speciality, ethnic jazz, and see the warmly welcoming reaction from the hundreds and hundreds of people sitting in the audience”, Viitasalo sums up.
In the World Choir Games competition choirs compete in one of two categories, the Open Competition or the Champions Competition. Any choir can participate in the Open Competition, whereas the Champions Competition is aimed at choirs that have former experience from international choir competitions and/or performing abroad. Each category has 29 subcategories.
In the Champions Competition a 7-member jury reviews each choir’s performance giving points for clarity of tone, sound, precision and overall artistic achievement. The overall number of points will earn each choir either a diploma (0-40 points), a bronze medal (40.01-60 points), a silver medal ( 60.01-80 points) or a gold medal (80.01-100 points). The choir with the highest number of points will become the Champion of the World Choir Games.
KYN did not travel to Riga only to compete, but the choir also performed twice with other choirs. One of these concerts was the so-called Celebrations Concert, held in Jurmala city, where KYN was invited to perform by the artistic direction of the Choir Games. KYN was joined on stage by the Finnish accordion artist Johanna Juhola.
KYN is an ambitious women’s choir, driven by passion for music and aiming at a professional approach to making it. KYN is known for their lively expressiveness, original sound and unique repertoire of so-called “ethnic jazz”. The choir performs actively with Finnish top musicians and is a sought-after act at international choral music festivals. In recent years KYN has been invited to perform in France and Taiwan, and it they have proven successful in international competitions and reviews as well. For example in 2011, KYN reached the highest level in Tampere Vocal Music Festival, Tampereen Sävel.
The World Choir Games is an international choir competition, organised this year for the 8th time. The competition is also known as “the Choir Olympics”. This year the Games took place in Riga, Lativa, from 9 to 19 July. Contestants arrived from 73 different countries, the number of choirs reaching 463 and the number of singers topping 27 000. KYN competed in the category for women’s choirs on Saturday 12 July. Other Finnish choirs, Philomela, Qoro Quando and the Youth Choir of Turku Cathedral, took part in the Champions Competition in different subcategories, too.
Further information:
Producer Susanna Kantelinen, tel. + 358 50 4125282, tuottaja@kyn.fi
www.kyn.fi / www.facebook.com/KYNchoir
The results of World Choir Games 2014 can be found here: http://www.interkultur.com/competitions-festivals/world-choir-games/riga-2014/results/