Further Festival Events
Apart from the lunch and evening concerts and the street singing, many further events take place at the EFYC:
Ascension church services
On Thursday morning, the festival choirs sing in regional church services.
Regional matinees
Regional children's and youth choirs as well as high school choirs perform in three distinctive matinees on Ascension morning at 11.00 am.
Country focus
Three festival choirs are selected to present the music cultures of their countries in one-hour sessions. The choirs are free to choose the form of this presentation. It can be in a narrative as well as in concert form. Part of each session is the audience's interactive learning of a short song from the choir's cultural background.
Project "contemporary choir music"
The gala concert on Friday evening always deals with contemporary choir music. The program includes repertoire pieces of the participating choirs as well as world premiers to a specific subject. At the 2014 festival, the project will focus on boys' choirs. More information is available here.
Open singings and sing along-events
Every day, the audience is given the opportunity to sing actively. This can be in an open singing, where the audience learns short songs from all over the world under the direction of an experienced conductor and aided by a supportive choir. It can also be a sing along-event, where experienced choristers meet to perform a larger, well-known choral work accompanied by an orchestra. Another option is a themed evening of singing popular songs together, accompanied by a live band. For children at primary school age, the open singing offered is a "Singplausch" (singing fun), where they get the opportunity to spend some time singing together.
Swiss meeting of choral conductors
Choral conductors from all over Switzerland and from different music scenes (school choirs, church choirs, village choirs, traditional costume choirs, music school choirs, private choirs etc.) come together in Basel during the festival. They use the opportunity to network and exchange thoughts across the scenes' borders. The program usually includes the attendance of a regional matinee, a shared lunch, workshops and an exhibition of scores and closes with the collective attendance of a festival concert in the evening.
Education
Every four years (2012, 2016), the section of choral conducting of the Academy of Music Basel (Prof. Raphael Immoos) organizes an attractive education program for students and professionals of choral conducting in collaboration with other educational institutions and in association with the festival. Alternating (2014), the society "Schweizerische Kinder- und Jugendchorförderung" (Swiss promotion of children's and youth choirs) offers a low-threshold study tour for curious conductors who wish to experience the festival together with other conductors, reflect on it and exchange their thoughts.
Masterclass
A new festival event is an international masterclass offered in collaboration with the European Choral Association - Europa Cantat. In 2014, the masterclass will address the planning and conduction of open singings at large public events and will be directed by Michael Gohl. The masterclass is open to experienced professionals as much as inexperienced conductors from all over the world.
Further information on all these events will be posted here in due time.