European Grand Prix for Choral Singing
The European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (in French, Grand Prix Européen de Chant Choral, commonly abbreviated as European Choral Grand Prix or GPE) is an annual choral competition between the winners of six European choral competitions. It was inaugurated in 1989.
Despite its name, the GPE is not limited to European choirs; this is because choirs from any country can join the choral competitions in any of the GPE's member-cities. As of 2007[update], one choir from Japan and three choirs from the United States have won the GPE, while a choir from the Philippines has won the GPE twice. In addition, the contest is not limited to adult choirs; two of the grand prize-winning choirs are children's choirs.
As of 2015, four choirs have won the EGP twice: the Philippine Madrigal Singers (1997 and 2007), APZ Tone Tomšič (2002 and 2008),Youth choir "Kamēr..." (2004 and 2013) and University of Utah Chamber Choir (renamed from the University of Utah Singers) (2006 and 2015).
As of 2010, only one conductor has won the EGP twice: Stojan Kuret (2002 and 2010).
The GPE is organized by the organizing committees of the following choral competitions, from which the GPE contenders are selected:
Each individual contest is usually referred to by the name of its host city instead of the competition's official title. The grand prize winners of each contest are automatically eligible to compete at the GPE.
The hosting of each annual GPE competition is rotated among the six member cities.
The European Grand Prix for Choral Singing was created in 1988 through the initiative of the competitions of AREZZO (Italy), DEBRECEN (Hungary), GORIZIA (Italy) and TOURS (France) Two others have also been associated: VARNA (Bulgaria) in 1989, and TOLOSA (Basque Country/Spain) in 1990. In 2008 Gorizia stepped out of the Association and MARIBOR (Slovenia) joined it.
As mentioned earlier, the contest is open only to the grand prize winners of the six member European choral competitions in the previous year. In other words, if a choir wins the grand prize in any of the six cities' choral contests, it is eligible for then next year's GPE. Consequently, this also means that, unlike other choral competitions, the GPE does not solicit participants to the contest; no choir may directly apply or audition in order to join the GPE. If an eligible choir backs out, a substitute choir may take its place; as a penalty, any choir that backs out will not be eligible to compete in any of the six qualifying contests for the next year.
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