Geary was honored with a Peace Child International Medal for cofounding the festival in 1993. Since then, the event has been held every two, now three, years. Top choirs, with children from 6 to 18, are chosen by audition to participate in the highly selective festival. Visitors are housed with local families, which enables cultural exchange and ultimately creates young musical ambassadors.
The award-winning Finnish choir Vox Aurea, directed by conductor Pekka Kostiainen, is the festival’s special guest ensemble, which will entertain throughout the week. Vox Aurea and Denmark’s MidtVest Pigekor are the featured ensembles on the Preview Concert, Sunday, July 12 at 2 p.m. at the San Leandro Main Library. The week continues with nightly community concerts at various Bay Area venues, most concerts being free.
Historic/Folk Competitions are held at First Congregational Church of Berkeley on July 15-17, when choirs will showcase indigenous music to the public. Also public is the contemporary music competition, which unfolds on Thursday the 17th at Oakland’s Mormon Interstake Center. Additionally, 35 choristers will compete in a vocal solo competition, closed to the public. A special Gala Closing Concert tops off the week, with all 500-plus voices on stage, led by a celebrated conductor and the lead competition adjudicator, Bob Chilcott. Festival Chair Robert Cole, along with concert emcee Sara Cahill, will welcome the audience, which will be treated to music by the competition winners of the week, on Saturday, July 18, at 7:30 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall.
For members of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, the festival is a learning opportunity. Both the training choir and select choirs are invited to sing along during opening and closing ceremonies, and to get to know some of their visitors on the week’s excursions. With the common love of music, new friends lead to new understandings. It’s a small world, after all.
GGF Participating Choirs
- Cantabella Children’s Chorus, from California
- Colorado Springs Children’s Chorale, from Colorado
- Hangzhou Aiyue Tianshi Choir, from The People’s Republic of China
- Kaohsiung Municipal Children’s Chorus, from Taiwan
- MidtVest Pigekor, from Denmark
- Mississippi Boychoir, from Mississippi
- Ragazzi Young Mens’ Enemble, from California
- SingersMarin, from California
- Vox Aurea, from Finland
For a full description of public events, visit the Web site.