Official song World Choir Games 2021

The region of Flanders with the cities Antwerp and Ghent will host the 11th World Choir Games. Get ready for top-class venues, fantastic choir concerts, workshops, open singings and unforgettable experiences. On this page you can download the Official Festival Song.

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The event, which is also considered the 'Olympics of Choral Music' will take place from October 30 - November 7, 2021 and attract thousands of singers from Europe and all over the world. With three official languages and a wealth of local dialects, Belgium is a great crossroad of cultures and thus a perfect host for the largest international choir competition in the world. Thousands of international participants will be warmly welcomed and immediately feel at home when bringing their music and cultures.

Visit the festivalwebsite

It’s also an excellent opportunity for foreign choirs and their choristers to get to know the excellent choral music from Flanders. You will hear one song everywhere, whether it is for one voice or for a choir (SAB, SATB, SSA, TBB, SS): Listen by Kurt Bikkembergs, the official song of the World Choir Games 2021. Watch the trailer below!
 

 

Listen by Kurt Bikkembergs

Kurt Bikkembergs (Hasselt, born 1963) studied, and graduated, in music pedagogy, composition, choral conducting and orchestral conducting at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven and perfected himself on international master courses in Belgium and Austria with a.o. Robert Sund (S) and Timothy Brown (GB) for choral conducting and with Heinz Kratochwil (A) for composition. Kurt Bikkembergs can look back on years of experience as a conductor and composer, with a great fondness for contemporary choral music. 
Putting your life at the service of music and people is his leitmotiv. Bikkembergs likes to work with young people (in body or mind) who want to put music at the centre of their lives and during concerts, to get listeners to experience beauty.

About Kurt Bikkembergs
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Praise for the beauty of nature 

Listen praises the beauty of nature and encourages us to become part of a grand, all-encompassing whole. The text is a tribute to the love that finds its origin, its being and effects in the natural forms and elements. Love that we not only celebrate with our voices but for which we open up and activate our whole body.

The song draws on the poem Love’s Philosophy by the English romantic poet Percy B. Shelley. In fact, it contains the two verses. Well before his time, Shelley was an outspoken environmental activist and understood that man and nature are very much intertwined. Here and there, you can hear Woniya waka, a phrase that the composer borrowed from the North American Dakota Indians and that refers to the Holy Spirit as an all-encompassing primal force in nature.

A striking match with Shelley's text and tribute to nature. Accompanied by piano, body percussion and shamanic drum...
 

Performed by...

The above recordings are sung by the Vlaams Radio Koor conducted by Bart Van Reyn. The 'one man choir' version is sung by Noah Thys, composer and singer (baritone). During the World Choir Games the Vlaams Radio Koor sings at a gala concert in AMUZ (Antwerp). Noah Thys will be performing as a 'one man choir' during the opening and closing ceremony. Singers who want to immerse themselves in this technique can participate in a workshop that Noah will give during the games.

About Vlaams Radio Koor
About Noah Thys