61st International Festival

61st INTERNATIONAL CHORAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

BARCELONA, from 6th to 12th JULY 2026

Six days of workshops and concerts in the heart of Barcelona, surrounded by music and cultures from around the world!

We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for the

61th International Choral Festival of Barcelona 2026

Free time in the morning
This will allow you to enjoy the wide range of activities Barcelona has to offer: you can bathe in the sunshine on more than 3 km of beach line, walk in the lively atmosphere of the glamorous Ramblas, or visit the Gothic Quarter and Gaudí's buildings, other monuments and museums.

Workshops in the afternoon
Around 400 participants, both from Catalonia and from abroad, are expected to take part in the event.

All choirs will be expected to offer 2 performances in Barcelona and its surroundings, in addition to the closing concert.

The closing concert will take place at the well-known modernist style hall
Palau de la Música Catalana.

FINAL CONCERT
11 July in Palau de la Música Catalana

WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOP A

Núria Cunillera

Mujeres compositoras

WORKSHOP B

Pablo Assante

"Chichester Psalms",
de Leonard Bernstein

WORKSHOP C

Fidel G. Calalang

"Música Asiática"

All workshops will be held in the Residència Salesiana Martí Codolar
(Avda. Vidal i Barraquer, 15, Barcelona). .

It is mandatory to attend the workshop every day.

Núria Cunillera studied choir and orchestra conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (Germany). Previously, she obtained the higher degree in singing with Enriqueta Tarrés in Barcelona, as well as the higher degree in music theory and the professional degree in piano at the Conservatory of Vila-Seca.

During the 2021-22 academic year, she obtained the Master's degree in Musical Research at VIU (International University of Valencia). She currently works regularly as a conductor, singing teacher, vocal technician and arranger. She has collaborated with several groups and orchestras, including the Aurelius Sängerknaben Calw boys' choir, the Mädchenkantorei Rottenburg girls' choir, the early music orchestra Concerto Köln, and the contemporary music ensembles Klangforum Heidelberg and Ensemble Aisthesis. She has also performed as a soprano with the professional choir Orpheus Vokalensemble, with whom she has recorded several CDs under the direction of conductors such as Gunnar Eriksson, Gary Graden and Florian Helgath.

In the field of choral conducting, she has received advice from prominent teachers such as Frieder Bernius, Simon Halsey or Silvain Cambreling, among others. Her activity as a guest conductor has taken her to several countries in Europe and Asia. She stands out as the director and founder of the female chamber choir Vox Pulchra, with which she has won several awards. From 2008 to 2023, she was a teacher at the Karlsruhe University of Music, where she taught vocal music after 1945 and, in recent years, she has taughtmusic analysis, ear training and counterpoint. From 2019 to 2021, she was a guest teacher at the Trossingen University of Music. She was also the teacher responsible for vocal music at the Landesakademie für musisierende Jugend in Baden-Württemberg, an institution with which she has collaborated since 2007. Some of her arrangements have been published by Carus Verlag and Ficta. As of September 2023, she is the director of the Choral of the University of the Balearic Islands.

Fidel Calalang, Jr. finished his music studies in piano performance and conducting at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music where he is currently a faculty member of the UST Conservatory Piano and Conducting Departments.

He is the founder and conductor of the University of Santo Tomas Singers. Since its foundation in 1993, he has led the choir in 36 international concert tours of Europe, USA, Canada, Asia, Australia, and Mexico winning over 82 top prizes in various international choral competitions all over the world, such as Tours France, Tolosa, Torrevieja and Cantonigros Spain, Gorizia and Florence Italy, Baden and Spittal Austria, California USA, and including the 1998 Gran Premio Citta di Gorizia and the 2019 Choir of the World Champion of Champions title and the 2010 and 1995 Choir of the World Grand Prize at the Llangollen International Music Eisteddfodd in Wales, UK.

Awarded Most Outstanding Thomasian in the field of Music and Performing Arts and recipient of the Outstanding Artist in Music by UST, he also won top prizes at the League of Filipino Composers and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Composition Competitions in 1984, 1985, and 1987, the 2008 NCAA Choral Writing Competition, the First Prize at the 1999 International Composition Competition in Ojai California USA, the Best Conductor prize at the 2002 International Choral Competition in Monster Netherlands, Best Contemporary Choral Arrangement Prize at the 2015 Florence International Choral Competition in Florence Italy and the Second Prize at the 4th Ennio Morricone International Composition Competition in Florence Italy last 2018 for his composition Laudate Dominum.

He conducted workshops and masterclasses in Turin, Italy in 2002; at the Taipei Summer Music Festival in Taiwan in 2007, at the Polyfonia International Choral Festival in Normandy, France in 2008, at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany In 2013 and 2017, at the Aules Theater in Barcelona, Spain in 2010, at the University of Gdansk in Poland, at the Beijing Wuzi University in China in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017, at the Beijing Normal University in 2014, at the University of Washington College of Music in Seattle, Washington, and in Denver, Colorado in USA in 2014, at the Korean International Symposium in Jeju Island, Korea, and the Beijing Agricultural University Chorus in China.

He was also the guest conductor of the Vox Aurea Chamber Chor in Madrid, Spain, the Yeunoul Mixed Choir in South Korea, the Beijing Wuzi University Chorus in China.

He was Chorus Master of the Philippine Productions of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Karl Jenkins’ “Requiem” and the operas “Rendezvous in Venice” by Jeffrey Ching, Verdi’s “La Traviata,” and Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

He was member of the international jury in choral competitions in Pardubice, Czech Republic in 2006 and 2008, in Wales, the United Kingdom in 2004, in Sopot, Poland in 2013, in North Sumatera, Indonesia in 2016, and chairman of the jury at the 65th Certamen Internacional Habaneras y Polifonia in Torrevieja, Spain in 2019.

Pablo Assante was born in Quilmes (Argentina) in 1975. He began his piano studies at the age of 8 at the School of Fine Arts in his hometown and later continued them at the National Conservatory of Buenos Aires.

In 1997 he obtained a Bachelor of Music, specializing in Orchestral Conducting and Choral Conducting, at the Catholic University of Argentina and continued his studies in both specialties at the Mozarteum in Salzburg (Denis Russell / Jorge Rotter and Karl Kamper Chair).

Since 2001, he has worked as a master preparer, as an orchestra conductor and, mainly, as a choir director in the seasons of various opera theaters, such as those in Chemnitz, Frankfurt, Saarbrücken, Dresden (Semperoper) and the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. As a conductor, he has conducted ballet, opera (among other titles, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Don Giovanni, La vidua alegre), symphonic and symphonic choral concerts (such as the requiems of Mozart and Verdi, and the symphony Lobgesang, by Mendelssohn), with orchestras such as the Robert Schumann Philharmonie, the Saarländisches Staatsorchester, the Argentine National Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. His collaborations as choir director also include the choir Voci Bianche di Roma for the Teatro dell’Opera and the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome; the choir of Radio Leipzig; the choir of the Bamberg Symphony; the choir of the Zurich Opera House; the Salzburg Easter Festival, with the choirs of the Dresden Semperoper and the Munich Opera (Parsifal, DVD Deutsche Grammophon), and, more recently, with the opera houses of Xi'an, Beijing, Shanghai and Staatsoper München.

In addition to a very wide operatic repertoire that includes the main titles of Wagner, Verdi and Puccini, he has collaborated as a choir director in symphonic chorales - such as Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (Unitel DVD); the War Requiem, by Britten; the Ein DeutschesRequiem, by Brahms; the oratorios Das Liebesmahl der Apostel, by Wagner; The dream of Gerontius, by Elgar, and Mahler’s symphonies 2, 3 and 8— and with conductors such as Kurt Masur, Georges Prêtre, Colin Davis, Christian Thielemann, Fabio Luisi and Kirill Petrenko.

ENROLMENT FOR THE WHOLE WEEK
Enrolment fee: €445 / person

Includes:

Accommodation: Different kind of rooms upon availability (limited rooms). Choirs will be hosted in Residència Salesiana Martí Codolar (Avda. Cardenal Vidal i Barraquer, 15, Barcelona).
Meals: Breakfast and lunches, as well as picnic dinner on performance days.
Participation in one workshop and scores music booklet on arrival.
Two concerts: A 30-minutes concert in Santa Maria del Pi Church and a 60-minutes concert in different venues of Barcelona surroundings.
Possibility of 10-minutes concert in Sagrada Família Cathedral and Montserrat Abbey (price not included in the fee).

All choirs are requested to state 2 workshop preferences, so that we can achieve the best possible grouping for the workshops. We will try to meet your first preference if that is possible.

ENROLMENT WITHOUT ACCOMMODATION
Enrolment fee: €140 / person

Includes:

Participation in one workshop and scores music booklet on arrival.
Two concerts: a 30-minutes concert in Santa Maria del Pi Church and a 60-minutes concert in different venues of Barcelona surroundings.
Possibility of 10-minutes concert in Sagrada Família Cathedral and Montserrat Abbey (price not included in the fee).

All choirs are requested to state 2 workshop preferences, so that we can achieve the best possible grouping for the workshops. We will, of course, try to meet your first preference if that is possible.

ENROLMENT FOR HALF WEEK
(Please ask for more information if you are interested)

The outcome of your application will be communicated to you by the end of November 2025 (Participation can be confirmed earlier if necessary).

Payment of the inscription:
Once the choir has been accepted, we will send you all the instructions.

1st payment (40%) by the end of January 2026
2nd payment (60%) by the end of April 2026

Cancellation policy:

In case of cancellation before the 1st of May 2026, the 100% of the payment will be refunded.

In case of cancellation after the 1st of May 2026, only a 50% of the payment will be refunded.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

November 15th 2025

You must fill the application form that you will find below.

Application Form

61st INTERNATIONAL CHORAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

BARCELONA, from 6th to 12th JULY 2026

WORKSHOPS

¡Ven a cantar con nosotros!