Bound to its mission of nourishing passion for music and nurturing artistic excellence within and beyond the country, the Andrea O. Veneracion International Choral Festival (AOVICF) is now open for applications for 2025. The AOVICF Manila 2025, slated for August 20 to 24, 2025, will feature six (6) categories: Children’s Choir, Equal Voices, Folk Song and Indigenous Music, Mixed Choir, Musica Sacra, and Popular Music.
Forever an advocate of quality performances from the heart, the Festival will judge the competing choirs for their intonation, sound quality, interpretation of the score, and overall artistic impression. The grand winner of the Mixed Choir category will receive a cash prize of Php 200,000 while grand winners of other categories will be granted Php 150,000. All winners will be awarded certificates.
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In addition to these prizes, the title of Best Conductor and Best Performance of the Contest Piece may also be given to the competing choirs.
Following National Artist Andrea O. Veneracion’s advocacy and commitment to singing from the heart, AOVICF Manila is more than a competition. It first began in 2013 through the CCP, welcoming choirs from different parts of the world. It is also one of the founding members of the Asia Choral Grand Prix which is jointly organized with international choral festivals: the Bali International Choir Festival (Indonesia), the Singapore International Choral Festival (Singapore), and the Malaysian Choral Eisteddfod International Choral Festival (Malaysia).
For its sixth edition, AOVICF Manila 2025 wishes to inspire passion for choral singing on a global scale. Acknowledging cultural differences and unjust biases, the competition creates a platform to promote respect for diversity and the unique Philippine brand of music and performance.
As for AOVICF Manila’s application process, there will be no auditioning required. Applicants must simply be amateur choirs that have been in existence for two (2) years. After submitting a duly accomplished application form, they must create an audio or video recording of 2 to 3 songs of different genres recorded within the last six (6) months before their application. A recent curriculum vitae (CV) and photo of the choir and the conductor must also be sent through secretariat@aovchoralfestph.com with the subject labeled as “AOVICF 2025: (Name of Choir)”.
Application submissions must be sent on or before 11:59 PM (Philippine Standard Time), on April 30, 2025 (Wednesday). Qualified applicants must pay the registration fee of USD 400 for non-Filipino choirs and Php 15,000 for Filipino choirs. To be officially recognized as competing choirs, applicants must send proof of payment on or before May 30, 2025.
For a limited time, however, early birds who will apply on or before 11:59 PM on December 31, 2024, will get to enjoy a 50% discount on their registration fee.
The AOVICF Manila is a collaboration of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) (through its Artist Training Division under the CCP Arts Education Department) with the Philippine Madrigal Singers (PMS), the only Asian winner of the European Grand Prix in Choral Singing. You may visit https://www.aovchoralfestph.com/guidelines for a more detailed instruction on the application process.
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