RULES FOR THE 6th EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CHORAL FESTIVAL
INCANTO MEDITERRANEO 2019

Art. 1.
The festival is open to non-professional singers and choirs only.

Art. 2.
There are two different sections:
EXHIBITION SECTION and COMPETITION SECTION.
Choirs can take part in both sections.

Art. 3.
There will be no reimbursement of costs for the participating choirs.  The festival organizers have arranged various accommodation and catering options at special prices for choirs taking part (see the attachment Accommodation Options).

Art. 4
EXHIBITION SECTION
7th – 9th July 2019
This is a NON-COMPETITIVE section with performances over two different evenings:
-    Sunday 7th    - SECULAR MUSIC: RENAISSANCE, BAROQUE, ROMANTIC, CONTEMPORARY
-    Tuesday 9th – POP AND FOLK MUSIC (any genre and/or era).

Choirs wishing to take part should fill in the application form and attach:

Choirs should also indicate which evening they would prefer to perform on the application form; choirs are entirely free to choose their repertoire as long as they adhere to the genres indicated for each evening.
 
The Festival organizers will provide a digital piano for performance purposes.

Art. 5
COMPETITION SECTION
Choirs wishing to take part should fill in the application form and attach:

SACRED MUSIC COMPETITION
11th July 2019
This section is COMPETITIVE and is open to all types of choirs and vocal ensembles.
Each participating choir will perform a single programme of sacred music to be sung EXCLUSIVELY “a capella” and lasting between 10-15 minutes on Thursday 11th.
It is compulsory for the programme to contain at least three different pieces from the following eras, styles and genres:

Performances are open to the public.
The marks given by the Jury will determine the final ranking, classifying choirs in 3rd, 2nd and 1st place in the Sacred Music Competition.
 
COMPETITION FOR THE INCANTO MEDITERRANEO TROPHY
12th – 13th July 2019
This section is COMPETITIVE and includes two different categories:
-    Category A – CHOIRS AND VOCAL ENSEMBLES
mixed/male/female with a minimum of 4 members. 

-    Category B – CHILDREN'S CHOIRS
with a minimum of 12 members, and under 14 years of age (only N.2 choir members over this age are permitted).

Participating choirs will perform 2 different programmes (one on Friday, and the other on Saturday) each lasting between 10-15 minutes.
It is compulsory for their programmes to contain at least 3 pieces from the following categories:

It is also compulsory for choirs to perform (in one of the two programmes) at least one piece composed or arranged by a contemporary Italian composer, to be chosen from the selection of pieces indicated by the Festival organizers (these can be downloaded from the Festival website).

Choirs participating in Category A must sing EXCLUSIVELY “a cappella” (only unpitched percussion instruments may be used).

Choirs participating in Category B must sing at least one piece from each programme “a cappella”; for the other pieces they can use any type of instrumental accompaniment excluding pre-recorded backing tracks.
The festival organizers will provide a digital piano for the choirs.
 
All performances are open to the public.
The final marks for each choir will be obtained by calculating the average of the marks given by the Jury for both performances.

§ CHOIRS CAN PARTICIPATE IN BOTH CHORAL COMPETITIONS.
§ CHOIRS CAN REPEAT IN THE COMPETITION SECTION PIECES THEY HAVE ALREADY PERFORMED IN THE EXHIBITION SECTION
§ BUT THEY ARE NOT PERMITTED TO REPEAT PIECES SUNG IN THE SACRED MUSIC COMPETITION IN THE COMPETITION FOR THE INCANTO MEDITERRANEO TROPHY.

Art. 6
Performances in the competition section will take place in front of a panel of International Judges chosen by the Festival’s Artistic Committee. The Jury will evaluate the choirs using the following criteria:

The marks given for each choir will be out of a hundred.

Art. 7
CLASSIFICATION AND PRIZES
The following prizes will be awarded:

The Jury reserves the right to award any other prizes it considers appropriate.

The Awards ceremony, for both competitions, will take place on the evening of Saturday, 13th July.

Art. 8
Choirs wishing to participate in the Festival should send their APPLICATION FORM and all the necessary attachments no later than 31st March 2019 by e-mail to:
or by post to:

All applications will be carefully considered by the Festival’s Artistic Committee.

Art. 9
The Organizing Committee will communicate their decision to accept or reject the application made by each choir by 5th April 2019.
The Artistic Committee reserves the right to ask choirs to substitute pieces indicated on the application form, and will give as much notice as possible in this case.


By 15th April 2019 choirs that have been accepted to participate in the Competition Section should:
>    Confirm their participation by email and pay the registration fees of:
-    € 100,00 to participate in the Sacred Music Competition
-    € 180,00 to participate in the Competition for the Incanto Mediterraneo Trophy
-    € 250,00 to participate in both competitions.
Payment can be made by way of Bank Transfer to the Cantica Nova Choral Association account – details of which will be sent to all participating choirs.
>    Send an email attaching (or by post if preferred) a clear and legible copy of the scores of the pieces to be performed in “pdf” form. Individual choirs must take responsibility for the protection of copyright and publishing for the musical material presented.

>    Send an email with a list of the choir members together with their dates of birth (for those choirs participating in Category B of the Competition for the InCanto Mediterraneo Trophy).

There is no application fee for choirs participating in the EXHIBITION SECTION of the Festival, and no need to send in any scores.

Art. 10
The Festival Organization Committee reserves all rights to the audio-visual recording and transmission of performances, for non-commercial purposes, and the participating choirs will not receive any payment for these.
 
Art. 11
The Festival Organization Committee reserves the right to make changes to the above rules, and assumes the responsibility for communicating these changes to all participants.

Art. 12
Participation in the Festival necessitates full understanding and acceptance of the above rules.