Rules for the IX Edition of the International Choral Festival

INCANTO MEDITERRANEO 2025

Art. 1.

The festival is reserved exclusively for choirs and vocal ensembles of non-professional singers.

Art. 2.

There are two different sections:

EXHIBITION SECTION and COMPETITION SECTON Choirs can take part in both sections.

Art. 3.

There will be no reimbursement of costs for participating choirs.

The festival organizers have arranged various accommodation and catering options for participating choirs.

Art. 4

EXHIBITION SECTION 

6 – 8 July 2025

This is a NON COMPETITIVE section which takes place over two different evenings:

- Sunday 6

- Tuesday 8

Participating choirs will perform a free program which must contain at least three pieces from different periods, styles and genres.

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

- a video-recording of a recent performance by the choir (within the last 12 months) indicating the date and place of the performance;

- choir’s curriculum;

- conductor’s curriculum;

- performance programme of no more than 15-20 minutes;

- photo of the choir;

- photo of the conductor.

Choirs should indicate on the application form on which evening they would prefer to perform; it’s possible to participate in both evenings.

The Festival organizers will proved only a digital piano for performances.

Art. 5 

COMPETITION SECTION

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

- A video-recording of a recent performance by the choir (within the last 12 months) indicating the date and place of the performance; 

- choir’s curriculum; 

- conductor’s curriculum; 

- performance programme; 

- photo of the choir;

- photo of the conductor.

SACRED MUSIC COMPETITION 

10 July 2025 

This section is COMPETITIVE and open to all types of choir and vocal ensembles.

Participating choirs will present a single programme of sacred music to be performed EXCLUSIVELY “a cappella” and lasting between 15-20 minutes, on Thursday 10th.

It is compulsory for the programme to contain at least three pieces from different periods, styles and genres, to be chosen from the following: 

- Gregorian 

- Byzantine 

- Orthodox 

- Renaissance 

- Baroque 

- Romantic 

- 20th Century - Contemporary - Spiritual. 

Performances are open to the public. 

The marks given by the Jury will determine the final classification for awarding 3rd, 2nd and 1st place in the Sacred Music Competition.   

COMPETITION FOR THE INCANTO MEDITERRANEO TROPHY  

11 - 12 July 2025 

This is a COMPETITION section and is open to the following categories: 

- Category A – CHOIRS AND VOCAL ENSEMBLES mixed/male-voice/female-voice with a minimum of four members; 

 

- Category B – YOUTH CHOIRS with a minimum of 12 members under 26 years of age (only 2 members over this age limit are permitted); 

 

- Category C – CHILDREN’S CHOIRS with a minimum of 12 members under 14 years of age (only 2 members over this age limit are permitted). 

 

The Festival organizers reserve the right to unite Categories A, B and C into a single category.

 

Participating choirs will present two different programmes (one on Friday 11th and the other on Saturday 12th) each lasting beween 15-20 minutes.

It is compulsory for both programmes to include at least three pieces from different periods, styles and genres to be chosen from the following:

- Medieval 

- Renaissance 

- Baroque 

- Romantic 

- 20th Century 

- Contemporary 

- Pop 

- Jazz 

- Folk - Spiritual. 

It is also compulsory for choirs to perform (in one of the two programmes) at least one piece either 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 web-site). 

Choirs participating in Category A and Category B must perform EXCLUSIVELY “a cappella” (only unpitched percussion instruments can be used). 

Choirs participating in Category C must perform 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 only a digital piano for performances. 

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 COMPETITIONS. 

CHOIRS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO REPEAT PIECES PERFORMED IN THE EXHIBITION SECTION FOR THE COMPETITIONS.

CHOIRS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO REPEAT PIECES PERFORMED IN THE EXHIBITION SECTION AND IN THE SACRED MUSIC COMPETITION FOR THE INCANTO MEDITERRANEO TROPHY COMPETITION.  

 

Art. 6 

Performances in the Competition Section will take place in front of a panel of highly qualified international Judges chosen by the Festival’s Artistic Committee.

The Jury will evaluate the choirs’ performances using the following criteria:

- TECHNICAL QUALITY (intonation, execution and vocal affinity) 

- VOCAL QUALITY 

- STYLISTIC QUALITY (performance) 

- PROGRAMME QUALITY

 

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

 

Art. 7 

CLASSIFICATION AND PRIZES 

The following prizes will be awarded: 

* All choirs participating in the Exhibition Section and the Competition Section will receive a participation certificate;

* Certificates will be awarded to choirs classified in 3rd, 2nd and 1st place in the Sacred Music Competition;  

* Prize of € 500,00 to the choir classified in 1st place in the Sacred Music Competition;

* InCanto Mediterraneo Trophy Competition:

- BRONZE MEDAL CERTIFICATE → to choirs obtaining between 70,00/100 and 79,99/100 marks 

- SILVER medal certificate → to choirs obtaining between 80,00/100 and 89,99/100 marks 

- GOLD medal certificate → to choirs obtaining between 90,00/100 and 100/100 marks 

- Certificate of Merit for the BEST PERFORMANCE of a PIECE BY A CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN COMPOSER  

- Prize of € 500,00 to the 1st placed choir in Category A 

- Prize of € 500,00 to the 1st placed choir in Category B 

- Prize of € 500,00 to the 1st placed choir in Category C 

- Prize of € 1.000,00 and “INCANTO MEDITERRANEO” Trophy to the overall Festival 1st prize winner, awarded to the choir with the highest marks from the three categories (A, B, C). 

 

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

The awards ceremony for both competitions, will take place on Saturday 12th. 

Art. 8 

Choirs wishing to participate in the     festival should send     their APPLICATION FORMS and all the necessary attachments no later than 11 April 2025, either by e-mail to: festival@festivalincantomediterraneo.it or

francescosaverio.messina@gmail.com

or by post to: 

ASSOCIAZIONE CORALE CANTICA NOVA

via dei Lillà N. 5 - 98057 MILAZZO (ME) – ITALIA 

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

Art. 9

The Organizing Committee will communicate their final decision to accept or deny each choir’s application by email, by 25 April 2025.

The Artistic Committee reserve the right to ask choirs to substitute pieces indicated on their application form, giving as much notice as possible in this case.

 

No later than 10 May 2025 the choirs accepted for participation in the festival Competition Section should:

* Confirm their participation by e-mail and pay the following registration fees: 

- € 100,00 to participate in the Sacred Music Competition only 

- € 180,00 to participate in the Incanto Mediterraneo Trophy Competition only 

- € 250,00 to participate in both Competitions. 

Payment must be made by way of bank transfer to the Associazione Corale Cantica Nova account, details of which will be communicated to all participating choirs  

* choirs must send via e-mail, in “pdf” form (or by post), a clear a legible copy of the scores to be performed (choirs must also take responsibility for the protection of copyright and publishing for the musical material presented).  

 

* Choirs participating in Categories B and C for the Incanto Mediterraneo Trophy Competition, must also send an email with a list of the choir members along with their date of birth.  

There is no application fee for choirs taking part in the EXHIBITION SECTION, and they do not need to send any scores.  

Art. 10 

The Festival Organization Committee reserves all rights to any audiovisual recording and transmission of performances, for noncommercial 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 to communicate any changes to all participants. 

Art. 12

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