COMPETITION / FESTIVAL RULES AND REGULATIONS

Competition Eligibility

1. A choir should have been organised for at least one calendar year prior to the International Choral Festival and must be able (if required) to substantiate that fact.
2. All members of a choir, except the conductor and accompanist, must be amateurs (i.e. people who do not earn their livelihood as singers).
3. No person may compete as a member of more than one choir in the same category and a choir can only compete in one of the two scheduled classes.
4. The Festival reserves the right to limit the number of entries for each category.
5. The Festival reserves the right to cancel a category if it feels that there have been insufficient entries.
6. The Festival reserves the right to alter the timetable according to the number of entries received for each category.
7. Adjudicators' decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding any aspect of their deliberations.
8. All mark and comments sheets will be made available to choirs after the Festival.
9. A choir which withdraws from a category is not entitled to a refund of the entry fee.

Competition Repertoire

10. The programme must contain at least one unaccompanied piece.
11. The programme for either competition must not exceed 12 minutes. Marks will be deducted where time is not used effectively.
12. The adjudicators will allocate marks not only for performance quality but also for the aesthetic quality of the pieces chosen, the variety in their musical styles, period and technical difficulty. The adjudicators will also take into account how successful the choir's choice of repertoire is from the point of view of audience appeal and how well the choir communicates with the audience in performance.
13. Five copies of each item sung in competition must be forwarded to the Festival Office for use by the jury no later than 31st January 2009. Photocopies will only be accepted when accompanied by the full, written authority of the copyright holder. The Festival maintains the right to retain one set of the choir's music for archive purposes.
14. Changes to competition repertoire will only be only be accepted in exceptional circumstances and in any case no later than March 01 2009.

Financial Liability

15. All choirs participating in the Festival are expected to pay their own travel and accommodation costs. The Festival may assist some choirs from overseas in exceptional circumstances.
16. Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival Ltd. accepts no responsibility for any expense incurred by any choir or individual chorister participating in the Festival.

Broadcasting and Recording Rights

17. It is a condition of participation that any choir agrees:
(a) that any performance it gives during the International Male Voice Choral Festival may be broadcast live and / or recorded for subsequent broadcast on radio and / or television without payment to the choir. All broadcasting rights to any performance at the Festival shall belong to the Festival which will be free to dispose of them as it sees fit;
(b) that any performance it gives during the International Male Voice Choral Festival may, without payment, be recorded by contractors of the Festival and the Festival shall be entitled to possession of any such recording and shall further be entitled to reproduce any such recording and to sell, let for hire, offer for sale or hire, distribute or otherwise dispose of any recording or reproduction of recording of any such performance in any manner that it sees fit;
(c) that for copyright reasons, no sound, video, DVD or other recording of performances is made at any event other than those authorised in writing by the Festival Director.

General

18. Participating choirs may be asked to prepare a short part of the new Festival commission for singing at concerts in the Festival. Music will be distributed free to choirs no later than 31st October 2008. Choirs will be encouraged to perform it in concert from memory.
19. It is contrary to law to perform music which has been reproduced illegally. Should a choir do so, the Committee accepts no responsibility for any action taken by publishers.
20. The Committee accepts no legal responsibility whatsoever in respect of a choir's participation in the Festival and fringe activities.
21. The closing date for receipt of entry forms and entry fees is October 31, 2008. However, such is the popularity of the Festival and competition that choirs are advised to apply as early as possible.
22. An entry form must be completed and submitted with:
(a) the Festival registration fee of £85 (£55 for Cornish choirs);
(b) a recent colour photograph;
(c) a recent short* recording of the choir (on CD / DVD / minidisk / MP3 - not cassette);
(d) a biography (500 words maximum).
to the Festival Office (by post or electronically) by the closing date.
23. The Festival reserves the right to refuse entries.
24. Participation in the International Male Voice Choral Competition implies acceptance of all the rules and regulations.

* Please do not submit professionally produced CDs. Two or three tracks recorded from a specially prepared rehearsal (or concert) is all that is required.

FESTIVAL ENTRY AND REGISTRATION FEE

An inclusive registration and entry fee of £85 (£55 Cornish choirs) exists for participation in any aspect of the Festival. Registration and entry fees cover any concert, the International Competitions, preferential rates at Festival-organised accommodation and all associated events. All choirs are encouraged to register for the Festival as soon as possible as entries will be considered on a first come, first served basis.

FESTIVAL SELECTION

Only applicants enclosing all the requirements detailed below in the Participation and Application Procedure will be considered. Choirs are largely selected on the basis of their application material. Particular attention is paid to the repertoire and quality of performance presented in the audition CD / DVD / Minidisk / MP3 file submitted with the application. The Festival Director will be happy to answer any queries choirs may have regarding any aspect of Festival participation. The closing date is October 31, 2008.

INTERNATIONAL CHOIR COMPETITIONS

The International Competitions are not obligatory for choirs participating in the Festival, but choirs are encouraged to take part. Two International Choir Competitions will be held on Saturday (daytime) in the Hall for Cornwall in Truro in the categories:
1. Competition for choirs/ensembles up to 40 voices
2. Competition for choirs 41 voices and over

Prizes

In each category, prizes will be awarded as follows: 1st Prize £1000; 2nd Prize £400; 3rd Prize £200. In addition, trophies will be presented for the best choir overall, the best UK and Cornish Choirs overall and the best UK and Cornish choirs in each category. An international jury will judge each competition and provide a written adjudication for all competing choirs.
Every choir competing will be expected to sing a 12 minute (maximum) mixed programme of items of their own choice, one item of which must be unaccompanied. The range of styles, difficulty of the pieces and the entertainment value of the programme should be taken into account when selecting the choir's programme for the competition performance.
In previous years, each Festival has seen over 20 choirs compete in the two categories. Winners in the small choir category have been Revalia Male Chamber Choir from Estonia (2003), the Renner Male Ensemble from Regensburg, Germany (2005), Linkoping University Male Voice Choir, Sweden (2007) and Eight in A Bar, Cornwall (2009). The Large Choir category winners have been the Béla Bartók Male Voice Choir from Pécs, Hungary (2003) the Riga Technical University Male Choir Gaudeamus, Latvia (2005), Colne Valley Male Voice Choir, England (2007) and Four Lanes Male Voice Choir, Cornwall (2009). All prize winners are listed on the Festival's website: www.cimvcf.org.uk. 

PARTICIPATION AND APPLICATION PROCEDURE

All choirs participating in any areas of the Festival are required to submit to the Festival Artistic Director by October 31, 2008 at the latest:
a) A completed entry form;
b) A recent CD / DVD / minidisk or MP3 recording of the choir
c) A short biography of the choir (maximum 500 words);
d) A recent colour photograph (suitable for publicity) of the choir;
e) The Festival registration/entry fee of £85 (£55 for Cornish Choirs) made payable to the Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival Ltd. Choirs may request the banking details of the Festival in order to make an electronic transfer.

Electronic submission of entries is possible by emailing the Festival Director (peter.davies @ abcd.org.uk) and electronic transfer of the relevant registration fee.

All applicants will be notified if their entry has been accepted as soon as possible.

Pictures of Adjudicators top to bottom: Dr. Roy Wales (UK), Dr. John Dickson (USA), Robert Sund (Sweden), Dr. Vivien Pike (UK), John Harries (UK), Christopher Gray (UK).