European Association of Jewish Choirs (EUAJC)
Our next Festival in 2024 is being held in Sofia, Bulgaria (3rd to 8th July) and is being organised by maestro Itai Daniel, musical director of the Paris Ensemble Chorale Copernic.
The choirs taking parts are:
Ensemble Chorale Copernic - Paris, France
Coro Hakol - Rome, Italy
Vienna Jewish Choir - Vienna, Austria
Zemel Choir -London, UK,
and special guests, The Nicoai Kaufman Choir -Sofia - Conductor Maria Kaufman
Our most recent Festival was held in Vienna, under the musical direction of maestro Roman Grinberg, and culminated with a Gala Concert on 21st May 2023 in the Wiener Rathaus (Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 1, 1010 Wien). Click here to see the photo gallery from Vienna
The concert included performances by:
Ensemble Chorale Copernic - Paris, France
Coro Hakol - Rome, Italy
Leipziger Synagogalchor - Leipzig, Germany
Vienna Jewish Choir - Vienna, Austria
Zemel Choir -London, UK,
and special guests, Mozart Boys Choir, and Cantor Shmuel Barzilai
Background
Jewish communities all over the world are strongly connected to each other by their common faith and through the enduring use and love of song. Since biblical times, music has been integral within Jewish life and culture. Indeed, there is no stronger means to celebrate the Jewish traditions or reflect on Jewish history than through the many types of Jewish choral music, whether Liturgical, Israeli, Yiddish, Ladino, Folk or Secular.
The European Association of Jewish Choirs (EUAJC) aims to showcase the finest Jewish choirs to wider audiences in Choral Festivals that strive to be rewarding from an educational, cultural and social perspective for the attendees.
Since 2012, when the first European Jewish Choral Festival was held in London, there have now been further festivals in Vienna (2013), Rome (2014), London (2015), St.Petersburg (2017), Lviv (2018), Ferrara (2019, and Vienna (2023). One after another these Festivals have strengthened our collaboration and have played an important role promoting our shared musical heritage to Jewish and Non-Jewish audiences. These events have been successful in bringing together Jewish choirs from all over Europe, as well as the Ukraine, Russia and Israel. In 2016, the Vienna Jewish Choir and the Zemel Choir, founder members of EUAJC, performed together in Israel with the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir.
Due to the Pandemic, we were unable to hold our annual Festivals from 2020 to 2022 but we did produce a Virtual Choir video of Itai Daniel's Hevenu Shalom Aleichem showcasing our ongoing collaboration through these difficult times. Over 130 participants from 5 choirs spanning the breadth of Europe took part in this joyous production, sending a message of friendship, hope and peace. Special thanks to Roman Grinberg (Choirmaster - Vienna Jewish Choir) for the video production, and maestros Camilla Di Lorenzo ( Coro Hakol-Rome), Itai Daniel ( Ensemble Choral Copernic-Paris ) Benjamin Wolf ( Zemel Choir - London) and Sasha Somish (Shtrudl-Lviv).