The Orfeó Català announces the 2nd International Choral Music Competition "Festa de la música coral" to promote the new Catalan and international coral creation. The contest, organized by the Orfeó Català, invites participants with no age or origin restrictions to present choral works with high standards suitable for both amateur and professional choirs chosen in different categories: mixed choir, equal voices (female choir) and children's choir. The works must be original, unpublished and not previously awarded in any other contest.
This year the International Choral Music Competition "Festa de la música coral" has increased the financial endowment of the prizes. The most important prize will be the Choral Music Composition for mixed voices prize, with 2.500 Euros, named as Maria Font Bernaus Prize, in memory of her commitment, dedication and support for many years in the Orfeó Català and its founding values. Other awards have a prize of 1,000 Euros and there will be a special mention for the best work on text in Catalan.
The jury of this first edition will consist on the following conductors and composers of international renown: Joan Magrané, composer; Xavier Puig, choirmaster of the Cor de Cambra de l’Auditori Enric Granados de Lleida; Júlia Sesé, choirmaster of the Cor Anton Bruckner; Pablo Larraz, assistant director of the Orfeó Català and Simon Halsey, artistic director of the Orfeó Català choirs, as jury president.

VII International Awards "Catalonia" in coral composition
In parallel, the FCEC (Catalan Choral Federation) calls the VII International Awards "Catalonia" in coral composition that ask for compositions on Catalan text and harmonization of traditional Catalan songs level low / medium difficulty into two categories: mixed voices and equal voices. The jury of the VI International Awards "Catalonia" coral composition will consist of: Bernat Vivancos (composer and choirmaster), Josep Lluís Guzmán (composer), Josep Lluís Valldecabres (choirmaster) Pere-Mateu Xiberta (composer, pianist & conductor) and Xavier Pastrana (conductor).
The winning works will be edited by FCEC, published in its Coral Collection and distributed to all federal entities and others upon request. 
The call for the two awards is now open and the deadline for submission works is, in both calls, on 13th March 2017. The verdict will be communicated publicly during the 11th World Symposium of Choral Music that will take part in Barcelona from the 22nd to the 29th July 2017.

Festa de la Música Coral: premiere of the awarded works
Awarded works will be premiered in the Festa de la Música Coral that will take place on February 25, 2018 at the Palau de la Música Catalana. The Festa de la Música Coral, organized by the Orfeó Català, will allow providing the Catalan choral world a unifying event, which will welcome all choral Catalan family with the essential collaboration of the Catalan Choral Federation (FCEC). This is an event organised to support the creation of new choral music both nationally and internationally, and which also will have a significant presence recovery of the musical heritage of Catalan composers of the past.

History of the Festa de la Música Catalana
In 1904 the Orfeó Català promoted the first “Festa de la Musica Catalana”, a musical event that took place between 1904 and 1922. Following the Catalan “Jocs Florals”, a poetry contest organized by the city of Barcelona, the “Festa de la Musica Catalana” was created to encourage both choral and instrumental compositions and rewarded in various categories best compositions (for mixed voices, white voices, male choirs, female choirs, chamber and symphonic compositions, etc.).
The “Festa de la Musica Catalana” was created with the intention of increasing the choral catalogue of Catalan authors in a time when choral activity was flourishing, with the creation of new corals, choruses, but with a limited choral creation of Catalan authors. On February 28 of 2016, the Orfeó Català recovered the initiative, adapted to the necessity and circumstances of the twenty-first century, with great success of participation.