iSing Silicon Valley Girlchoir wins Grand Prize at 8th International Schumann Choral Competition

“Now we know that Silicon Valley isn’t just about Facebook” 
— Ralf Eisenbeiss, Competition Founder, 
Senior Artistic Director, Interkultur

June 11, 2018, Palo Alto, CA: iSing Silicon Valley Girlchoir has won the Grand Prize at the 8^th Robert Schumann International Choral Competition. Founded in 1992, and held every 4 years, the Competition is co-sponsored by Interkultur, the West Saxony Choral Association, and the City of Zwickau, Germany (Schumann’s birthplace). Held June 6–10, 2018, this year’s Competition brought together 17 choirs from 11 countries from around the world, including iSing. As Competition Founder Ralf Eisenbeiss told the audience at the Opening Ceremonies: These choirs participate not only as choral competitors, but also as “builders of bridges between nations.”

iSing’s performances in the Chamber Choirs of Equal Voices and Sacred Choral A Cappella categories included Laudate Pueri Dominum (Mendelssohn), Vivos Voco (Szymko), and Spark! To Music (Barnum), Bogoroditse Devo (Rachmaninoff), and Even When He is Silent (Arnesen). After successfully competing in these categories, iSing advanced to the Finals, where they performed Der Wassermann (Schumann) and Hoj, hura, hoj! (Mácha). iSing won both competition categories and claimed the Competition’s Grand Prize. 

This “Triple Crown win” comes at the culmination of the first 5 seasons of this fast-growing young choral organization. But it is not the first public accolade received by iSing in 2018. Earlier this year, iSing Silicon Valley won Chorus America’s 2018 Dale Warland Singers Commission Award, for a work for treble choir, string quartet, and percussion to be written by Grammy-nominated composer Adam Schoenberg, setting excerpts from Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night. After leaving Zwickau yesterday, iSing visited the Terezin Concentration Camp, in an effort to deepen their understanding of the new work, which will be premiered in Spring 2019. During the coming week, iSing will offer a joint concert with Pražská Kantiléna at the Emmaus Monastery in Prague and will perform at the Kaasgrabenkirche in Vienna. 

Founded in 2013 by artistic directors Jennah Delp Somers and Shane Troll, iSing Silicon Valley brings together 250 of the best young female singers in the Silicon Valley; offers them rigorous musical and vocal training while fostering artistry, engagement, and leadership; and guides them as they build and transform community through song. iSing looks forward to the start of its 6^th season of singing in August 2018.

For more information about iSing Silicon Valley’s programs and activities, including 2018–2019 performances at the Santa Clara Mission, Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University, and other Silicon Valley venues, please visit http://isingsv.com/