TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taipei International Choral Festival will enchant audiences across Taiwan from Saturday through Aug. 3, featuring more than 270 international singers and about 800 domestic performers.

Concerts will take place in venues across Taipei, Yilan, Nantou, Chiayi, Tainan, and other locations.

A key highlight this year is the World Choral Championship, being held in Taipei for the first time. Choirs from the Czech Republic, the Philippines, and Hong Kong will compete in the international contest.

A press conference was held Friday at the National Taiwan Museum to preview the festival. The St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir from Slovenia, led by conductor Helena Fojkar Zupancic, performed three songs, showcasing their signature ethereal and pure vocal style. The choir is composed of high school girls aged 15 to 19.

Vokalion, a women’s choir from the Czech Republic conducted by Jan Pirner, also performed two pieces at the event.

Slovenian composer Ambroz Copi expressed his excitement about participating in the festival. He praised the event as one of the world’s most important choral gatherings and said he hopes it will deepen cultural ties between Slovenia and Taiwan.

On Sunday, Copi will premiere his “Psalm Cantata” at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, featuring the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. The work draws inspiration from the life of a Slovenian doctor who spent his career practicing medicine in Taiwan, blending the vocal characteristics of Hakka and Indigenous music to express a message of hope, peace, and love.

On Aug. 3, conductor Gabor Hollerung will lead the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus and the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in a performance of Georg Friedrich Handel’s “Messiah,” one of the most iconic oratorios. An oratorio is a large-scale musical work for choir, soloists, and orchestra, typically based on a religious theme.

Presented in a post-Romantic orchestral arrangement, the concert will feature nearly 300 choir members and 100 orchestra musicians.

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