week-long festival from July 13 to 18<\/a> at four venues in the East Bay and San Francisco.<\/p>\nThe festival includes a \u201cSing-Off\u201d opening concert, five \u201cSpotlight\u201d concerts with free admission to the public, and a closing celebration and award ceremony. Four categories establish the structure for each choir\u2019s selected repertoire: historical music, folk music, contemporary music, and gospel\/spiritual music. In 2026, the event will be guided and awards determined by a local and international panel of adjudicators: Mar\u00eda Guinand, Dr. Maria Theresa Vizconde-Roldan, Jude B. Roldan, and Val\u00e9rie Sainte-Agathe.<\/p>\n
An unusual feature of the highly competitive event, which showcases elite choirs from around the globe, is the fact that many singers and adult chaperones homestay with local families during the festival. The host families offer opportunities for shared meals, sightseeing, and special insight into their American lifestyles, traditions, and culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are huge, international competitions with no interaction, and there are festivals that are non-competitive,\u201d\u00a0 says Tuan. \u201cOur core values have remained the same: a competitive festival that encourages choirs to reach their highest level of artistry, while also making it a relaxed environment where cultural exchange can happen. We strive to be the best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean Tuan has not observed changes since becoming PEBCC\u2019s artistic director in 2019. The festival used to center on groups from Central Europe; now, it has broadened to include a more global scope of participation. There is also increased interest in presenting new works written by living composers, and active efforts to include underrepresented composers or rarely performed works in the choral canon.<\/p>\n
The four competition categories provide distinct opportunities to showcase each country\u2019s musical style, cultural traditions, and history. Fluency in a particular language and a country\u2019s musical journey from the medieval period to the present are special features of the historical portion of the festival.<\/p>\n
Choirs performing folk music repertoire are often dressed in visually stunning national costumes and sing works with origins dating back centuries. The E. Mikeladze Central Music School\u2019s choir from Georgia, for example, perform Georgian three-part, polyphonic songs taught entirely by ear.<\/p>\n
For PEBCC, contemporary music is a major focus year-round \u2014 the choir has commissioned over 80 pieces. New music celebrates the excellence of today\u2019s young singers and introduces composers the choir might seek out in the future. \u201cThese are not just young people singing cute songs,\u201d says Tuan. \u201cThey\u2019re artists in their own right and at the top level, [and they] offer a unique sonic palette for composers. This is an opportunity to display the best composers in their region and put new music on the international platform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuan believes the spiritual\/gospel category is important element because it requires international choirs learn and celebrate music that traces its origin directly to United States history. \u201cFrom enslaved Africans in the South to music being molded through HBCUs, to civil rights movements, to music of today, choirs perform and receive feedback about (their singing of) this American art form. We also are seeing the emergence of gospel and spiritual pieces they find percolating in their own country\u2019s music.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the musical excellence on display at the festival, Tuan values the sense of camaraderie among the singers and the generosity of the local community. In his first year, he witnessed two singers who had no common language, but sat down at a piano together and \u201cspoke with tremendous familiarity\u201d by sharing music from their countries. That same year, when meeting one choir at the airport, an extra adult chaperone arrived unexpectedly. Tuan says he made a call and a local family immediately offered help. \u201cIn five minutes, they said they\u2019d house them. I drove them up there and that was it. The spirit of hospitality is special to the area. We\u2019re excited to share that feeling at a time when international visitors to the United States might have (understandable) preconceptions and be anxious about receiving a warm welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the \u201cheavy lift\u201d of Friday\u2019s closing concert \u2014 show order is not set until Thursday night, award winners are announced during a Friday morning SF Bay cruise, 500 people must be fed, and 400 singers shepherded onstage for the final number \u2014 Tuan and the team will already have tackled the complexities of homestay, transportation, and other logistics. Even with the long hours and hard work, Tuan says the festival is \u201ca lovely thing\u201d and the spirit of generosity in the community is a tribute to the Bay Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When 400 young people from nine countries participating in the 2026 Golden Gate International Choral Festival step onstage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-389993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}