Competition

This year is COMPETITIVE and NON-COMPETITIVE.

All the choirs to be divided into two age categories:

  1. Children's choirs below 16 years of age (born in 2008 and younger, 10 % can be older - maximum 18 years old). However, the homogeneous character of the corps (eg SSA) must be maintained.
  2. Adult choirs (no age limit)

Adult choirs will be divided into:

  1. Vocal groups (up to 8 singers, where every voice is covered by one or two singers max.)
  2. Singing choirs (other bigger singing bodies)

The festival can also be attended by vocal and choral professionals with the knowledge that they will still not receive any salary from us for their performance. :-)

All choirs are automatically accepted this year. The only limitation is the number of competing choirs, which can be a maximum of 14. If the interest of the choirs in the competition exceeds this maximum capacity, the competition choirs will be selected by an expert jury. The remaining choirs will be offered participation in the non-competitive part of the festival.

Choir repertoire

  • Competing choirs will prepare a program for 12 minutes and choirs that will not compete for 20 minutes.
  • Selected songs should be from the field of non-artificial music. We are also happy to hear an a cappella composition.
  • There is a microphone available at Červený Hrádek, which is intended primarily for the spoken word, but we will be happy to lend it to you. However, due to the good acoustics of the hall, you will probably not need it. Some concerts in the region will be sounded and we will believe that together we will be able to make the best sound.
  • Competing choirs will send sheet music for the jury in five copies to the address of ZUŠ Jirkov (Chomutovská 267, 431 11 Jirkov) or hand in sorted sheet music during the presentation.

We believe that the choirs that have already performed at Jirkovský Písňovar will mostly prepare a new repertoire for this year. We look forward to.

Evaluation

The performances of the competing choirs will be evaluated by an expert jury composed of renowned experts in choral singing and popular music*. The choirmasters can then use the feedback that the jurors will be happy to provide on Saturday evening.

Expert jury and lecturers:

  • Nancy Gibson
  • Jakub Kacar
  • Sylva Sasková
  • Jaroslav Šindler ml.
  • Sebastian Schilling

The title "Category Winner" can only be obtained by a choir that is placed in the golden zone.

Grand Prix JP

(Saturday from 19:00 - riding stable – Červený Hrádek)

The competition of Grand Prix is entered by the winners of categories 1.A, 2.A, 2.B plus two more choir with a golden award. Every nominee performs two songs (at least one a cappella), with the condition that one had not been heard before in category competitions. There presentatives of each choir would draw publicly the order of their performance. This is a completely different competition with all previous results being forgotten, the jury using the secret votes.

The winner of the evening Grand Prix receives the "the Knight of Jirkov 2024" cup, including the opportunity/kind obligation to perform at the opening concert of JP 2025 on Friday, October 3, 2025.