This MusicaMail primarily highlights recent or upcoming initiatives and actions related to the choral repertoire, accessible to everyone via the Internet and/or located in various countries around the world. They invite you to discover further choral works and composers, to attend premieres. Some of these initiatives seek your collaboration in order to enrich our choral database, as the active participation of the global choral community is essential to the development of Musica International. We must pay tribute to all those who, for over forty years, have sustained and developed this unique collaborative tool, a database available to all, most often sharing their expertise and commitment to choral life on a voluntary basis. You, too, can get in touch with contact@musicanet.org to add your building block to the Musica International ediface.

Jean Sturm

Executive Director of Musica International

Summary

1. A New Lease on Life for the Musica International Documentary Collection
2. The latest Musica International "Favorite Pieces of the Month"
3. Meet the World Symposium on Choral Music 2026 Composers
4. Participate in Enriching a Concert Theme: "Mythology"
5. Review of the “Festa de la Música Coral” 2026 in Barcelona
6. About Our Members 
7. Reminders

Over the years, nearly 40,000 scores had accumulated in the cabinets of our Strasbourg office, until one thing became obvious: giving them a new life had become necessary.

Indeed, after being catalogued, these scores unfortunately remained unused, due to the lack of a suitable place for consultation. Keen on more fully promoting this resource, Musica International chose to donate it to the library of the Music Conservatory of Strasbourg. This collection — a true wealth of choral music — can now be consulted on-site, in an environment conducive to its use by students, teachers, and more generally by any visitor to the library. All scores, of course, remain documented in the Musica database, with mention of their availability at the Conservatory, and our future acquisitions will follow this same rule.

This project is part of the continuity of partnerships developed by Musica International with several other institutions, such as the Centre d’Art Vocal & de Musique Ancienne in Namur (Belgium), the Deutsches Centrum für Chormusik (Germany) or the library of the Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton (USA). These partnerships are very much in harmony with Musica’s central mission: to disseminate choral repertoire resources and thus to serve the choral community.

2. The latest Musica International "Favorite Pieces of the Month"

Each month, Musica International selects a Favorite Piece of the Month for you: a score you should not miss!

Did you miss the last ones? Don't panic!

Here are the 4 most recent:

3. Meet the World Symposium on Choral Music 2026 Composers

     As part of the World Symposium on Choral Music tradition, six WSCM 2026 invited choirs will be paired with six commissioned composers, culminating in world premieres at their gala concerts at the Macau Cultural Centre. Reflecting the symposium’s theme, each choir will perform a newly created work by a composer from a different country, creating a dynamic space for cultural exchange and musical dialogue.

 Beatriz Bilbao (Venezuela)

     Composer and performer with an eclectic musical language, she is the winner of several national and international composition prizes. Her music is widely performed internationally and deeply reflects her Venezuelan cultural heritage, notably her indigenous influences. She composes for various instrumental and vocal ensembles.

 Jude Bautista Roldan (Philippines)

     Composer, pianist and music teacher, he is a major figure on the current international choral scene and artistic director of the "Young Voices of the Philippines". His works are published and widely distributed. They are performed in many prestigious international festivals as well as in venues such as Carnegie Hall. His choral program has achieved much international success, including major distinctions and historical firsts for the Philippines on the international choral scene.

Xia Yanbin (China)

     Composer and professor of composition and conducting, he is vice-dean of the School of Music and Dance of the Zhuhai College of Science and Technology. Awarded prizes several times by the National Arts Fund of China and distinguished as a young artistic creation talent, he had developed many activities moving between creation, teaching and international collaborations. He collaborates with many conductors and institutions, and his works are published and distributed internationally. He is described as navigating between tradition and modernity of the Chinese choral language.

From the text provided by Nadine ROBIN (IFCM)

➡️ Read the full article

You will already find many results on this theme on www.musicanet.org, but it remains widely open to your contributions — and, if you are a composer, to your own creations!

Examples of results obtained via the search by « Keyword or word from the title »:

📌 « mythology » : nearly 100 results ;

📌 « mythological figure » : 375 results.

• Refine your search by adding the criteria of your choice among the many fields offered by Musica International. Get inspired by mythology and what it evokes for you:
  names of gods or heroes (e.g., Zeus, Artemis, Ulysses, Penelope, etc.); give Greek names preference to Roman names for more precise results, if you want to avoid homonymy with planet names;
• keywords, images, sensations… (e.g., fire, hunting, hell, music, sea, etc.).

Here are some titles indexed in Musica that caught our attention:

📍 Iuppiter, by Michael Ostrzyga

📍 The triumphs of Oriana (33 pieces by various composers, including Thomas Morley!)

📍 Pénélope aux yeux de colombe by César Geoffray

📍 Unicornis captivatur, by Ola Gjeilo

📍 Daphne, by Richard Strauss

📍 Smiling Venus, queen of love, by G.F.Haendel

📍 Mars in a fury, by Thomas Weelkes

📍 Hell strahlt die Welt, by Wolfgang Lüderitz

📍 Musica musarum germana, by Jacobus Gallus

📍 Great Apollo and Bacchus did one night dispute, by Henry Purcell

2 concert programs on this theme:

• "Au C(h)œur de la Mythologie" – New Year’s Eve concert of the "En musique l'An Neuf 2012" :                                        ➡️ Watch the program

• "Mythology of the planets" by the Nightingale VOCAL ENSEMBLE :

➡️ Watch the program