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WHO ARE WE

The SCIC is the Catalan Children’s Choir Federation and it is made up of 120 choirs that represent a total of 3,000 singers from 4 to 16 years of the choirs of the Catalan Countries.

CHOIRS ARE ORGANIZED WITHIN 8 TERRITORIAL DEMARCATIONS, WHICH ARE:

SCIC is member of Moviment Coral Català (MCC), Consell Català de la Música (CCM)Ens de Comunicació AssociativaFederació d’Organitzacions Catalanes Internacionalment Reconegudes (FOCIR), Associació de Publicacions Periòdiques en Català (APPEC) and the international federations European Choral Association – Europa Cantat (ECA-EC) and International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM).

WHAT WE DO

The SCIC, as the coordinating entity of the member choirs, proposes different tasks:

1 – The dissemination of the traditional Catalan repertoire and the adaptation of songs from other countries, when it is considered convenient.

2 – The creation of a new repertoire through the commissioning of cantatas, songs and harmonization of traditional Catalan songs.

3 – Concern for the improvement of the musical level of federated choirs and choirs in the country. That is why it organizes courses of conduction and recommends to his conductors the assistance to those organized by other federations. 5º Curso de Dirección del SCIC

4 -The organization, twice a year, of the Working Days for the directors and those responsible for the member choirs.

5 – The coordination of the annual meetings: the “Juguem Cantant” (We Play Singing) for the little ones from 4 to 7 years old and the meetings that can have different formats: workshops, exchanges, etc. In addition, every 5 years a month is celebrated, every 5 years there is a “General Trobada” where all the choirs of the SCIC participate and a work (normally a cantata) is released for the occasion.

HISTORY

Although in Catalonia there were already sporadic experiences of children singing, it was not until 1967 that an organized nucleus was established with headquarters in the city of Manresa, around the Musical Youth. On April 16 of that year the First Meeting of Children’s Choirs of Catalonia was organized in Manresa, with a common program and with the attendance of 600 singers of the 11 choirs from 8 different populations. From here, the internal structure of the Secretariat of Children’s Choirs of Catalonia, SCIC, has been adapted to the needs of each moment.

The people who founded it, and also those who currently integrate it, believe that choral singing is a means that contributes greatly to the formation of children and adolescents because of the many possibilities it has to introduce them to the taste for beauty, especially that of music, in the pleasure of cultivating a means of expression such as the voice, in the love of the language of your country, in the jewel of friendship and in freely accepted discipline, in teamwork and, finally, in the pleasure of collaborating with other children.

THE SCIC MEETINGS

Once a year the singers share the work done during the course in different meetings of different modalities. These meetings are the maximum exponent of the importance, cohesion and vitality of the SCIC.

SMALL (FROM 5 TO 7 YEARS OLD):
They show the repertoire they have learned during the course in the Juguem Cantant (Let’s Sing), one-day gatherings that combine playful and musical activities. The concert consists of a common repertoire and, often, of a cantata represented.

MEDIUM AND LARGE (FROM 8 TO 16 YEARS OLD):
The exchanges and meetings are made in different ways:

Exchanges Relationship and coexistence between two choirs that are alternately in the respective populations to live and sing together.
Workshop-meetings Works of the common repertoire are worked with a guest director and thus different interpretations of it are known.
Singing Weekend Two or more choirs are in a house of colonies where works of the common program and another repertoire are worked, with final concert or without.
General meetings General meetings, for all singers from eight years of the choirs that make up the SCIC. A cantata is specially commissioned for the occasion, always with instrumental accompaniment and it premieres at a big concert on Sunday afternoon. Some 3,000 children sing.

During the first years of the SCIC, the General Meetings were held annually. But as the number of federated corals was increasing they were spaced out in time, going from being done every two or three years to the current situation, every five years.

The first general meeting was held in 1967 in Manresa, and since then 1968 has been celebrated in Lleida, 1969 in Barcelona, 1970 in Granollers, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1083, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007 in Barcelona, 2012 in Badalona and 2017 in Barcelona.

For further information in English write to scic@scic.cat.