Beijing International Festival Chorus

The International Festival Chorus (IFC) is an international choir based in Beijing. It was founded by a British conductor, Nicholas Smith, and its first performance for an audience was in March 2002. The concept of the choir is very simple. Anyone living in Beijing can audition to join, provided that the person has experienced singing in a choir and speaks English.

Nicholas moved to China in 1995 and started a few years later to lead the Beijing ContemporAIR Chamber Choir. From 1998 he was the conductor of Beijing's Baroque Chamber Orchestra Choir, until he founded IFC.

The IFC has about 120 permanent members in Beijing, but usually 60-80 singers attend the public performances. "The rehearsals take a long time and the choir is in a constant need of new members", says Nicholas.

Connecting people

The choir has normally three performances in a year and the program consists of a combination of both Western and Chinese music. This kind of music activity is rare in China and Nicholas thinks his IFC choir is the only one of its kind in Beijing. Because of the success with the choir in Beijing, a sister choir was founded in Shanghai in 2003.

The members of the IFC are from abroad, as well as from China. By mixing the nationalities of the choir members the music performed gets an interesting flavor. "The performances are full of positive energy", says Nicholas. The choir performs music from all over the world, China, Europe and even Russia.

The Chinese audience

In Nicholas' opinion the Chinese audience is different from a European one. Especially the British seems to be tired and even bored by listening to classical choir music. "Europeans have for centuries heard the same classical music performances and they have nothing new to explore in that field", explains Nicholas. In contrast, a lot of famous classic works have not been experienced by the Chinese audience.

According to Nicholas, the choir has a regular audience which attends every performance. The cheapest tickets are sold first to these enthusiasts. Ticket sales provides a steady income for the choir, as only a small part of their funding comes from sponsors.

The Beijing choir has also experimented with foreign choirs visiting China and they have performed together with these singers from abroad. Nicholas remembers with warmth the cooperation with Les Percussions Claviers de Lyon, a professional percussion group from Lyon, France.

Shanghai IFC

In 2003 a sister choir was founded in Shanghai. Nicholas is also the artistic director of this choir, but it is chorus masterconducted by Julian Rippon. The Shanghai choir also has three performances a year. In addition to its regular program IFC Shanghai has sung at the Christmas party of Shanghai's Foreigner's Association and some other similar events.

The members of the Shanghai choir are occasional guest singers in Beijing and vice versa, depending on what kind of performances are done and how many solo singers are needed. Members from Shanghai have attended the bigger productions of the Beijing IFC, for example when they performed Mozart's "Requiem" and Händel's "Messiah".

At the moment the Shanghai choir has about 80 members. It is easier to get new members to this choir, as the city has an even larger foreign community and is more international than Beijing. Nicholas is still the artistic leader of this choir, but he hopes that in the near future he will be able to appoint a Chinese British conductor to conduct some of the choir's performances.

Nicholas Smith - founder of the IFC (Image: Radio86)

Nicholas Smith

British native Nicholas Smith has lived in China for the last 15 years, moving there after his graduation from the Cambridge University.

Nicholas worked during the years 1998 - 2005 as leader of the Beijing Chamber Choir. When he first started working, he heard how bad the choir was and he realized much work had to be done. They started to rehearse and finally, after six years of hard work, this choir began to understand some styles of western music and Nicholas was satisfied with the quality of the music performed.
"You cannot sing if you do not understand what you are singing", says Nicholas.

Interesting Broadway musical

Nicholas had this great idea about bringing a huge musical spectacle to China. Therefore he started to search for ideas and suitable musical works and finally in 2003 Kurt Weill's musical "Lady in the Dark" had its premiere in Beijing. The musical is about a Lady who is confused about her life and 1940's Beijing acts as the stage scene.

The production was not easy to make, because nothing that huge and Western had ever been put on stage in Beijing. Nicholas had to conduct and organize everything by himself. However, the musical became a big success and so far it is one of the biggest of Nicholas' achievements in China.

The future of choral music in China

Chinese choirs are still dealing with financial and attitude problems. In the past, people were allowed to enjoy culture for free, because tickets to cultural events were a part of your employment package. Nowadays you have to pay for your cultural doses and Chinese people think it is not worth the money spent. "They would rather buy a car than tickets to opera or theater performances", says Nicholas.

Children and young people have the key role, when talking about the future of Chinese choir music and culture in general. They will grow more culture orientated and they will enjoy cultural events more than their parents does. Nicholas thinks the government should give more funds to the events, instead of building expensive buildings no one uses. He points to Beijing's new opera house as a good example of this thinking. It is a beautiful building, but Beijing does not have enough high standard performance groups to make effective use of it.

The Children's Choir

IFC in Beijing also includes the International choir for children, conducted by Helena Murchie who is also head of music at Harrow International School in Beijing. It was founded in 2006 and has had one performance. The next concert is scheduled for this summer. It has been a bit of a problem to attract Chinese children to join this children's choir, because they also need to be fluent in English.

There are some bilingual families in Beijing and Nicholas is trying to get children of these families to join up. In a few years time the children's choir is expected to be as big as the IFC.

Nicholas conducts the IFC successfully (Image: Radio86)

New singers are needed

The IFC is in a constant need of new members and sponsors. Nicholas hopes more foreign choirs will find their way to China, because he would like to continue with the interesting co-productions, like the one planned with Cornell University in 2008. The Chinese have few occasions to hear European choir music. That is the reason why Nicholas wants more of it, especially now as the Chinese taste for music is moving towards the West.

So, if you have plans to move to Beijing or Shanghai in the near future and you are interested in singing - please join the IFC! Their website is at www.beijingifc.org. and www.ifcshanghai.org.