Information in English

The Church of Sweden Choral Association
(Sveriges Kyrkosångsförbund, SKsf)

Established in 1925, The Church of Sweden Choral Association is an independent organisation within the Church of Sweden (Evangelical Lutheran), cooperating closely at national levels with the Church of Sweden. In Sweden, church choir singers comprise by far the biggest group of lay persons actively participating in the Church of Sweden, which makes the Church of Sweden Choral Association a creative partner in the realm of sacred music in Sweden. With some 80,000 members of all ages from all over Sweden, the Church of Sweden Choral Association is also Sweden’s largest choral association.

Comprised of local or regional associations, usually formed at diocese level (whose membership in turn comprises either individual members of clergy, church musicians and choristers or choirs), the national association’s primary task is to support church choirs (both conductors and singers) from all over the country, through activities designed to further develop and inspire choral music in the Church of Sweden. To that end, the national association has organised choral festivals for adult church choirs since 1927, currently at three locations every third year attracting between 500 to 1000 singers from up to 50 church choirs at each location.

The Association develops and produces inspirational materials and new orders of service for different types of church services for the church year. The national association regularly commissions both new sacred choral music and new choral arrangements of existing music from contemporary Swedish composers and writers, to broaden and deepen the repertoire of church choirs. Courses directed at both conductors and singers are arranged to develop and heighten the competence of the Sweden’s church choirs, as well as an annual conference for clergy, church musicians, church administrators and church politicians, directing attention towards new trends in sacred music and theological developments in our understanding of the roll of sacred music (particularly for choirs) in the everyday life of the church.

As part of its aim to develop and inspire church choirs, the Church of Sweden Choral Association has recently turned its attention to youth choirs within the Church of Sweden, and to that end has this year organized its 5th Annual Church of Sweden Youth Choir Festival, as well as organizing other activities and commissioning sacred music specially directed at young singers. As a result of these efforts, the Church of Sweden Choral Association has also established The Church of Sweden’s National Youth Choir.

The Church of Sweden’s National Youth Choir

Founded in October 2006, The Church of Sweden’s National Youth Choir has rapidly established a reputation within the Church of Sweden as being a showcase for church choral singing for young people and an experimental choir for new and sacred music, as well as being an international ambassador for the Church of Sweden Choral Association.
Comprising up to 40 young choral singers aged between 15 and 25, coming from all over Sweden, the Church of Sweden’s National Youth Choir is a so-called project choir that due to the geographical spread of its members, meets only six to eight weekends during the academic year. Such weekend “camps” combine intensive rehearsals and training sessions covering rhythm, motor activity, posture, movement, phrasing, voice production, conducting and improvisation, with concerts and tours in churches around Sweden, as well as participation in the annual church youth choir festival. At the 2008 Nordic Church Music Symposium held in Stavanger, Norway, after a much acclaimed performance for ca 500 church musicians from the Nordic countries, one journalist wrote “... for it is clear that here is a choir of ambition and talent, with voice production and interpretation of great quality!”

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