Kunzel Named Honorary Artistic Director of World Choir Games

Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel has been named honorary artistic director of the World Choir Games, to be held in Cincinnati in July, 2012.
   The announcement was made August 6 by Dan Lincoln, president and CEO of the Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau, in conjunction with Günter Titsch, president of INTERKULTUR, German-based organizer of the event, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Hamilton County Commission President David Pepper.
   Kunzel, who has brought international recognition to the city through recordings and tours with the Pops, was instrumental in winning the Games for Cincinnati, which was selected over more than 50 cities.  It will be the first time the event, called the "Olympics of choral music," has taken place in the United States.
    Founded in 2000 and held every two years on a different continent, the World Choir Games is the largest choral competition in the world.  Over 1,800 choirs have participated so far, and it is expected to bring 20,000 competitors and more than 200,000 visitors to the city.  Performances will take place in locations throughout the area, including the new School for Creative and Performing Arts under construction in Over-the-Rhine.
    (Impetus for the new SCPA, the first public K-12 arts school in the U.S., was also provided by Kunzel through the non-profit Greater Cincinnati Arts and Education Center, which he founded in 1996 to raise private sector funding for the school.)
   The selection of Cincinnati as site of the 2012 World Choir Games was announced in June.  Other host cities have included Linz, Austria (2000), Busan, People's Republic of Korea (2002). Bremen, Germany (2004), Xiamen, China (2006) and Graz, Austria (2008).  The 2010 competition will take place in Shaoxing, China.