Encouraged friendship and future between youth people through songs  

International Youth in Concert is a music program for children that began in 2004 on the occasion of that year's European Capital of Culture. For the sake of fostering the children who will lead future generations, choral groups from Europe and Japan have built the program up together since then with the cooperation of the several European Capitals of Culture.

      The location of this year's European Capital of Culture at Mons, Belgium, led to a joint performance by Les Petits Chanteurs de Belgique from Wallonia, Men's Choir Schola Cantorum Cantate Domino from Flanders, and Children's Chorus Piccolo from Japan. Conductor Tsutomu Masuko and Flanders Center Director Bernard Catrysse made an advance visit to Mons to work out details with local organizers of everything from the itinerary to concert programs and then prepared for the actual visit. Making their first overseas visits, the members of Piccolo would experience homestays with local families. Despite arriving in the middle of the night due to a flight delay, they received a warm welcome from their host families, whose smiles and kind feelings and greetings gave them great encouragement beyond differences in language. The three groups all sang together as the finale of their performance to a full house. We are certain that for children from the different linguistic backgrounds of Flemish, French and Japanese, managing to share the joy of creating a single musical experience both gave them great confidence and will prove a valuable experience going forward.

Date:

16-22 Sep. 2015

Place:

Aalst, Mons

Choirs:

Children’s Chorus “Piccolo” (Japan) Royal Boys’ and Men’s Choir Cantate Domino(Aalst, Belgium) http://www.cantatedomino.com/ Les Petits Chanteurs de Belgique (Mons, Belgium) http://www.lespetitschanteursdebelgique.be/

Program: