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Günter Titsch Germany<br />
President of INTERKULTUR Foundation, General Direction<br />
I would like to extend to you all a hearty<br />
wel<strong>com</strong>e to the World Choir Championships<br />
<strong>2009</strong> in the beautiful South Korean province<br />
of Gyeongnam.<br />
The province has worked tirelessly to be as<br />
good a host as possible to all the choirs from<br />
Asia and the rest of the world. It will deservedly<br />
take its place among the worthy hosts<br />
of INTERKULTUR‘s great international choir<br />
<strong>com</strong>petitions, a series which began with the<br />
World Choir Games in the year 2000. This is<br />
the first time that a <strong>com</strong>petition like this is<br />
being held in a total of four prestigious cities<br />
in a single province: in Changwon, Masan,<br />
Gimhae and Jinju. This makes it possible to<br />
introduce the beauty of choral art to a great<br />
number of the province‘s inhabitants. At the<br />
same time, it represents a great challenge to<br />
all the organisers, to whom I offer my sincerest<br />
thanks. It is by no means too early to<br />
express my gratitude for the excellent work<br />
of our hosts.<br />
All the cities involved have made excellent<br />
preparations for the events and are looking<br />
forward to greeting their guests from South<br />
Korea and beyond.<br />
But the event itself also represents an entirely<br />
new organisational concept: "One event<br />
– Three international <strong>com</strong>petitions", <strong>com</strong>bining<br />
<strong>com</strong>petitions with different formats and<br />
difficulty levels in one single major event:<br />
while most of the choirs with little or no international<br />
experience will be taking part in<br />
the Korean Open International Competition<br />
and thus getting their first taste of international<br />
<strong>com</strong>petition, choirs which have already<br />
gained this experience and enjoyed international<br />
success will be <strong>com</strong>peting in the Asian<br />
Choir Games. By the way, this is the second<br />
edition of the Asian Choir Games after the<br />
successful launch of the event in Jakarta in<br />
the year 2007. The event will be rounded<br />
off with an artistic highlight, the "Grand Prix<br />
Competitions", featuring choirs which have<br />
already won first prizes or major awards in<br />
international <strong>com</strong>petitions. There will also be<br />
numerous gala concerts and encounter concerts<br />
which will make the festival into a true<br />
celebration of choral music.<br />
And regardless of which <strong>com</strong>petitions the<br />
choirs take part in, they all have in <strong>com</strong>mon<br />
the same pleasure in singing together, meeting<br />
people from beyond the borders of their<br />
own countries and thus demonstrating that<br />
song and peace belong together. It is our<br />
great goal, in accordance with our motto,<br />
"Singing together brings nations together",<br />
to motivate people to exercise tolerance, respect<br />
their fellow human beings and make<br />
an active contribution to peace in our world.<br />
This task can be made so much easier when<br />
people get to know each other and sing together.<br />
With this in mind, I wish the event every<br />
success and a strong, global impact. May<br />
the message ring out from the World Choir<br />
Championships that INTERKULTUR‘s great<br />
choral <strong>com</strong>munity will continue in <strong>2009</strong> to<br />
make its contribution to a greater sense of togetherness<br />
among the peoples of this world.<br />
I wish you the very best of luck!<br />
Günter Titsch<br />
11 인사말 · Greetings
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