Children’s Choir of Montserrat on tour in China

Barcelona (ACN).- The Children’s Choir of Montserrat is participating in a tour of China between 23 February and 10 March. Montserrat is home to one of the oldest boys’ choirs in Europe, dating back to 1223. Around the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the music school at Montserrat really began to grow in importance and recognition at international level and nowadays it is one of the world’s most important children’s choirs. Concerts will take place in China’s largest auditoriums in Beijing and Shanghai, such as the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre. The concert programme will be directed by Lawrence Castellon and include Catalan folk songs and some Chinese folk songs. The Chinese cultural manager invited the Choir of Montserrat following their success in the United States. The trip to China will be possible thanks to support from Institut Ramon Llull (the public body promoting Catalan culture and language abroad), the multinational Fluidra, the Lluís Carulla Foundation and the DAMM Foundation. 

Getting lessons in Chinese pronunciation

To prepare Chinese songs, members of the Choir of Montserrat are getting lessons in Chinese pronunciation. During their stay in China, the choir will make cultural visits, as always on their international tours. Since 2004, the Choir of Montserrat has toured Puerto Rico, the city of Mayagüez and undertook several other important international tours in 2011 and 2013. Furthermore, three tours were held in Russia and the United States in 2014. In recent years, the boys have also sung in Poland, France, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Belgium and Italy.

A choir singing daily in Montserrat Basilica

Today there are about 50 boys in the Children’s Choir of Montserrat. The choir, called Escolania de Montserrat, now accompanies religious ceremonies and communal prayers in the church. All the choir members receive a high standard of musical training and are also educated in other areas of academia whilst they are schooled at Montserrat. They still believe that their most importance task is singing daily in Montserrat Monastery's Basilica, located on top of a mountain in central Catalonia, some 40km West of Barcelona. The Escolania also enables some of the monks at Montserrat to work in the field of composing, producing and teaching music.