‘Singing Brussels Celebration Weekend’

On the occasion of this third edition of the Singing Brussels Celebration Weekend, we have got a weekend of workshops, singing sessions, and explosive festive and participative concerts lined up for you. This initiative is part of Singing Brussels and contributes to making Brussels a singing city as it transcends the borders of generation, genre, ethnic, cultural and religious identities.

To kick off the Singing Brussels Celebration Weekend, we are inviting 660 pupils from Brussels primary schools on the stage of the Henry Le Bœuf Great Hall for two festive concerts which will provide the perfect end to the 2017 edition of the international musical project Cantania.

Next, it’s the turn of around thirty amateur and professional choirs, to perform one after the other in the numerous halls of the Centre for Fine Arts with a variety of choral works. New this year: some of the choirs will perform together, in order to promote the diversity of musical universes and encourage encounters amongst choristers.

At 3pm, we invite you to the Henry Le Bœuf Great Hall, for the highlight of the event: the big participative concert. Add your voice to those of the choristers and the British ensemble VOCES8 to sing a marvellous hymn to our city entitled Hymn to our City.

Finally, at 7pm, listen to the magnificent Ode to Joy which crowns Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, interpreted on the occasion by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Collegium Vocale Gent, under the direction of the legendary conductor Philippe Herreweghe.

We declare this celebration of choral singing open!