What is INTERKULTUR and what choir events does it organize?

Updated

INTERKULTUR is an international choral organization that runs choir competitions, festivals, and sing-along projects worldwide. It describes its mission as bringing together people of all countries, cultures, and world views in peaceful contest, and it is best known for the World Choir Games, the largest choral competition in the world, built on the Olympic ideal of peaceful, fair singing competition. If you are a choir looking for an international stage, a conductor comparing events, or simply someone who wants to follow or attend choral events, INTERKULTUR is the organizing body behind many of the major ones.

What INTERKULTUR is

According to its website, INTERKULTUR organizes international choir competitions, festivals, and sing-along projects in locations around the world. Its stated founding idea is to bring together people of all countries, cultures, and world views in peaceful contest.

The organization is also associated with:

  • The World Choir Games, described as the largest choral competition in the world, based on the Olympic ideal of bringing people and nations together peacefully and in fair singing contest.
  • A World Rankings system for choirs, which is updated based on competition results.
  • A president, Günter Titsch, credited on the site as the inventor of the World Choir Games.

Beyond individual competitions, INTERKULTUR arranges regional competitions and festivals as well as continental-wide events.

Types of events it organizes

The site groups its activities into a few recognizable formats:

Format What it is
World Choir Games The flagship global competition, held periodically in a host city
Continental choir games European, Asia, and Asian Pacific choir games
International choir competitions Named competitions in specific cities and countries
Choir festivals Multi-day festival events, sometimes with competition elements
Sing-along projects Participatory singing events open to attendees

Examples of upcoming events

The website lists concrete events with dates and locations, including:

  • World Choir Games — July 21–31, 2027, Linz, Austria
  • Vietnam International Choir Competition — April 17–21, 2027, Hội An, Vietnam
  • Hull International Choir Competition — April 30–May 4, 2027, Hull, Great Britain
  • International Johannes Brahms Choir Festival and Competition — May 19–23, 2027, Wernigerode, Germany
  • SOUND WAVES Burgas — May 27–31, 2027, Burgas, Bulgaria

The site also notes that the next World Choir Games destination is Linz in 2027, and its news section reports on recent events such as the World Choir Games 2026 results and the Internationales Chorfest Magdeburg.

How to get information or take part

The website provides several entry points for choirs and interested individuals:

  1. Browse the events list — each event has a "Learn more" link leading to details about that competition or festival.
  2. Submit an information request — the site offers an Information Request option for those who want details sent to them.
  3. Join the newsletter — a "Join our Newsletter" signup is available for updates.
  4. Contact directly — a phone number is listed: +49 (0)6404 69749-25.

For a choir, the practical path is to identify a suitable event from the list, open its detail page, and follow the participation information there. The site does not publish pricing on the pages summarized here, so costs, registration deadlines, and eligibility requirements should be confirmed through the event page or by contacting INTERKULTUR directly.

Why it matters for the choral world

INTERKULTUR's scale and its World Rankings give its competitions weight in the international choral community — results can shift rankings, as the site notes happened after the World Choir Games 2026. For choirs, that makes these events both a performance opportunity and a way to be measured against international peers. For audiences, the festivals and sing-along projects offer a lower-barrier way to experience the same network of events.