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GCC-Grupo de Canto Coral (Choral Singing Group) was founded in 1973 by its current Artistic Director, Néstor Andrenacci. The chamber choir is dedicated to the performance of choral music from a variety of periods including the contemporary, some works in its repertory having been written specially for the group.
GCC has performed in the most important venues in Argentina as well as in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK.
GCC has been awarded prizes for performances in Argentina and abroad: Award for Best Performance of a New Work at the First Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition (Germany 1989), First Prize, Coca-Cola in the Arts and Sciences, specialty a cappella performance (Argentina 1990). In 1998 Argentina's House of Representatives recognized the group's career and that of it's Director. More recently, the group was awarded the prize for best vocal chamber group of 1999, authorized by the Argentine Music Critics Association. It was nominated for this same prize in 2001. The group received the Konex Award, specialty Choral Music, in 2009.
The group has made nine recordings: "Música coral de los siglos XVII y XX;" "Música coral argentina;" “Chiquitos,” a compilation of the music of the missions of Chiquitos, Bolivia, (CAMU Prize-Argentine Music Council-1996); “Convidando está la noche,” music of the Cathedrals of Hispanoamerica (CAMU-Prize, 1998); “A German Requiem” by Johannes Brahms (London version), with the participation of Fernando Pérez and Silvia Lester (piano), Víctor Torres (baritone) and Mónica Capra (soprano); “Flor del país” (2002) and "Otra Flor" (2006), both collections of Argentine choral music; “Vivaldi Dixit” (2006), focusing on the music of Antonio Vivaldi, together with the Barroca del Suquía (Director: Manfredo Kraemer) with sopranos Graciela Oddone and Dolores Ibarra, alto Susana Moncayo and tenors Osvaldo Ledesma and Ian Honeyman, under the baton of Francesco Fanna; “A este sol peregrino” (2007), a collection of colonial Latin American music. In 2009, by the invitation of the Mozarteum Argentino, the group performed the Argentine premier of Hector Berlioz’s Lelio, Op. 14, with France’s L’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe.
Since 1987, GCC has been a regular performer in concert series presented by the Academia Bach de Buenos Aires. GCC has also particpated in many DVD recordings of J.S. Bach’s works with Mario Videla and Academia Bach de Buenos Aires.
GCC has undertaken a variety choral music projects:
- J-GCC, a youth choir, was directed throughout its career by Sergio Feferovich, Facundo Agudin, Néstor Andrenacci y Pablo Piccinni. Chicos GCC, a children's choir, had as Directors Betty Rodríguez, Bárbara Kusa and Nere Arceo.Minicantores, a pre-school choir, was directed by Mechi García Blesa.
- In the area of Courses and Workshops, GCC has organized over the years numerous activities in choral directing and repertory, inviting the participation of Choral Directors, Composers, Arrangers, Singers and Instrumentalists from all over Argentina and its bordering countries.
- Two Choral Music Arrangers Encounters received support from Mozarteum Argentino and were declared of national interest by Argentina's Secretary of Culture.
- Voces and its producer Javier Zentner worked in association with GCC early on in the music label's existence.
- A semi-annual Bulletin with articles on choral activities has been published and distributed free of charge throughout Argentina and abroad.
- Ediciones GCC, headed by Laura Dubinsky, is a music publisher specializing in choral repertory and books on vocal music. The projects and activities of Ediciones GCC receive funding and support from the Argentine National Foundation for the Arts, the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foundation Antorchas, the Argentine Secretary of Culture, the Office of Music of the City of Buenos Aires and the Foundation Teatro Colón. Currently sponsored by the Kultrum Foundation, Ediciones GCC continues to publish and distribute musical work in the spirit in which it was created by GCC.
Although since early 2004 these activities no longer take place under the aegis of GCC-Grupo de Canto Coral, the majority of them continue, and their directors and personnel maintain relationships of artistic collaboration with those of the founding organization.
GCC is a private non-profit organization, registered with judicial status number 853. Since 1989, it has been a member of the International Federation for Choral Music. |
