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Le Mondial Choral Loto-Québec

The Mondial Choral Loto-Québec, hosted by Laval, is the largest national and international gathering of choirs in all of North America.

The first edition of the Mondial choral Loto-Québec took place in Laval, back in June 2005, welcoming over 500,000 spectators who came to listen to approximately 12,000 choristers, hundreds of artists and musicians at more than 300 choral performances over 10 glorious days of music and enjoyment.

The Mondial Choral Loto-Québec is therefore a major event that brought together thousands of choristers, musicians, performers, music lovers and aficionados, in its first three editions, within grand public festivities featuring group singing.

Background information, our mission and our vision

A number of anthropologists have said that people sang even before speaking. If that's true, we can bet that the first gatherings for prayers, magic, military strategies, births and other rituals were an occasion for a ceremony sung by people all together.

Choral singing is such a natural thing to do for human beings that this activity—along with dance and percussion playing—is one of the only forms of expression that has been shared by all nations and all civilizations, from the very beginning of time.

Many centuries later, choral singing still brings together millions of people every day, whether as participants or spectators. For example, in Mozart’s Requiem, at a Puccini opera, in a Gospel group from the southwestern U.S., South African singing groups, Corsican or Bulgarian voices, barber shop quartets or folk groups. Choral singing comes in hundreds of different forms, yet nevertheless, it remains one of people's favourite pastimes and one of the most popular and unifying forms of music. Whether at a funeral, a midnight mass, a union meeting or a hockey or soccer game, it's hard to imagine any of these events without people voluntarily singing together, spontaneously or in an organized fashion.

The whole world loves to listen to choral singing, whether consciously or not. And on this planet Earth of ours, Québec has always displayed great choral skills. The traditional laments as well as call-and-response songs are expressions of group singing. Hundreds of church choirs that have accompanied Eucharistic celebrations all throughout the history of French Canada have also wound up seeing great voices—both classical and popular—emerge from Québec: Raoul Jobin, Richard Verreault and Napoléon Bisson. Even Wilfred LeBouthillier and Marie-Élaine Thibert are products of choirs.

Collective art forms have always been popular in Québec. And Québecers have always managed to discover, develop and renew them. Circus arts have been scorned and ignored in the past. But a group of Quebecers took the initiative of redefining the circus. And we know what happened. And the same applies to improvisation and musical theatre. And this is how it will be for choral singing as a whole. In North America, back in 2000, only bird watching attracted more enthusiasts than choral singing as a favourite recreational pastime.

The good news is that Québec, today, is still a fertile place for choral singing. And if we had to more specifically identify a region or city where people sing actively, frequently and in such large numbers in Québec at the beginning of this century, Laval is definitely the place. Many youngsters sing in schools, both those who have specific musical programs and the others as well. Thousands of people get together every week to sing opera, popular or classical songs, vocal jazz, operettas or musical comedies. And in Laval, there are choral singing centres—the Théâtre d'art lyrique de Laval and the Choeur de Laval as well as the choirs directed by Gregory Charles: the 400 or so voices of the Choeurs du Nouveau Monde (Choirs of the New World), the Voix Boréales (Northern Voices) and Les Petits Chanteurs de Laval (The Little Singers of Laval).

These choirs—and many others—make Laval the city with the largest percentage of choristers among its population in the whole province of Québec. Enthusiasts who have also shown that they are music lovers, volunteers and music consumers, with community values that are both family-oriented and civic-minded. Because choral singing isn't only an art form, but also a way of living.

And it's not just a matter of chance. Laval is a city that sings with all its heart—at the heart of singing and taking singing to heart. It therefore wants to invite its residents, its neighbours and all music lovers all over the world to come for a visit to enjoy what will be called, from now on, the World Choral Singing Competition—and officially, in French, the Mondial Choral.

The Mondial Choral - A responsible event