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Universitas Cantat is a Polish university founded in 1998. It is the presentation forum for the musical life of the academic centers from the entire world. Each year, the leading university choirs meet in Poznań.
History
The International Festival of University Choirs was organised for the first time in 1998.[1] It is non-competitive. The idea of the event comes from the Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University, while the organisers are the University, the AMU Chamber Choir and AMU Chamber Choir Friends' Association. The organisers would like to establish a musical bridge connecting universities from all over the world. His artistic director is Polish conductor Krzysztof Szydzisz. Around 6000 students from 23 countries participated in eleven festival editions.
The festival concerts, which take place in the University Concert Hall and other venues of the Wielkopolska Province, aim at showing the rich musical variety of the groups and culture of the represented countries (the choirs perform music from the country of origin), creating atmosphere of openness and tolerance and inspiring cultural exchange.[2]
The very important assumption of the festival is to present Polish music to the foreign participants - every other year all invited singers work together on the Polish contemporary work. The culmination of the event is the final concert that includes each choir presentation and the performance of the Polish contemporary piece prepared during the workshops by the massed choirs.
