Dear friends,

Since it was created in 1972, the Florilège Vocal de Tours has remained the one and only international choral competition in France. This prestigious event is
also one of the founding members of the European Grand Prix for choral singing, jointly organized by the similar contests of Arezzo (Italy), Debrecen (Hungary), Maribor (Slovenia), Tolosa (Spain), Tours(France) and Varna (Bulgaria).

In 2022, the Florilège Vocal de Tours celebrated its 50th edition, honored with the High Patronage of the Minister of Culture. Over the years, this cultural event has widely contributed to promoting choral singing in our country. Through workshops, concerts by local choirs, conferences, as well as works commissioned from French composers, the Florilège Vocal has given many people the opportunity to discover polyphonic singing and be introduced to new repertoires. It has also enabled the Centre-Val-de-Loire region and the city of Tours to gain an international reputation in the cultural field.

For several years, the repeated cuts in the resources allocated by our financiers, chiefly by the city of Tours, have strongly weakened our ability to carry out our
mission. Today, we are bound to conclude that it is definitely no longer possible for us to take on the organization of new editions of the Florilège Vocal de Tours and we deeply regret it.

The board of directors would like to thank all those (partners, volunteers, international and local choirs, jury members, audiences) who, for half a century,
have worked for the success of this worldwide renowned event. During this half century, the Florilège Vocal de Tours has hosted hundreds of choirs from 58 countries, who all came to Tours for a weekend in May or June to meet and unite their voices in order to offer the public unique musical moments of high artistic quality and shared emotions.

For the board of directors of the Florilège Vocal,
The president
Sébastien DURAND

A few articles : France Bleu Touraine and ForumOpera