Appenzeller Jugendchor, Switzerland
Founded in 2021, the Appenzell Youth Choir got off to such a successful start that it immediately signed up for the 2022 Swiss Festival of Song in Gossau and for the Atelier Tour de Suisse at the 2023 EJCF in Basel. The singers aged between 16 and 26 come from all over Appenzell and from a wide range of backgrounds. Some are already doing an apprenticeship, while others are still at school or at university. Some have been raised on traditional folk music, while others have a classical training or have scarcely sung at all. The Appenzell Youth Choir wants everyone to discover the joys of singing and does not audition its singers. The choir’s young conductors Anna Kölbener and Lea Stadelmann are committed to nurturing Appenzell’s distinctive cultural traditions, including its own styles of yodelling. Yet they are equally eager to break new ground, as their own arrangements of pop songs and the choir’s ventures into body percussion and lively choreographies show.