Seven singers and a gifted pianist from Andover are joining with more than 65 singers from throughout greater Boston area to perform this week under the banner of the Boston Eastern Heritage Chorus in the 5th annual Loto-Quebec World Choral Festival in Montreal, Canada.
The festival, running July 8 to 12, is called the largest gathering of national and international choirs in all of North America.
Competing in three musical categories with more than 100 other choruses from around the world, Andover performers with the BEHC include pianist Guo Ling and singers Wenjun Chen, Doreen Jiang, Xiaomon Shao, Tsouya Yang, Yu Li, Jim Sun and Charlie Wang.
Under the leadership of music director and conductor Wanjun Qiao of Medford and accompanied by Ling, the BEHC one of only three choruses from the United States will perform in three categories of competition all today, Thursday, July 9.
Under festival rules, only amateur choirs are allowed to participate and they must sing "a capella," without instruments, or be accompanied only by a single musical instrument without a sound system. All songs must be performed in the original language in which they were composed.
Veterans of many international competitions of both "amateur" and "professional" choruses since its founding in 2000, the BEHC consists completely of "amateur" vocalists from many walks of life: doctors, teachers, writers, bankers, scientists, engineers, and more who join together to blend their voices and share their love of music, members wrote in a release.
Despite their amateur status, they have won several honors and awards in various world choir competitions. During the past nine years, the BEHC has made more than 30 classical and contemporary choral presentations in venues such as Jordan Hall and John Hancock Hall in Boston, Yale University's Woolsey Hall in New Haven, Conn., MIT's Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge, and in choral competitions Pocatello, Idaho, Montreal, Canada, and Beijing, China.
