The international jury meeting for session 2020 took place in Bonn, Germany between 28-31 of January, hosted by the session organisers, the Bundesjugendorchester. During these days the jury selected the best singers from over 200 candidates. After many hours of listening to the numerous recordings and evaluating the applicants, the international jury finally chose 89 singers from 41 countries to be part of the World Youth Choir 2020 session.

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The selection was made by an international jury composed by the artistic director of the 2020 session - Jörn Hinnerk Andresen - and a jury representative from each of the three World Youth Choir patron organisations: Daniel Mestre on behalf of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat, Cristian Grases on behalf of the International Federation for Choral Music and Géraldine Toutain on behalf of Jeunesses Musicales International.

The process was conducted taking into account the artistic and musical quality of each candidate through all the audition files submitted: voice range, sight reading abilities, vocal technical skills, ability to prepare a piece and voice performance throughout. Furthermore, the jury also took into consideration the complementarity of the voices of the singers selected in order to create a cohesive group in each section and for the whole choir and, whenever possible, to amplify the diversity of countries represented in the World Youth Choir. 

The choice was often hard for the jury and the singers selected have now a heavy responsibility being part of the 2020 session. Many others could be also part of the choir and not being selected does not diminish their skills. The jury members invite all of them to continue vocal training to improve their musical abilities and performance and, for those who have not reached the age limit, to audition again next year.