“In a world filled with borders, the Golden Gate Festival helps children to build bridges,” say organizers of the
2026 Golden Gate International Children's and Youth Choral Festival.
From July 13 through July 18, some 260 visiting singers from abroad join 140 San Francisco Bay Area participants in concerts, competitions, special events, and cultural exchange. Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir (PEBCC) is the host.
Founding Artistic Director Robert Geary says, “If we bring children together from distinctly different cultures, we can help them connect as real people to real people.
“We can sidestep social conditioning and create bridges of understanding that make it difficult to harbor ill will. These children have a genuine experience, beyond soundbites and newsflashes; they have joy.”
Participating are:
- Ellerhein Girls’ Choir from Estonia
- Girls Choir Canzona from Poland
- Kajetán from Czechia
- Singakademie Graz & Green Guys from Austria
- The Choir of E. Mikeladze Central Music School from Georgia
- Veus – Cor Infantil Amics de la Unió from Catalonia
- Vox Aurea from Finland
- Young Voices of the Philippines
From the East Bay: Cantabella Children’s Chorus, Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir (the Concert Choir, Ecco, Ensemble, and Ancora groups); and the Young Musicians Chorus – Collegium Musicum.
Opening the festival is the July 13, 4 p.m., “Sing Off Concert” in the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for families/seniors/veterans/alumni/students.
Free Concerts at 7 p.m. follow, on July 14 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center; on July 15 at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley and another event in First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley; on July 16 in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakland; and at 4 p.m. on July 17 in Central Chinese High School, San Francisco.
The all-choir closing concert, on July 18, at 6 p.m., is in the LDS Interstake Center in Oakland.
“Putting together an event as large as the Golden Gate International Choral Festival is truly a labor of love,” says Festival Artistic Director Eric Tuan.
“First, given the high costs of international travel, we’ve had to make sure that we make festival attendance possible for elite youth choirs from abroad.
Volunteers from the PEBCC community and our community partners have stepped up to house over 200 visiting international youth singers, carefully matched through an elaborate matrix created by our homestay liaisons.
“The Festival has also given out over $100,000 in financial assistance to support our guest choirs’ participation, and partnered with generous sponsors including David Baraff and Cynthia Adams, Bell Investment Advisors, the National Endowment for the Arts, and an anonymous foundation to make the week of events possible.”
