Zero8 triumphed at the prestigious European Grand Prix for Choral Singing held in Varna, Bulgaria, emerging as the grand champion of this elite competition.

The competition, which brings together the best choirs from across the world, took place over the weekend in Varna, Bulgaria. Competing against top-tier choirs from several countries, Zero8 impressed both the jury and the audience with their technical mastery, musicality, and vibrant interpretations of a wide-ranging repertoire.

"This victory is a testament to the dedication and passion of our singers," said Rasmus Krigström, artistic director of Zero8. "We are honored to have been recognized at such a prestigious level and are incredibly proud to represent Sweden and the global choral community."

This win at the European Grand Prix marks a significant milestone in Zero8’s journey.

The European Grand Prix for Choral Singing, regarded as one of the most competitive and prestigious choral contests globally, is open only to choirs who have won top prizes at various European choral competitions.

In 2023, December 1st-4th, Zero8 once again had the great pleasure to travel to Vilnius in Lithuania at the invitation of Choras Bel Canto for their Open to the World festival 2023. It was truly wonderful to meet up with our Lithuanian friends again, and build on the relationships we had formed a year before.

This time we were also joined at the festival by the world-renowned British vocal ensemble Voces8, who made their 3rd visit to the festival. Zero8 performed in two concerts during the weekend, one in collaboration with Voces8 and the other in collaboration with Choras Bel Canto. Singing together with these two ensembles was an awesome experience.

The sold-out concerts were held in the beautiful Saint Catherine's Church and just like last time, we were so warmly received by the audiences in Vilnius! Zero8 has really come to love the people and atmosphere of the city, and we are all hoping we will have the opportunity to come back sometime in the future!

Thank you so much once again Choras Bel Canto for inviting and hosting us!

In the summer of 2023 Zero8 had the great pleasure of visiting, and performing in, Taiwan for the first time. This trip was several years in the making, as Zero8 had first been invited to the Taipei International Choral Festival back in 2020 and finally all the planning came to fruition this summer.

Over the course of a week, Zero8 had five performances in four different cities, all part of the Choral Festival program. At every stop on our tour around Taiwan, we were overwhelmed by the response we received from our audiences both during and after the concerts, and at every turn we loved taking in the sights, sounds and flavors of Taiwanese culture! As part of our concerts, we also thoroughly enjoyed sharing the stage, and singing together, with some great Taiwanese choruses!

Our experience might be summed up with a lot of smiles, hearts, singing, eating and sweating, and we will carry these memories in our hearts forever.

We would like to extend our warmest thanks to the whole organization behind the Taipei International Choral Festival and especially all the crew and volunteers that we met and interacted with over the course of our trip!

We are back home from an incredibly special journey! We are so humbled, happy, and thankful for winning the Grand Prix at Gallus - Maribor International Choral Competition.

Competing in classical music is still new to us. To feel the joy and warmth from the organization, the outstanding fellow competitors and the jury really made a tremendous impact on us all. We feel honored and have a lot to learn from you!

Our final song of the Grand Prix, DIDN’T MY LORD DELIVER DANIEL by one of our favorite arrangers Aaron Dale can be viewed at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce6tM5Cfh80

A huge shoutout to OI Maribor JSKD, JSKD - Javni sklad RS za kulturne dejavnosti, and Televizija Maribor for creating a magical weekend. Thank you for letting us share our music and see you at the EGP for Choral Singing - Official in Varna, Bulgaria 2024!

Photo by Janez Eržen.

All photos by Mantas Gudzinevicius.

During the weekend of November 25-27, 2022, Zero8 had the immense pleasure of getting to sing with the wonderful Choras Bel Canto in Vilnius, Lithuania. We performed at the Swedish Embassy and at a fantastic sold out concert at Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall hosted by the magnificent Choras Bel Canto. We truly had a blast and are deeply grateful for so many new treasured friendships.

Zero8 was crowned European Barbershop Champions at the 2021+1 European Barbershop Competition held in Helsingborg, Sweden. We are so incredibly proud, this being our fourth consecutive European Championship Gold. Being on stage again felt surreal, but oh so comforting to know that we can continue to do what we love!

Also, there is no hiding our sheer surprise and joy of putting down an average score of 93,7. A new Nordic and European record for all we know! Thank you all so much for the support!

We visited Japan in the summer of 2018, a very warm and heartfelt adventure! Our first stop was at the Karuizawa International Choir Festival which was held over a weekend filled with singing, acclimatizing and being in complete awe of Japanese culture and nature. On the last day of the festival we were given the privilege to hold a concert for the festival-goers and attendees, a concert that was recorded and filmed with great grandeur! The contents of which are aired on YouTube this Sunday! 

Arigato gozaimasu!

On August 3, we represented Sweden at the European Choir Games and Eurovision Choir, competing and singing together with 10 of the best choirs in Europe! It was a very different concept to us and of course a great honour to be broadcasted live on TV in big parts of Europe!

We are so incredibly proud, excited and happy to have placed 3rd at our fourth International Barbershop Convention in Salt Lake City with a whopping score of 95,6%! Our biggest achievement in barbershop by far. Apart from that we had a great time hanging out with new and old barbershop friends and singing at different shows throughout the contest week. The local choir North Front Sound organised a show for us at the beautiful Abravanel Hall. We also had the amazing opportunity to sing with our barbershop idols in Westminster Chorus at the Friday night afterglow, a memory we will cherish forever!

In 2015 we had the huge honor to be invited to participate in the Karuizawa International Choral Festival (KICF) and now it is finally time to go! We’ll also be touring around the country and have several concerts at different locations. Below is a complete list of our appearances during this trip.

Karuizawa:

August 24th 14:00 - 15:00: Church concert with other choirs

Location: St. Paul’s Catholic Church

August 25th 10:30 - 12:30: Let’s dance with Zero8 (workshop for singing attitude and dance)

Location: Yagasaki Admin Building

August 25th 14:00 - 16:00: Barbershop clinic

Location: Ohga hall

August 26th 14:00 - 15:15: Zero8’s main KIFC concert 

Location: Ohga hall

More info about the festival on KIFCs website: http://karuizawa.koyukai.info/en/

Kyoto: 

August 29th 18:30: Concert with Kansai Gakuin Glee Club

Location: Nagaokakyo Cultural Center

Concert link: https://www.panamusica.co.jp/ja/appeal/zero8/

Hiroshima:

August 30th 18:30: Concert

Location: Hiroshima Prefectural Cultural Center

Tokyo:

September 1st 19:00: Concert with Orpheus Singers

Location: Toyosu Civic Center Hall

September 2nd 13:30: Concert with Tokyo Barbers

Nordic Mix is a collaboration between the women of Sweet Adelines Region 32 - Nordic Light Region and men of SNOBS to make all the Nordic competitions into one big event, this year held in Karlstad. Zero8 will be going to try and defend our chorus gold medal, but also of course to interact and party with all the great people of the Nordic barbershop community!

You can read more about Nordic Mix here.

This time together with S:t Jacobs Vokalensemble, Zero8 will for the third time be traveling to Moscow to participate during the grand ending of the Moscow Easter Festival. S:t Jacobs Vokalensemble is led by Mikael Wedar and quite a few of our guys are also members of this great choir. Together we will be performing several different concerts during our visit.

Learn more about the Moscow Easter Festival here.