Jean Henric, President of the FIPC from 2017 to 2025
At the General Assembly of the International Federation of Pueri Cantores on August 26, 2017, in Barcelona, Jean Henric, then President of the French Federation of Pueri Cantores, was honorably elected President of the FIPC. He succeeded Robert Tyrała, who had previously led the federation for eight years.
From the outset, his aim was to make those responsible for the dioceses aware of the work of children’s choirs in the churches of the many parishes and thus to help spiritual music gain greater recognition. He spared no effort to achieve this goal. During all his official visits to national Pueri Cantores choir associations, he met with those responsible for the local church:
During his first term in office, he visited choirs and bishops in Great Britain (Wales), Belgium, Lebanon, and Portugal. After 2021, he visited Cuba to initiate the founding of a national association and met with leaders at all levels of church music administration in Haiti, India, and Sri Lanka. Whenever he could, he took part in national and regional choir meetings: for example, in Poland, Austria, and – at a dangerous time – also in the Great Lakes region of Africa. In 2022, he visited eastern Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi, which organized their own meetings due to the impossibility of holding a joint choir festival. He was also happy to represent the association at Vatican events, including the annual meetings of lay organizations in Rome and the papal mass in Marseille in 2023.
During his presidency, the intensive phase of addressing the issue of abuse within the Church was in full swing. This culminated in our association’s charter against child abuse. Another of his achievements is, at the suggestion of the African associations, a document outlining the tasks and characteristics of a choir director was drawn up in 2023: a vademecum. In the difficult time of the Covid pandemic, he continuously encouraged the associations to also devote themselves to virtual projects so as not to lose too many choirs and singers.
With Jean Henric as president, international Congresses were held in Barcelona (2018), and after the Covid break, in Florence (2022) and Rome (2023/24) as well as in Munich (2025). There he had the honor of opening and closing the successful choir festival.
We are very thankful for all the engagement and great work that Jean Henric has put into our movement to bring young singers together, connect and enducate choir conductors, make our movement more visible and make it grow. We are happy that he will be able to experience the fruits of his work and the next international Congress as a guest of honor in Malaga (2027).
THANK YOU, MR. JEAN HENRIC!
