Local choir wins medal
A Hong Kong university chamber choir has won second place at an international music festival in Europe.
Baptist University's Cantoria Hong Kong won a gold medal at the Festival of Songs Olomouc 2010 held in the Czech Republic this month. Part of the event was the 38th International Choir Festival.
The festival attracted more than 2,850 participants - representing 106 choirs from 11 countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas - to compete in 16 categories.
The Baptist University chamber choir scooped second place in the Mundi Cantant Chamber Choir category, which is limited to choirs with no more than 24 singers, with a score of 96 out of 100. All the choirs with a score of more than 90 received a gold medal.
The 24-student choir gave a 15-minute performance of five songs in Italian, French, Latin, German and Chinese. The songs were Claudio Monteverdi's Ecco Mormorar l'Onde, Claude Debussy's Dieu! Qu'il La Fait Bon Regarder, G.O. Pitoni's Cantate Domino, F. Mendelssohn's Jagdlied and the Chinese folk song Jasmine Flower.
'I'm happy and surprised to win. This was the first time the choir has entered a competition since it was formed. We did not have much time to practise,' said choir member Winnie Tse, a Year One music student. 'The competition was an opportunity for learning.'
Cantoria is an old Spanish word meaning choir. The group, which focuses on works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, was set up nine months ago.
