The Miriam College High School Glee Club adds another feather to its cap after bagging Gold and Silver medals at the 10th World Choir Games (WCG) held in Tschwane, South Africa from July 5-7. The WCG is considered to be the biggest choral competition worldwide and is dubbed the “Olympics of choir.”
The 45-member group, led by conductor Nancy Roman and accompanied by moderator Sunshine Bio, won Gold for the Youth Choirs of Equal Voices and Silver for the Folklore Acapella. They rendered four songs for each category, which include the compositions such as Pen Pen de Sarapen, Mamayog Akun, Ave Regina Coelorum and Tota Pulchra. They competed against a total of 24 choirs under the Champions Category.
Before the competition, the group made a courtesy visit to the Philippine Embassy in Pretoria where they were welcomed by Philippine Ambassador to South Africa, Amb. Joseph Gerard Angeles (in photo). The group also wowed the airport crowd in Pretoria when they did an impromptu rendition of the well-loved Filipino folksong Pen Pen De Sarapen to the delight of the travelers.
This is the fourth time that the multi-awarded group has competed at the WCG. They first joined in 2010 in Shiaoxing, China where they bagged two Silver Diplomas in the Youth Choirs of Equal Voices and Sacred Music categories. Their China experience helped them set a new benchmark as they competed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2012 where they bested 30 choirs all over the world and came home with two Gold Diplomas in the Sacred Music and Youth Choirs of Equal Voices categories. In 2014, they flew to Riga, Latvia and brought home a Gold Diploma in the Sacred Music with Accompaniment Open Category and a Gold Medal in the Youth Choirs of Equal Voices Champions Category.
They also bagged two Gold Diplomas at the 7th Musica Eterna a Roma Choral Competition held in Rome, Italy in 2017. They were the only choir from Asia who qualified in the competition, pitting them against groups from countries such as Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Serbia, Sweden, USA and Ukraine.