Prior to this, the PSM-ITB team departed for Italy on the past Sunday (11/09/11) with the group member amounting to 36 people. The group was set off by the President of ITB Students Union (KM ITB), Tizar Bijaksana, at the front gate of the ITB campus. On Tuesday last week (13/09/11), the group arrived in Italy and with haste prepared themselves for intensive training to prepare their performance in Arezzo.

On the first day, the category contested was Mixed Choir with Polyphonic Repertoire. For this category, there are two teams who became the champions, which are Salt Lake Vocal Artist (USA) and Chamber Choir Vox Gaudiosa (Japan). Meanwhile, on the second day, three categories were put on stage, which are Festival Competition by Historical Period (with two categories, Romantic and Contemporary) and Festival by Choral Folk Music. For the category of Historical Period (Romantic), the songs performed were generally classical compositions from the Romantic era around 1600-1700's. In contrast, for the category Historical Period (Contemporary), the songs brought forth had a more modern feel.

For the third category, Festival by Choral Folk Music, the PSM-ITB team succeeded in taking first place according to public opinion. Meanwhile, the title of the winner based on the choice of the "hearing board" for this category fell upon Coro Tonos Humanos (Colombia). "The success of the PSM-ITB team in winning the foklore category proves that art and culture with a taste of Indonesia garnered enough extra attention from foreign people," stated Indradarma Adiwibowo, the current president of PSM-ITB. Indra admitted to being quite satisfied by the result obtained by the hard work of the PSM-ITB team. The reason, PSM-ITB was the only team consisting of a group of young singers and had succeeded in earning more appreciation from the audience. This appreciation is what brought PSM-ITB into becoming the public's choice of being the best team for the folklore category. Additionally, the songs brought forth by PSM-ITB in this category are, among several, Janger, Luk Luk Lumbu, Bengawan Solo, and Gambang Suling.

The final result of the competition announced that Chamber Choir Vox Gaudiosa from Japan managed to become the overall champion. After this competition, the champion would show off their abilities in the event also attended by other European choir champions. Alwyn EL06, one of the members in the PSM-ITB team, stated that basically, he felt quite happy with the result obtained as of now. He hoped that representatives of Indonesia performing outside the country should not need to feel afraid. This is because, in actuality, opportunity always presents itself and foreigner's enthusiasm towards Indonesian culture is quite big. However, what needs to be paid attention towards is how the preparation for the competition can be well-managed, especially regarding training agenda and class schedule. "I feel pretty satisfied with the result this time. Seeing the duration of preparation of the team which can be said to be quite short, the title of the winner of the folklore category is enough to 'pay' for the hard work of the team up until now," stated Alwyn.

Indra emphasized that this event should not make fellow PSM-ITB members feel content with themselves. "My hopes are big, with the experience obtained when going the Arezzo previously, the members should want to further improve themselves. Always remember that Indonesian culture would always have a place in the international world," said Indra. Hopefully, the achievement engraved by the PSm-ITB team will always be a source of motivation for other art and culture actuators to continuously improve. Long live Nusantara art and culture!

Writer: KM ITB Ministry of Art and Culture