ITB Students Choir Achieved Five Awards in Bratislava Cantat 1 Competition

By Bayu Rian Ardiyansyah

Editor Bayu Rian Ardiyansyah

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - ITB Students Choir brought proud news from Bratislava, Slovakia. They succeeded to achieve five awards in various categories. These awards are gold medal of Mixed Choir, Female Choir, and Folklore Choir categories; also awarded as Special Prize Interesting Choreography of the Folk Program and Grand Prix Award. Last award is the highest award that can be achieved in Bratislava Cantat I competition which held from Thursday till Sunday (21-24/08/14) in Bratislava, Slovakia.

 

This four days competition also invited various choirs from other countries. One of which is Amigas em Voz from Brazil with Elena Moukhorkina Moreno as the conductor. Bratislava Cantat competition also invited famous juries, such as Doc. Elena Sarayova-Kovacova, Doc. Milan Kolena, ArtD, and Mgr. Art. Ondrej Saray. Elena as chairman of the jury is also the first professional female conductor in Slovakia. Elena learned piano, composition, and conducting in Bratislava Music Conservatory and University of Performing Arts Bratislava. Elena led Bratislava Children's Choir since 1967 also as conductor and art director from Slovak Teacher Female Choir OZVENA.

To prepare the team in following this prestigious competition, ITB Students Choir held many practices and preparations. One of these was pre-competition performance which held in Bandung and Jakarta. These series of events, including Bratislava Cantat competition, were series of ITB Cultural Tour (ICT), program of ITB Students Choir which held regularly every two year. On Monday till Wednesday (25-27/08/14) ITB Students Choir also held cultural tour to introduce Indonesia culture in Paris, France. The theme of ICT this time was "Per Aspera ad Astra" which had meaning of "Through Difficulties to the Stars".

Profile of ITB Students Choir

ITB Students Choir was formed on February 11, 1962, which was also the first choir of university in Indonesia. In the beginning, ITB Students Choir only held choir performances in campus scale and seldom performed in front of the public. Since 1973, ITB Students Choir participated in various international choir competitions and achieved many main awards. These achievements made ITB Students Choir as one of the best choir in Indonesia.

Then, in 2009 they held cultural tour to five countries in Europe, that were Czech Republic, Austria, Italia, Spain, and France. That performance succeeded to achieve main award in Musica Contemporanea, runner-up of Folklore category, and got the fourth place in Polyphony Monographic Category of 48th International Choral Competition "C.A. Seghizzi", Gorizia, Italy. ITB Students Choir also got warm welcome from nineteen cities in Europe where they held their choir performances.

On September 2011, ITB Students Choir participated in 59th Guido d'Arezzo International Polyphonic Competition in Arezzo, Italia and achieved the first audience award in the category of "International Festival of Choral Folk Music". For the next, ITB Students Choir is expected to be able to maintain their performances and continue spreading the good name of ITB in various choir competitions, either national or international. "Thanks for all of the supports provided," Adi Nugroho said in his social media account, the conductor of ITB Students Choir.