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Padjadjaran University Choir (as known as Unpad Choir/PSM Unpad) has, again, won an international prize in choir competition. This time, Unpad Choir’s cultural team, Indonesia Kirana 2017 has successfully won the First Rank in Folksong category & Runner-Up for the Choral Works category, in “The 54th International Competition of Choral Singing” which was held in Spittal an der Drau, Austria, on 7-9th July 2017.

Unpad Choir was competing with the other numerous choir groups from all around the world, some of them are Bob Cole Chamber Choir from the United States, Akademski Pevski zbor Maribor from Slovenia, Claritas Vocalis from Germany, and North-West University PUK-Choir from South Africa.

In the Folksong category, the 45 singers of Unpad Choir performed the Indonesian traditional compositions; Paris Barantai and Benggong by the young and talented Indonesian composer Ken Steven, and Soleram by Josu Elberdin. The attractive performances, combined with traditional dance choreographies in each songs, has been able to steal the judges and the audiences’ attention who filled the entire hall of Schloss Porcia, where the competition was held.

This team of Indonesia Kirana 2017 also performed some classical and contemporer compositions by the world class composers, like Readymade Alice by Pertu Haapanen and Ave Maria by Ivan Yohan, for the Choral Works category.

The victory of Indonesia Kirana 2017 didn’t just stop there, the judges also awarded this team with the Best Interpretation of Brahms through the mandatory song Es Geht Ein Wehen. The judges thought that Unpad Choir has successfully managed to enliven and maintain the intonation & dynamics of the song.

The Chief of the cultural mission of Indonesia Kirana 2017, Fernandes, was proud of the team’s victory. According to him, this team has managed to defeat some teams from Europe who have—indeed—dominated the international choir world. “This victory should make us all very grateful. All of our struggles over the last six months were completely paid off on those choir stages until we could finally beat up the European choirs, which were also technically excellent, “he said.

He also added that, to reach this point was not easy, because the competition that is one of the oldest international choir championships was very tight since the very beginning.  Each delegation of those countries was given only one place in the competition.

“Basically, this competition is open to every choir groups from all over the world. The competition committees also briefly told us that there are some choirs from Indonesia that applied to join. But in the end, there selected one was Unpad Choir. That was the starting point that brought us onto our current champion titles, “he added.

Currently, the Indonesia Kirana 2017 team has traveled to Vienna, Austria, to prepare themselves for a cultural concert with the title of “Indonesia Kirana” which will be held the next day. In cooperation with the Indonesian Embassy in Austria and the Indonesian Students’ Association (PPI) in Austria, Unpad Choir will present some traditional Indonesian songs for their mission of introducing Indonesian cultures to the world. 

(Primagung Dary R.)

Translator : Aysa Novira