The Indonesian choir Batavia Madrigal Singers (BMS), led by Avip Priatna, was the winner of the forty eighth Tolosa Choral Competition held in Tolosa, Spain.
“We are happy that we can make Indonesia proud again in this competition. We hope we can win the 2017 European Grand Prix!” BMS conductor Avip Priatna said in a press note received by Rate on Tuesday, November 1, 2016
In the competition lasting from October 28 to November 2016, the choir also won the primary prize within the Polyphony category and the primary prize within the Basque songs and popular music/folklore category.
Dressed in traditional East Nusa Tenggara costumes, BMS performed “Benggong“song from Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara” and “Soul Decay” composed by Ken Steven. Sonja Simanjuntak took part in arranging the choreography.
In addition to performing Indonesian songs, BMS also sang Canticum Novum by Ivo Antognini, Jesus Egiguren And I similar to Felix Mendelssohn Glory to God in the very best, Carlos Gimenez Xoxo Beltz Bat Banuen and Wade in de Water by Allen Koepke. BMS also performed “Soir D’ete” by Henk Badings and a medley of “I like you”. – What a Wonderful World arranged by American composer Craig Hella Johnson with Steephanie Onggowinoto as pianist.
Choirs from Norway, Taiwan, Lithuania, Colombia, Italy, Germany, Cuba, Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Latvia, Great Britain and Sweden also took part within the Tolosa Choral Competition.
The Tolosa Choral Competition is taken into account one of the difficult competitions on the planet as a part of the European Grand Prix (EGP) in choral singing. Other competitions affiliated to the EGP include the Guido d’Arezzo International Polyphonic Competition (Arezzo, Italy), the BélaBartók International Choral Competition (Debrecen, Hungary), the Gallus International Choral Competition (Maribor, Slovenia), the Florilège Vocal de Tours (Tours, France) and the International May Choral Competition “Prof G. Dimitrov” (Varna, Burglary). The winners of the competitions related to EGP will appear in next yr’s EGP grand finale.
In 2001, BMS won the free program category on the Florilege Vocal de Tours di France. In 2012, BMS won the International May Choir Competition. Prof. G. Dimitrov.
BMS is a choir consisting of experienced singers of assorted ethnic, religious, age and skilled backgrounds. Some of them are housewives, marketing managers, teachers, IT programmers, students and more. They practiced at Resonanz Music Studio, a music school founded by Avip Priatna at Jalan Kertanegara No. 28 in Jakarta.
Source : Rate
