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Indonesian high school choir wins gold medals in Prague
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Singers of YC78, a choir from state high school SMA 78 in West Jakarta, pose for a photograph in the Czech Republic. (kompas.com/SMA 78)
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choir group from state high school SMA 78 in West Jakarta won numerous medals at the 31st Cantat Praga jubilee international choir competition in Prague.
In the competition, held in the Czech capital from Nov. 2 to 5, the group, Youth Choir 78 (YC78), snatched gold medals in the youth choir and folklore categories, a special award for the choreography and for the competition program, as well as coming out as the overall winner in the youth choir category.
"YC78 received decent appreciation from the jury and people in Prague who saw the competition. We sang a traditional song from Aceh with Saman dance and a Jaranan song from East Java,” said Jessica Fedora Amadea, the conductor, as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.
Twenty choir groups from various countries joined the competition, including China, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ireland and the Czech Republic as the host. Only five countries made it to the grand finals, however, including Indonesia.
The 40 students of YC78 performed 10 songs at the event, including Daemon Irrepit Callidus by Hungarian composer Gyorgy Orban and Bogoroditse Devo by Russian maestro Sergei Rachmaninoff. They also presented a traditional song from North Sulawesi, O Ina Ni Keke.
To prepare for the competition, the teenagers had practiced intensively for eight months, trained by a team of coaches that included Jessica, Jeremiah Purwoto and Gerard Giovani Pakasi.
In 2015, the choir clinched two medals in a competition in Barcelona, Spain, and it brought home another two from a similar competition in Hong Kong last year. (agn)
