The pride of Ashton, the Zolani Youth Choir, has scooped up another prestigious award.
Last week they performed at the ATKV Suidoosterfees Choir Competition at the Artscape auditorium in Cape Town, where they competed against among others Amici De Lumine, a choir that won the competition in 2018.
There were also other prestigious youth choirs who they came up against such as VGK Macassar, Boland Chamber Choir, VGK Porterville gekombineerd and The Treble Clefs.
The choir performed a versatile repertoire starting with “Kungeze Kwaphela Kimi” arranged by SU Mzekeli, “Psalm 134” arranged by André van der Merwe, “Shenandoah arranged by James Erb and “Sanibonani” composed by Mbuso Ndlovu.
“It is exciting to have been the winners of the competition as this motivates our children more and gives reason for why we do what we do,” said Odwa Mvunge, the choir’s founder and conductor. “Music to the choir touches souls and spreads positive messages through music, and competing is not really what we love to do. But musical growth comes with positive and negative criticism, and where we can get an honest opinion of our musicality is through a competition. We are grateful to the Cape Winelands District Municipality for sponsoring our trip.
And the judges were in awe with Zolani Youth Choir, commenting: “What an inspiring group of singers, thank you for making a difficult repertoire sound easy, amazing work Zolani Youth Choir. Your choir is such an inspiration! Always an honour to listen to you.” – Jade Paige
“What a beautiful resonant choral sound. The voices intertwine with such great tapestry. Beautiful; long phrases; excellent piano singing. Appropriate balance between singers good vowel placement. This choir does excellent work; this ensemble listens well and maintains an appropriate balance. Well done!”– Lizle Gaffley
“Excellent discipline on stage, very good focus and communication, very good blending of the voices, very good musical phrasing throughout. Neat diction very sensitive dynamic choices. Well done on this outstanding performance.”– Hannelize du Plessis
The choir’s next venture is to do a free series of concerts in celebration. They appeal to the public to help in any way they can as they depend on donations for operational costs and logistics. For more info contact Mvunge on 081 555 3789 or 066 203 5679 or email o.mvunge13@gmail.com.
