Asia Pacific Choir Games - Awarding Part I - Category C6

The PSM Miracle Voices Ull under the direction of Irene Vista Budi Kusumastuti from Indonesia participated, amongst others, in category C6 -"Musica sacra with accompaniment" of the Asia Pacific Choir Games and Grand Prix of Nations Colombo 2017 and qualified on site for the Asia Pacific Champions Competition.

With the result of the choir on this level of participation the choir was first announced Champion of the Asia Pacific Choir Games, because it had achieved the highest score. After the Awards Ceremony, the Artistic Committee was informed that there was a serious violation of the competition rules: The choir had performed all pieces a cappella, even though at least one composition had to be performed with instrumental accompaniment. This happened, although the choir had informed in advance that they were going to sing at least one of the songs with accompaniment – according to the category rules - and thus, the Artistic Director accepted the program in the assumption that the choir’s information was correct and corresponding to the competition rules.

Because of this fact, the artistic direction was forced to exclude the choir from the competition in this category afterwards, and to declare the second placed choir as Champion of the Asia Pacific Choir Games in  category C6 - "Musica sacra with accompaniment" instead.

The artistic direction of the competition regrets at the same time that this decision had not already fallen in the official jury discussion after the competition. This did not happen, because the jurors did not notice the violation of the competition rules or rather did not inform the artistic direction. This situation has already been assessed internally. Nevertheless, the artistic direction wants to point out that the reason for the choir's exclusion is only the missing accompanied composition.