Golden Voices at the Celebration Concert

At the Celebration Concert on July 11, 2016 at 8 p.m. in the picturesque Summer Theater three top choirs with “Golden Voices” from Russia, South Africa and China, presented a top-class concert program.

The evening began with the Detsky Khor MEZ Krasnodar. The choir achieved theChampions title in the category Children’s choirs during the first part of the World Choir Games. In this concert the young singers presented once again their skills and impressed the audience with choral works such as “Gloria” from the Mass in D major by Benjamin Britten, "Uletay na kryl'yakh vetra” from the opera Prince Igor by Alecander Borodin as well as well-known Russian folk songs.

Afterwards approximately 100 singers of the Stellenbosch University Choir from South Africa entered the stage. As soon as the first tones sounded it was clear that the choir is rightly ranked as top choir of the INTERKULTUR World Rankings. Under the direction of their conductor André van der Merwe the choristers sang contemporary, classical pieces and traditional African songs, such as “Sleep my Child“  by the U.S. composer Eric Whitacre or the traditional spiritual “Didn’t ,y Lord Deliver Daniel”. Especially the interpretation of the lullaby “Sleep my Child” was breathtaking. The concert hall and the audience were enchanted by perfectly intonated sound clusters, a versatile timbre and a captivating stage presence.

Finally the Guangdong Experimental High School Choir, Champion in the category “Mixed Youth Choirs” performed as last choir of the evening. With an ambitious program of selected Chinese choral literature the young singers said goodbye to their still impressed audience.

Here are some impressions of the evening: