Music Office Youth Choir to visit Germany for musical exchange

 

The Music Office Youth Choir visited Germany from 2 to 8 July 2019 to participate in the 11th International Johannes Brahms Choir Festival and Competition in Wernigerode, meeting 46 youth choirs from 19 nations/regions. It won three Gold Awards at the Festival and Competition. Further honours included 2 category winner awards for the Youth Mixed Voices and Equal Voices competitions, with conductor Dr. Angelina Au also awarded the Conductor Prize.

 

The Choir took 68 members on tour, which was led by the Senior Music Officer, Dr. Angelina Au, together with 3 accompanying staff. The delegation participated in 3 categories of the Competition – Youth Mixed Voices, Equal Voices (Female Choirs) and Equal Voices (Male Choirs). The Choir was also invited to be the first performing group of the Festival Opening Concert and gave performance in the Friendship Concert. Furthermore, the Choir performed in the Marktkirche, a landmark of Hannover with over 750 years of history.

 

Highlights of repertoire included ‘Wiegenlied’ (Lullaby) by Brahms; ‘Gloria’ by Haydn; ‘Les Djinns’ (The Genies) by Faure; eight-part choir a cappella ‘Denn Er hat seinen Engeln befohlen über dir’ (For he shall give his angels charge over thee) by Mendelssohn; famous Chinese folk song ‘Xiu He Bao’ (Purse Embroidering) arranged by Liu Zhuang. For details, please refer to the tour pamphlet and photos taken.

 

Since its establishment in 1980, the Choir has played the role of music ambassador for Hong Kong and collaborated with many visiting music groups from the UK, the US, Ireland and Japan. The Choir has also completed successful concert tours to Austria, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia and attained encouraging results at overseas choral festivals, including: two Gold Diplomas and a Category Winner and Jury Award each at the 2009 A Voyage of Songs International Choral Festival; two Gold Diplomas and a Category Winner Award at the 2014 Sing n Joy Vienna - 29th International Schubert Choir Competition and three Gold Awards and two Category Winner Awards at the 2016 Singapore International Choral Festival.