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Choir shows off its prizes won in Spain

The Taipei Philharmonic Youth Choir (台北愛樂青年合唱團), which won two titles in the Festival Internacional de Musica de Cantonigros held in Spain last month, yesterday presented the medals to Council for Cultural Affairs Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀) and performed the songs that won the championship.

The choir, conducted by Du Ming-yuen (杜明遠), deputy director of the Taipei Philharmonic Foundation for Culture and Education won the titles in the of mixed choirs and folk song categories, beating 32 countries.

The annual music festival, which includes competition and exhibition of mixed choral music, has been held in Cantonigros, Spain, since 1983.

"Our choirs received overwhelming applause and the audience kept yelling `encore Taiwan' when we finished the songs. Everyone really enjoyed our performances," Du said.

The Maiden of Malan (馬蘭姑娘) won the folk song category. It is one of several Aboriginal folk songs composed by Chien Nan-chang (錢南章), professor of music at Taipei National University of the Arts.

"We are so lucky to sing such a beautiful song that is written by our local composers. The music element is taken from Aboriginal culture that is so pure, simple and natural," Du said. "We hope we can have more and more songs composed by local composers in the future."

The Taipei Philharmonic Youth Choir sang the Catalonian song Marinada in the Catalonian dialect in the category of mixed choirs.

"The members of the youth choir practiced the dialect very hard and their pronunciation was praised by the local audiences and the jury," Du said.

The youths also added a piece of the traditional Catalonian dance when singing the song, which won high acclaim.

"Many people even broke down when they watched the performance," Du said.

Du said when the sponsor announced that "Taiwan, Taipei Philharmonic Youth Choir" had won, the youth choirs raised the national flag of Republic of China and went on the stage.

"I think the performance of art and music is the best way to increase international interaction, especially as we have encountered a lot of adversity in diplomacy," Tchen said to the young singers.

"Your excellent performance proved that Taiwan's art and culture has been valued by other countries. I am so proud of you."

Du said the titles also demonstrated Taiwan's many cultures, including Aboriginal, Hakka and Han.

"The Taipei Philharmonic Youth Choir was lauded as the group that could integrate into the local culture most easily," Du said. "It proves that our cultural education tolerates and respects multicultural societies."
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