The New Taipei City Junior Chorus won the Children’s Choir category at the eighth World Choir Games, also known as “the Olympics for Choirs,” that concluded yesterday in Riga, Latvia.
The Taiwanese team of 60 students aged between 10 and 16 performed four songs in three languages at the competition.
The group sang Happy Feast (快樂聚會) and Song of Laughter (笑之歌) in Mandarin, alongside The Wind of the Four Seasons (四季的風) in Hoklo, also known as Taiwanese.
Photo: CNA
The choir also performed Angyalok es pasztorok (The Angels and the Shepherds), a traditional Bohemian carol, in Hungarian.
The New Taipei City Education Bureau said the audience was fascinated with the team’s amazing voice, perfected skills and the excellent chemistry among the members.
Founded in 2000, the World Choir Games are an international choir festival held every two years on different continents.
This year’s competition took place from Wednesday through yesterday, and drew 460 choirs from 73 nations.
The idea to create the World Choir Games is based on Olympic ideals, aiming to peacefully unify singers and nations in a fair competition, the organizer said.
The idea should inspire people to experience the strength of interaction, which is to challenge personality and community equally through the power of singing together, the organizer said.
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