【News】Six Taiwan choirs take home awards at international choral competition
(TAIPEI TIMES/By Rachel Lin and William Hetherington)Taipei’s Sanyu Elementary School choir brought home a gold diploma from this year’s World Choir Games in Sweden, which is described as the “Olympics of choral music.”
The World Choir Games are organized by Interkultur and held every two years. The 14th iteration, held in Helsingborg, Sweden, began Thursday last week and runs through Sunday.
This year’s competition is divided into the Champions Competition and Open Competition, allowing choirs with different levels of international competition experience to participate.
Members Taiwan’s Sanyu Elementary School choir react after winning gold at this year’s World Choir Games in Sweden.
Photo courtesy of the Sanyu Elementary School
Sanyu Elementary School Principal Chan Jui-ching (詹瑞璟) said the Sanyu choir has consistently performed well in Taipei and national student music competitions and has been invited several times to perform at the National Concert Hall.
Winning gold at a world-class international competition was a valuable experience for the students, he said, adding President William Lai (賴清德) and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) each sent congratulatory messages to the choir, praising the students for bringing honor to Taiwan.
The choir from Changhua County’s Dacun Elementary School also competed and won a gold medal in the Children’s Choir category, while the New Taipei City Youth Choir won a silver medal in the C2 Youth Choir category.
The elementary school affiliated with National Nanke International Experimental High School and the Nibun Chorus also won awards at this year’s competition.
Separately, Taiwan’s Dream Lotus Insightful Praises Choir (夢蓮花讚頌合唱團) at this year’s World Choir Games won gold in the “Music of Spirit and Faith” and “Adult Choirs of Equal Voices” categories, performing works including the Taiwanese folk song “Diu-diu-tang-a” (丟丟銅仔).
Lai and Hsiao sent congratulatory messages to them as well.
The choir is participating in the World Choir Games for the third time, following double-gold performances at competitions in South Korea in 2023 and New Zealand in 2024.
For this year’s event, it continued to use mixed voices in the “Music of Spirit and Faith” category while making its debut in the Adult Choirs of Equal Voices category. Forty female members formed the women’s choir, which won gold.