UST Singers is Choir of the World for 2nd time

The University of Sto. Tomas (UST) Singers has set another record when it clinched last Saturday the prestigious Choir of the World-Pavarotti Trophy in the 2010 Llangollen International Music Eistedfodd in North Wales. It was the first time in the competition’s 63-year history for a choir to win the title twice. The UST Singers first bagged the recognition in 1995 when it became the first and only Asian choir to win the award in the world’s oldest international choral competition. [Click here to see the UST Singers’ winning performance in the 2010 Llangollen International Music Eistedfodd] For this year, the group bested four competitors in the festival’s final competition, which included only first-prize winners in the festival's other major choir categories, according to a statement on the UST website. The UST Singers earlier copped the top prize in the Mixed Choir competition to qualify for the Choir of the World competition. The other finalists were The White Rosettes of England (winner of the Barbershop/Close Harmony Choruses competition), the Cantabile Limburg of Germany (winner of the Male Choirs competition), the Chanterelles Choir of England (winner of the Female Choirs competition) and the Cywair of Wales (winner of the Chamber Choir competition). The Pavarotti Trophy was named after world renowned Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who competed in the festival in 1995 when his choir from Modena in Italy won the Men’s Choir competition. In 2005, Pavarotti added his name to the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, an annual six-day festival of dance and song that takes place every year in the small Welsh town of Llangollen. The festival has been running since 1947, while the prestigious Choir of the World competition was created in 1987 to determine the best overall choir of the event. The recent victory highlights the UST Singers’ European Tour, where they are set to compete in six international competitions. The group received the Lady Dorothy Mayer Memorial Trophy and the Peace Trophy at the 56th International Choral Festival in Cork in Ireland on May 1. In the same month, the choir bagged all the Gold Diplomas in the Sacral Music, Secular and Folk Music, and Spiritual, Gospel and Jazz categories in the 6th International Choir Festival Mundus Cantat in Sopot, Poland. Founded in 1992, the UST Singers, under the baton of Prof. Fidel G. Calalang Jr., has won more than 45 top prizes and has performed in concert tours in at least 25 countries in Europe and Asia, and in the US. - KBK, GMANews.TV