UST Singers wow audiences in Germany

The University of Santo Tomas (UST) Singers received honor for the Philippines after wowing audiences in a concert in Berlin, Germany. According to the Philippine Embassy in Berlin, the UST Singers rendered their "music of diplomacy" in the concert hosted by the Philippine Embassy last October 10 at the Französicher Dom in the German capital. "The UST Singers under the baton of Prof. Fidel G. Calalang received a standing ovation for their wide repertoire of religious, classics, Filipino folk and Broadway songs, spanning over 600 years," the embassy said. More than 400 guests from the Diplomatic Corps, academe, business, cultural, political, government and non-government entities and the Filipino community watched the concert. The concert marked the accreditation of Ambassador Maria Cleofe Natividad, the 17th Philippine Ambassador to Germany. Natividad assumed her post only last September 2, succeeding Delia Domingo-Albert. Natividad said the UST concert was also part of the year-long celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal. Rizal is an alumnus of the UST, Asia's oldest university being founded in 1611. Leading the guests at the concert were German Member of Parliament Sabine Weiss and German Federal Foreign Office Director General for Asian and Pacific Affairs Ambassador Dr. Cyrill Nunn. The choir sang the national anthems of the Philippines, Germany,and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Hymn "The ASEAN Way." Concert tour The UST singers, who also performed at the Heilegeist Kirsche in Bayernallee, Berlin a day earlier, are in their 21st International Concert Tour. Running from September 19 to November 21, the tour includes performances in France, Belgium, Latvia, Sweden, Norway, Spain and South Korea. "There is no better and more effective approach for the Philippines and the Filipino people to be better understood and appreciated than through the promotion of Philippine culture such as the concert night with the UST singers," Natividad said. She added that for many years, Embassy has brought to Germany many of the country's finest artists in the fields of visual, performing and literary arts, which have all drawn applause and awe from the German people. "Indeed, what the UST Singers did was diplomacy through music," she said. - VVP, GMA News