29 Jun 2014

Choral music choirs have been advised to display a performance aimed at entertaining the crowd not pleasing the judges. 

Dennis Mphela, who was one of the judges during the central region choral music President Day competitions held at Letlhakane Senior Secondary School hall on Saturday, June 28, said successful artistes were those that performed to please their audience.

“Successful artistes are as a result of their audience. Think of pleasing the audience, do not work on pleasing the judges and enjoy what you do,” he said.

Mphela advised the choir conductors that when preparing a standard song for such competitions, they are only allowed to temper with the dynamics, not the tempo markings.

“Include your own dynamics to make the song more entertaining and appealing to the audience. Own your song, add a bit of salt to improve your melody, add more value to each and every note towards the end of the song,” he said.

As for a lerabi song, Mphela said choral choirs should take control of the stage. Furthermore, he said all the three choirs who were competing failed to deliver on the lerabi song as they could not provide enough entertainment to the spectators.

Of the three competing choral choirs which will represent the central region at Gaborone, Serowe Symphony scooped first position on standard song scoring 86 points followed by Letlhakane choral choir with 66 points while DDA from Orapa came last with 56 points.

Serowe Symphony also scooped first position on the lerabi song with 87 points, DDA came second with 78 points and Letlhakane came third with 71 points. 

On the overall, Serowe Symphony got first position with 169 points; Letlhakane Choral Choir came second with 137 points followed closely by DDA with 134 points. ENDS