12 Sep 2016

It was a day of triumph for Botswana choirs at the 39^th Old Mutual National Choir Festival. 

Local singers dominated the re-nowned festival, which was staged in the country for the first time, coinciding with Botswana’s golden jubilee celebrations. 

It was evident that Botswana had long waited for the event of such magnitude to be hosted in the country, given the turn out. 

The festival is an international event formed to promote choral music in Southern Africa, while it comprises ten regions with nine from South Africa and Botswana being in the North West region, and Swaziland as an independent region. 

Nonetheless, after a rigorous competition, in overall, position one went to the deserving Gaborone Youth Singers, followed by Ramotswa’s Andante Chorus and in position three was KTM choir, all from Botswana. 

Other competing choirs included Lesetlheng URC Choir, Gaborone Philharmonic Voices, Mompati Arts Chorus, BTU Choristers, Matlosane Melodies and Maikano Serenaders. 

The festival was not the one to be missed by choral music fanatics, as all the choirs displayed an amazing performance on stage. 

Meanwhile, the event had categories such as standard, where choirs sang Western and African prescribed pieces, while there was also the large category. 

The peak of the festival was when choirs performed African prescribed songs such as Mokgosi ga se molaletsa, Selelo sa setshaba, Kwabenjalo and Bulang dikgoro among others. ENDS