The annual Diocesan Catholic Church Choirs music festival is slated for Saturday 10th August 2013, at St Joseph’s College, Kgale. Altogether, 27 choirs – excluding small ensembles (solos, duets, trios, quartets) – are expected to participate.
In an interview with the Sunday Standard, Association of Catholic Church Choirs (ACCC) Public Relations Officer, Darkie Mogwe, said as usual, the festival will be inaugurated by the Diocesan Bishop His Holiness Right Reverend Valentine Tsamma Seane. It will start with a Mass at 0730hrs.
“We are expecting three Youth Choirs, 13 C section, seven Standard section and four Large section choirs. Immediately after mass, the first session for ensembles will start. These will only participate at that festival and will not proceed to the inter-diocesan festival to be held in Durban, South Africa in December,” explained Mogwe.
After the ensembles, all the choirs will be presenting the Western pieces and the Hymn from catholic hymnbook. The western pieces are classic music pieces composed by western musicians like Handel. The songs are usually sung alongside a piano; they differ according to the choirs and their categories. As for the hymns, each category is given a specific hymn from the book to compete for.
After this, the choirs will break for lunch and come back for the second session.
In the second session, all the choirs will render African pieces. These are compositions from African songwriters. They are written in various Southern African languages.
“The festival is expected to attract a lot of audience from various denominations and the media,” he said, adding that at the end of the festival, choirs are expected to get trophies as per their performance.
Usually positions one and two get trophies for each song they performed well. From there, in December, the choirs will cross the border to rub shoulders with other best performers in inter-diocesan festival.
Mogwe said the entry fee for the festival is P30 for adults and P10 for children under the age of 12. The funds raised are going to be used for administration purposes by the Association and the bulk goes to the Bishop’s office to help in the running of other projects.
