St Conrad’s Church Choir of Ramotswa added to its many past victories in the annual Diocesan Catholic Church Choirs festival by gathering three position ones in the large section category, two first positions and one second position in the youth section category.
This saw it going away with position one for overall best performer. The event was at St Joseph’s, Kgale, the past weekend.
Another choir from another Balete village – Gabane-St Peter’s Church choir, got position one in one song (Western piece), two second positions in the youth section, one first position and four forth positions in the Standard Section category to end up as best performer-runner-up.
Choirs competed for three music pieces-Hymn, Western piece (Classic music sang along side piano) and African piece.
Other choirs missed it through dropping other music pieces. St Bernadette of Gaborone West, for instance, could perhaps have walloped St Peter’s if it could have rendered all youth Section pieces.
A close look at the score sheets indicates that under the youth section category, St Conrad’s scored 72 points to get position one in the hymn. St Peter’s followed it with 68 points and two points lower is St Bernadette’s.
In the Western piece, St Peter beat both by scoring 74 points. Right behind it is St Conrad’s with 72 points. St Bernadette’s did not render the piece. St Conrad’s repeated its victory by scoring 62 points, followed by St Peter’s with 57 points in the African piece.
Meanwhile, in the lowest category of the competition, Section C- (choirs with less than 30 choristers), 12 choirs battled it out for trophies. An outstation of Ramotswa- St Bernard of Taung perpetuated its senior’s deeds on other choirs. It got first position in all pieces competed for in this category. For Hymn it scored 78 points followed by St Emmanuel of Mochudi with 76 points. Two points below it Thapelo of Kanye got position four. St Mary of Kumakwane, Lapa la Lerato, St Joseph’s of Kgale, St John of Jwaneng got positions five to eight, scoring 62, 60, 54 and 52 in that order. Other choirs did not render the piece.
For the Western piece, St Emmanuel’s followed St Bernard’s 80 points with 68. Divine Mercy of Metsimotlhabe followed with 66 points and St Mary of Kumakwane, Thapelo, St Joseph’s, Lapa la Lerato St Placid of Mmopane ,St Paul’s of Mochudi, Kgotlana ya tsogo of Thamaga got positions four to eleven in that order. The same applied to the African piece.
At Standard Section category, St Bernadette’s of Gaborone West got first position in all Songs the Choirs presented, save for one that was snatched by St Peter’s of Gabane – the African piece. St Theresa of Lobatse got position two in the hymn piece, just two points below the winner’s 72. Sacred heart of Kopong followed with 64 points. St Peter’s, Holy Cross of Mogoditshane, Sedibeng of Molepolole and Kereste lefika followed with 60, 55, 50 points to get positions four, five, six and seven, respectively.
For the Western piece, St Bernadette’s Choir was followed by Kopong’s Sacred Heart, itself followed by St Theresa of Lobatse. St Peter’s, Holy Cross, Sedibeng, and Kreste lefika of Old Naledi got positions four to seven in that order, scoring 58, 55, 52 and 48, respectively.
For the African piece, St Peter’s was followed by St Bernadette’s; only two points below it. Sacred Heart, St Theresa, Holy Cross, Sedibeng, and Kreste Lefika got positions three to seven in that order.
In the large section, St Conrad’s was twice followed by Corpus Christi of Broadhurst. This was 68 points to the winner’s 70 and 65 points to the winner’s 75. And it was the Hymn and the western piece. Tsholofelong of Tlokweng got position two in the Western piece; having 70 points eight points below the winner. Christ the King Cathedral got two position fours and one position three. Tsolofelong got two position threes and one second position.
Choirs that got positions one and two are going to perform further in a more charged atmosphere during the first week of December in Durban, South Africa.
