UP Youth Choir to participate in Olympic Choir Games

This exceptional choir, with 84 members between the ages of 14 and 19, consists of singers that were carefully chosen from high schools in Northern Gauteng. At the moment they are all from Tshwane (32 schools), with the exception of one member who travels weekly from Johannesburg for the Friday practices in the Camerata choir room. 

The planned tour will start on 30 June in Salzburg, Austria, where an Africa workshop will be given—a facet of South African choirs that is highly regarded abroad. The UP Youth Choir is particularly sought after to give these workshops and a team lead by Lhente-Mari Pitout will offer a week-long workshop for six choirs in the Dijon-area, Central France from 4 to 11 May 2014.

The choir will participate in a concert in Salzburg in preparation for the two big competitions to follow. They will be in Vienna for the Summa cum Laude competition from 4 to 8 July, and from there leave for Riga to represent South Africa in three categories in die World Choir Games from 9 to 14 July. This is the largest choir competition in the world and this year, 469 choirs from 59 countries will compete.

The UP Youth choir is the most diverse youth choir in the country and finds it difficult to obtain funding for all the singers, who represent the full economic spectrum.  The Youth Choir projects are currently financed by some parents, which makes it dependent on further donations to include all the singers in this planned tour. Donors can single out individuals they want to sponsor, or donations can be given to the global fund for the tour committee, where it will be used wisely.

For further information, contact the business director, Alta Mare at [email protected].