Sunday, 13 July 2014

Blog post: 12 July Riga

Another Competition day – Scenic Pop at 11h30. The boys had an early start this morning – they had to be down for breakfast at 07h30. After breakfast they had a rehearsal just outside our hotel from 08h00 to 10h00. We left the hotel at 10h15 for the Riga Congress Centre where the boys were to perform second on the program in the Scenic Pop category. 

The boys were all very excited for this competition – Pop music is after all one of our choir’s strong points and favourites to perform. They were in very high spirits as we got on the tram and could not help themselves from bursting into some psyche-up songs.

The hall was packed with audience members eager to be entertained by some fresh pop music – this is obviously a very popular category.  In the Pop category, the acoustic rehearsals happen just before the performance.  The boys received loud cheers and applause from the audience during this rehearsal.

From the first moment that our boys walked onstage, the air was electric. The boys’ performance had the whole audience on their feet after the first song. There were many female fans in the audience, which off course just spurred our boys on even more to give the performance of a lifetime! 

They did a really superb job and executed a nearly flawless performance.  The jury members were recording everything with their phones and were some of the first people to jump tot heir feet after the last song. After the performance, media teams descended upon the boys - interviewing them, taking photos and videoing them singing Kearsney war cries. The boys felt good about today’s performance and Chef shared their sentiments, giving them 9 and a half - a job extremely well done!

After their performance, the boys had a quick lunch at 12h30 of bolognaise tagliatelle at Chili Pika, an Italian restaurant close to our hotel.  We had a choir workshop from 14h00 to 15h00 at the Latvian Cultural Cociety Hall, where the boys assisted Chef in introducing the audience to African music. After the workshop, the boys hade some free time to explore or rest and had to be showered, dressed and ready to leave the hotel at 17h00 to go for supper at the World Choir Games catering centre before going to the first Awards Ceremony in the Arena Riga at 19h00. Supper was again a traditional Latvian meal of beef stew with cumin and a corn-and-coleslaw salad. 

The Awards Ceremony was a truly phenomenal experience. It is an epic event with thousands of people in attendance. Different country flags were everywhere and all the choirs sat in eager anticipation for their results. Fortunately no time is wasted and we immediately got down to business with the first category to be announced, Young Male Choirs, where we received a score of 85,63% (Gold Medal) and second in the category.  The winners of this category were the excellent Hong Kong Diocesan Boy’s School Choir with a superb result of 96%!  Our boys were over the moon with their accomplishment. 

After this category, there were still another 8 categories before we would get to the Scenic Folklore results, which were announced last.  Our boys scored 87,50% in this category earning them a Gold Medal and fourth place in the category.  The top choir in this category was the Nankai University Choir from China with an incredible 96%.  The choir who received second place was the University of Pretoria Choir and third was the College of Performing Arts Choir from Namibia. Our choir received so many compliments - even after the results were announced. It is clear that they are a firm favourite with the audience.

Many of the boys were understandably disappointed not to be champions, but Chef was very happy with the results of the choir in both categories announced so far and praised the boys for their hard work.

We got back to the hotel at about 22h30 and the boys were given free time to go and explore some more sights of Riga nightlife and to let off some steam in the vibrant Old Town of Riga. 

The second Awards Ceremony is tomorrow morning at 09h00 at Arena Riga, when we will hear our results for the Scenic Pop category.  Please cross your fingers for that result!