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PICF 2024 Celebrates Wellness, Friendship Through Song
Front Row (The Jakarta Post) September 27, 2024
The performance of Dux Stella Voce in the 2024 PICF Grand Prix. (Penabur International Choir Festival)
Confetti, cheers, and camaraderie marked the closing of the 2024 Penabur International Choir Festival (PICF), which brought together choir groups from Indonesia and the Philippines through a shared appreciation of melody.
Held from Sept. 7 to 14 at Penabur International Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, the sixth edition of the biennial competition was themed “Enhance your well-being through choral singing”, showcasing the importance of the positive energy gained through song.
Specifically, PICF 2024 aims to instill and manifest within students the BPK PENABUR values of BEST: Be Tough, to possess and personify a strong and whole Christian identity; Excel Worldwide, to master knowledge, technology and international languages while also embodying the spirit of leadership for positive impact; Share with Society, to respect diversity and care for society; and Trust in God, prioritizing God in family life, school, church and society.
BPK Penabur Jakarta Head Kenny Lim said the event aimed to convene choir singers and fans from across the world to compete and learn with each other.
“The PICF is the manifestation of our commitment to channel and accommodate our students’ non-academic interests and talents,” he said.
Kenny described this year’s PICF, which made an offline return following the strictly virtual PICF 2022, as “amazing” because of the enthusiastic response from both the audience and the contestants.
With more than 5,000 participants on 126 teams, the competition was divided into school and general categories, with the latter including categories such as folklore, pop and jazz, spiritual and gospel, as well as senior choir for those aged 40 and above.
In addition, the PICF 2024 also held a range of workshops and masterclasses on choral practice, touching on topics such as conducting, arrangement and interpreting pop music as well as solo singing. The panelists included conductor and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) professor Ragnar Rasmussen, Trondheim Symphony Opera Choir artistic director Urša Lah and Salt Lake Choral Artists artistic director and conductor Brady Allred.
The PICF 2024 panel, which also included soprano and conductor Aning Katamsi and music director Agustinus Bambang Jusana, was led by music director and conductor Avip Priatna, founder of the Jakarta Concert Orchestra, the Batavia Madrigal Singers and The Resonanz Children’s Choir.
Avip, who also served as the event’s artistic director, said that singing has been proven to be beneficial for our health, as it stimulates the vocal cords and muscles while also allowing like-minded people to meet and socialize.
“We wanted to create an opportunity where participants could discover the benefits of choral singing from an early age, and as such our categories range from kindergarteners up until seniors. At the same time, we also want to accommodate the strengths of each choir group through categories such as pop and jazz so they can showcase their abilities,” he said.
“As music itself is very wide ranging, we don’t want to limit the participants through the wide range of categories.”
While every team competed within their respective categories, their performances were also judged for the grand prix, which went to Dux Stella Voce, an independent choir made up of student choir (PSM) alumni from across the country.
Amid the choir members’ exuberant celebration and a vivacious rendition of Queen’s “We Are the Champions” by the Batavia Madrigal Singers, Dux Stella Voce head Syahdila Affan told The Jakarta Post that the PICF 2024 was the choir’s second competition after the 2023 Singapore International Choral Festival.
Founded in 2022, most of Dux Stella Voce’s members are alumni of Universitas Brawijaya in Malang, East Java. Fueled by a shared love of singing and the fact that many members ended up working in Jakarta, they regrouped and started juggling their respective careers and choir practice.
According to Affan, the group started practicing for the PICF 2024 in March and was only able to hold one practice per week until August, when they started ramping up the intensity of their sessions and brought in the help of highly respected coaches and conductors to better fine-tune their voices.
“Our sound is perhaps different from other choirs as our members come from across the country, including Java, Sumatera and Eastern Indonesia. We are also highly influenced by Pinoy singers, especially the likes of Philippine Madrigal Singers who we consider as our role models,” he said.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
