The World Choir Games from 4 – 14 July 2018 kick off in Pretoria for the first time in Africa – a competition founded in the yea
r 2000. More than 300 choirs and 16 000 participants from over 60 countries are in Tshwane to compete in the Olympic Games of Choral music. One hundred and forty-seven of the total choirs are participating in 2018 are from South Africa. The World Choir Games (in their 10th edition) feature choirs such as award-winning, Takoma Academy Chorale from Takoma Park in Maryland, USA participating in the high schools segment of the competition.
The Wot-If? Trust on Sunday, 8 July 2018, hosted Takoma Academy Chorale, which consisted of fifty-two students, nine chaperons and a bus driver as part of this American group’s trip to South Africa. On home soil were fifty choir and community members from Diepsloot. These groups primarily consisted of young people who seek to inspire and uplift communities in song. Their labour of love merged into #OneVoiceDiepsloot as the homegrown Diepsloot choir (facilitated by The Wot-If? Trust) embraced Takoma Academy Chorale in song, spirit, love and truth.
The programme for the day entailed storytelling around each other’s realities, cultures and heroes as the focal points of conversation and interaction. Each group performed a few of their own songs, including the South African and American national anthems. The event culminated in the two choirs teaming up to create songs that brought the choirs together as symbol of uniting both worlds.
Takoma Academy has performed for former First Lady, Michelle Obama, in the White House and after 8 July 2018, they can add to their repertoire a performance in Diepsloot. After leaving the Wot-If? Trust’s #eHUBDiepsloot and Father Louis Blondel Centre, Takoma Academy Chorale took a drive through Diepsloot to familiarise themselves with a peri-urban South African environment.
#Singing4God & #Going4Gold are Takoma Academy Chorale’s hashtags for this particular excursion, in case you want to follow their developments/see their performance on Wednesday, 11 July and/or Thursday, 12 July 2018.
This competition is designed for experienced choirs that have already proven their level of proficiency at other international competitions. If you would like to see the competition without driving to Tshwane then watch the closing ceremony broadcast, live on kykNet Nou, DSTV, Channel 146 on 14 July 2018.