OV Singers wows the crowd at North Borneo Christmas Fest
PENAMPANG: With their soaring voices, a multi-faith choir from the Oongisvoce Music Mansion serenaded to the crowd at the inaugural North Borneo Christmas Festival with carols and other songs to mark the Yuletide season.
The group, known as OV Singers, sang four songs, namely Somewhere in My Memory, Carol of the Bells, Feliz Navidad and That’s Christmas to Me.
They were part of a lineup of performers for the North Borneo Christmas Festival held at the Inter– national Technology and Commercial Centre (ITCC) over the weekend.
They also collaborated with young singers of SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin – who called themselves the Internet Generation Vocal Ensemble (iGenVE) – to perform three out of the four Christmas songs.
Other performers included Los Hermosos Vocalistas and NorthBdancer.
Oongisvoce Music Mansion artistic director and Carrey Oliver said OV Singers came from a diverse social, racial and religious background.
The group, along with iGenVE, had been preparing for the past two weeks, he said.
“Part of the reason why we decided to participate in this festival was to prepare the group for public performances. They will be competing in a choir competition in Bangkok next year,” he said.
OV Singers won two silver diploma awards during the 16th Malaysian Choral Eisteddfod International Choral Festival in Kuala Lumpur last month.
Organising committee member Beth JS-Lee said the response to the festival had been very good, with 54 businesses participating in the three-day event which kicked off on Friday.
“We hope more will join us next time. We will maintain the North Borneo name when we organise performances for other celebrations such as Chinese New Year,” she said.