IN THE NEWS City singers excel at choir ‘Olympics”

THE KIMBERLEY Girls’ Choir, which recently participated in the 10th international World Choir Games, received two silver medals and were announced among the top 10 youth choirs.

The event was presented by Interkultur from Germany.

The choir, together with conductor Phyllis Goldblatt, accompanist Gideon Linde and assistant Nethanielle Mattison, left the city on July 3 for Pretoria to compete in the biggest international choral competition against more than 150 choirs from around the world.

This year was the third time that the Kimberley Girls’ Choir participated in the event and, because of this, they could enter in the Champions Division.

The Kimberley Girls’ Choir came 6th out of 14 participating choirs in the Youth Choirs category, obtaining 79.5%.

In the Sacred Music category, the local girls obtained 75%.

The Kimberley Children’s Choir also participated in the World Choir Games for the first time and did extremely well in their category and division.

Goldblatt said on the choir’s return to Kimberley last week that she was “extremely pleased with the achievements given the enormous amount of work the choir put in”.

Goldblatt will be attending a course in classical voice training in the UK in August presented by professors from London, Berlin and Germany.

“I believe that the singers in the Northern Cape and especially at Girls’ High School, will benefit from the knowledge I gain from the course.”

The Kimberley Girls’ Choir is hoping to participate in next year’s 11th World Choir Games in Flanders, Belgium.