By ADA DIKE
Arriving safely at the Murtala
Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, around 10 pm on Thursday, July
24, 2014, Nigeria’s multi international award winning choir, the Lagos City
Chorale (LCC), in a melodious tune, sang the National Anthem and one other song
to the audience who came to receive them while other people who were waiting to
welcome their loved ones applauded them.
There is no better way for a winning
team to announce their victorious outing than to sing and inform Nigerians that
they went, saw and conquered the world.
In line with their culture of promoting
the positive image of Nigeria, the Lagos City Chorale won three silver medals Nigeria
in a competition with over 400 choirs from 73 countries.
Tagged: The “8th World Choir Games,”
the biennial event organized by Interkultur, Germany, was held in Riga, Latvia
from July 9 to 19, 2014.
Daily Newswatch gathered that the
choirs cut across the five continents of the world. Under the motto “Singing together
brings nations together,” the World Choir Games has become a melting point for
the various and diversified cultures of the world with the aim of fostering
peace and unity in the world as the nations of the world sing together in
harmony. And music is not the only incentive! An exchange of positive human
energy, a meeting of common ideals and thirst for the food for the soul make
the World Choir Games and the 10-day journey a wonderful feast of human passion.
To date, people from over one hundred countries have participated in the Choir
Olympics. The Choirs that represent these countries run into thousands. The
number of choristers and singers run into hundreds of thousands, the number of
people that support the choir movements are in millions.
The Riga episode began on July 9,
2014 with the welcome address by the Minister of Culture of Latvia, Dace
Melbarde who on behalf of the President of Latvia - AndrisBerzius welcomed
participants from all over the world. The president of Interkultur, Gunter
Titsch in his welcome address reiterated the aims of the World Choir Games
which is mainly to foster peace and unity of the world through choral music as
nations of the world sing together in harmony. The intensive activities of the
10-day event include opening and closing ceremonies, competitions in various
categories, concerts by specially invited artistes and choirs(among which are
the famous Baltic Boys Choirs and The King’s Singers), parade of nations and award
ceremonies. There was also intensive interaction among various choirs who
co-habited in hotels and hostels, shared meals, exchanged musical ideas in
competitions and friendship concerts, co-exhibited national identities at the
parade of nations.
Nigeria, represented by a 30-man
choir of the Lagos City Chorale led by Sir Emeka Nwokedi, did not lag in this
biggest world cultural festival. The group arrived Riga on July 12, and on the
13th attended great celebration concert of the 8th World Choir Games at
Mezaparks Open Air Stage. Other programmes include Friendship Concert, Parade
of Nations on 15th July in which every country displayed the best of
her culture in costumes and songs.
Nigeria’s display, according to
Nwokedi, was outstanding as thousands of Latvians who lined up the streets
cheered the Nigeria group with standing and loud ovations.
“Lagos City Chorale contested in
three categories of the Champions Competition (the highest level of the
contest) – The Music of Spirit and Faith, The Mixed Chamber Choir and The
Folklore and gloriously won a silver medal in each of the category. Their
performances are total exhibition of Nigerian culture embedded in her
indigenous choral music from different ethnic groups with traditional musical
instrument accompaniment, varied sparkling national costumes and choreography.
“At the awards ceremony, Nigerian
representatives were called three times to the podium amidst cheers from the
international audience that filled the 30,000 capacity Arena Riga. The climax
of the event was the closing ceremony in which Lagos City Chorale representing
Nigeria was an integral part of the International Stage Choir that gave a most
exhilarating and memorable performance of various choral music from across the
globe (accompanied by Latvian National Symphony Orchestra) and conducted by a
team of some of the best international conductors. This was a most delightful
menu to the international audience comprising
participants and choral music enthusiasts from all over the world. In this ceremony,
the Latvian Minister of Culture on behalf of the President of Latvia, expressed
great appreciation to all the participants and organizers,” he said.
In his closing remarks, the President
of Interkultur, Gunter Titsch, conferred on Riga, the World’s Capital for
Choral Music. He also rang the peace bell and passed on the hosting flag to the
Mayor of Sochi, Russia, where the next edition of the World Choir Games will be
held from July 6 to 16,, 2016.
Lagos City Chorale has in the past
few years been in the centre stage of rebranding Nigeria and showcasing her
positive abilities through participating and winning laurels (gold and silver)
at world’s centre stages across the globe.
In 2012, it won three silver medals at the 7th
World Choir Games in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
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In 2013, it won two gold and two silver
medals at the 1st European International Choir Competition in Graz,
Austria.
The group has spread Nigeria’s rich
culture embodied in indigenous choral music to China and Dubai and it is a
representative of African Culture in the 9th World Choir Games
billed for Sochi, Russia in 2016.
Speaking to
some newsmen at the arrival wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, Sir
Nwokedi hinted that the LCC took part in the highest category called “the
Champions Competition.” Before a choir
contest in the Champions Competition, it must have passed through other grades.
Revealing
the criteria the judges used in determining the winners, he said it was based
on good singing, interpretation of music, comportment and so on.
The importance
of their outing and its impact on Nigeria as a nation, according to Nwokedi, is
that they represented Nigeria in the biggest cultural festival in the world. “At
that point, we displayed positive image of Nigeria and also displayed her
culture at the contest which was a melting point of all the cultures of the
world. Nigerian was not found wanting
there. A lot of people there knew about Nigeria through us. Through the modern technology, our music is
now being heard all over the world because people loved our music and admired
our costume there while we interacted with them,” he added.
Projecting the
future, he stressed that “We learn new things every day. The preparation here
is tough, especially; we are not having the desired support. So we spent much
time we would have used in practicing to look for fund and that affected us
negatively. We need more support. We have contested in three competitions so
nothing short of gold medal in our next outing if we get support.”
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