Director of the Westerns Youth Choir from the Erongo region, Roger Nautoro, has confidence in the giftedness and talents of the Westerns, and with the assistance from the members who studied music from the College of the Arts (COTA), the choir stands firmly confident that the Lord will be their guide in making their supporters and region proud. Sabina gives you a feel of the excitement awaiting choral lovers in Windhoek tomorrow.
The Westerns is one of the eight choirs from the regions taking part in the grand finale of the National Choir Competition tomorrow at Jan Mohr Secondary School hall. Eight choirs are battling it out in the grand finale because only eight regions of the 14 in the country staged regional competitions. “We are very confident, we have worked very hard rehearsing day and night and we believe hard work will pay off,” says Lancelord Howoseb, the Director of Otjiwarongo Youth Choir, the champ of the Otjondjupa region. The competition has been organised by the Directorate of Arts under the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture to motivate young people to participate in choral music as an art form and laying a fundament for choral music and uplift the standard of music in the country. Ivan Scheffers, one of the organisers, says the ministry has rolled out the Regional Choir Competition in all regions as one of programmes fittingly dedicated to the revival of choral singing in schools, pushing young singers to the forefront and giving singing its rightful place in Namibia. “This is one of the new programmes in the Directorate of Arts under the new Ministry, envisaging that it would become an annual event on the Ministry’s annual calendar,” she says.
Scheffers adds that the regional winners are the champs of the regions, which makes the winner in the grand finale tomorrow the champs of champs.
The regional champions in the grand finale are Western Erongo Youth choir from Erongo, Apostolic Church Choir from Zambezi; ELCIN Nkarapamwe Youth Choir from Kavango East; the College of the Arts Youth Choir from Khomas; Ohangwena Youth Choir from Ohangwena; Ondangwa Youth Choir from Oshana; Otjiwarongo Youth Choir from Otjozondjupa; St John Youth Choir from Omaheke; APC Youth Choir from Oshikoto; Onkongo Unam Choir from Omusati and Southern Youth Choir from //Karas.
Scheffers says while conducting the regional competitions they discovered that youths like choral competitions and money attracts the choirs to participate, although arts do not get the same attention and support as sport. “We need more involvement and support from all regional councils and educational directors,” she emphasises. Scheffers adds that some regions were a bit slow to react although they took part. “Erongo region was very eager as their choral standard is very high. Otjozondjupa and Omaheke were also excited, but some other regions still need to be motivated,” she notes. The latter include the regions of Hardap, Kavango West, Kunene and Omusati which did not participate this years.
The winner of the National Choir Competition wins N$30 000 while the second runner-up get N$20 000 and third runner-up will walk away with N$10 000. Entrance to the competition is free for the public and all are welcome.