The Kearsney College Choir receives a hero’s welcome back home in Durban after winning the male choir section at the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria, earlier this month.
The boys’ phenomenal performance left the judges and audience in awe. This is the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19 that the choir was able to compete overseas.
Kearsney’s head of choir Kudzai Kamwendo says they are ecstatic with their win.
“The results showed for it and we’re truly happy with what we did we’re honestly just in amazement and awe at the work that we’ve done the way that we’ve grown and even after Covid because we’ve had two years with no choir with the fact that we were able to grow and rise above those circumstances rise above everything all the challenges that we’ve faced it’s amazing to see all the progress that we’ve done,” says Kamwendo.
The school’s deputy head Vannesa Govender commended the choir’s uniquely African repertoire and hard work for their success.
“The best part of performing internationally is our repertoire is so different and it’s so unique to Africa and people celebrate our culture, celebrate what we have to offer and really get to know what African music is about. Because the repertoire is so diverse in so many different ways. So it starts with pop, it has classical, it has a lot of the African songs going on and there was a unique part of the program that Bernard Kruger put together wrote and put together for the boys and that was the most popular piece,” says Govender.
