South African-based choir, Bokamoso Arts Institute, has hoisted the South African flag with flying colours at the World Choir Games in Korea. The Mabopane-based music and arts group has been crowned the world champions at this year’s edition of the World Choir Games which ended on Thursday.
As an Institution we sang two categories so far and we got God Medal for both of them (C28 – Scenic Folklore and C8 – Mixed Choirs) Bokamoso Arts Institute – Gold Medalists. #bulapelo#bokamosoartsinstitute#bai#WCG2023 pic.twitter.com/PwkU35k2qG
— Bokamoso Arts Institute (@BokamosoArts) July 7, 2023
The games, which invite all non-professional choirs of the world to participate, took place in the city of Gangneung, in the Gangwong province – the second Korean city after Busan in 2002 to host the world’s largest international choir competition.
After a very careful selection process, Bokamoso, who were only established in 2021 by its President Tiro Mpane, made it to the world stage.
Up against some of the best in the world, the group’s PR Officer, Gift Mabuza, says it was not an easy competition.
Mabuza says to stand out they had to alter their sound, unlearn some of things and introduce new elements. He says it was this that catapulted them to the championship, collecting three of the four gold medals collected by South Africa at the games.
“It’s not the normal sound that as African we have. The choir had to go through a transition from this natural sound that we as African have to a sound classified as a western sound. There was a lot of learning for us a choristers to say use this technique, try that. I want to believe that us singing, to stand out, we know how South African sound is and it was not easy. We really, really had to unlearn a lot of things, how do I resonate? And this time, it was totally different. And that is what made us different,” explains Mabuza.
“We competed in three categories and in all the categories we got gold medals in all of them and being crowned the world champions for 2023,” he adds.
Competing against some of the best choirs from Sweden, USA, Romania, Belgium, Slovakia, Ukraine, Thailand, China, among others, from overseas, as well as groups from Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Botswana in Africa, South Africa had Bokamoso, City of Roses Choir and St Mary’s DSG Choir.
Mabuza says the institution is involved in developing communities through music by participating in various choral activities in the country. He says the group aims to unearth talent from local community members and expose it to a broader musical performance space.
To improve the standard of living of artists by creating projects and productions that will empower members and the community around Mabopane and Soshanguve is the mission of the Bokamoso Arts Institute, as well as to encourage cross-cultural participation of all ethnic, cultural, language, religious and socio-economic groups.
Some of the groups achievements include receiving the Africa sings award for immense contribution to African choral music in October 2022; winning the overall best performance at the Tshwane Choral Music Association in December 2022; as well as winning the overall best performance at the Kuhle Kwethu Arts Festival last year December.
The World Choir Games are expected to be hosted in Auckland in New Zealand next year and Mabuza says they hope to defend their championship when the times comes.
