Yes…Good and proud news this morning came from the Island of the Gods, Bali. The Gema Rafflesia Student Choir of the University of Bengkulu successfully won Gold Medal III at the international standard Choir event held in Badung-Bali on 25-29 July 2023.
Receiving this good news, the Rector through Vice Rector for Resources Yefriza, S.E, MPPM, Ph.D and Head of the Bureau of Planning, Teaching, and Student Affairs, Ir. Titin Rahmawati, M.Si immediately requested that the news of this success be disseminated to the entire UNIB academic community and the Bengkulu community in general.
For your information, in September 2022, the Gema Raflesia Student Choir UNIB successfully won the Gold B Medal and was crowned 2nd Place, Runner Up Champion Folklore Category at the 2nd Soegijapranata Choral Festival 2022 which was held at Albertus Building, Soegijapranata Catholic University, Semarang.
The 12th Bali International Choir Festival 2023 is a prestigious international event attended by thousands of participants from various regions in Indonesia as well as from abroad, including the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Italy, China, Taiwan, Spain and Germany.
The event was held at the Giri Nata Mandala Cultural Hall, Puspem Badung, the GKPB Galang Ning Hyang Abianbase Church, the Gosana Kerta Room – Badung Regent’s Office, and the Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel Kuta.
The chairman of the Organizing Committee, Frederich Henoch Samalang, said that the vision and mission of this event include building choirs in Indonesia and the world through a choir festival that involves competition, education, collaboration, and concert activities as well as building complete human character through artistic activities.
“We also want to build friendship between Indonesian choir participants and the world choir community while creating extensive and intimate mutual networking. “Providing a festival in Indonesia that is of international standard with high quality, trusted by judges who are known to have a world reputation,” said Frederich.
This event was organized by the Bandung Choral Society in Indonesia, a choral organization whose patron and advisor is Komjen Pol. Dr. Petrus R. Golose, the head of the Indonesian National Narcotics Agency and also the former Bali Police Chief.
At the opening ceremony of the 12th Bali International Choir Festival which was held at the Discovery Plaza Hotel, Kuta on Tuesday (26/7), Komjen Pol. Dr. Petrus R. Golose was present with the Artistic Director of the Bandung Choir Society (BICF) Tommyanto Kadisaputra, and accompanied by the Vice Governor of Bali, Dr. Ir. Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, M.Si, together hit the gong as a symbol of the inauguration of this event.
The categories being contested at the 12th Bali International Choir Festival 2023 are Children’s Choir, Teenager’s Choir, Mixed Youth Choir, Mixed Choir, Female Choir, Male Choir, Senior Choir, Musica Sacra, Traditional Spiritual, Music of Religions, Pop & Jazz, Folksong, Vocal Group, Solo Children, Solo Youth, Solo Adult, Solo Classical Music, Solo Sacred Music, Solo Seriosa Indonesia, and Solo Popular Music.
the juries are Tommyanto Kandisaputra (Indonesia), Agastya Rama Listya, Ph.D. (Indonesia), Dr. Andrea Angelini (Italy), Dr. Beverly Shangkuan-C heng (Philippines), Dr. Cameron F. LaBarr (USA), Jean Baptiste-Bertrand (France), and many more.
The Gema Raflesia Choir of UNIB at this event included the song “Janger” arranged by Budi Susanto Yohanes and the song “Cikala Le Pong” arranged by Ken Steven, with Conductor Gutman Togatorop who is also the Coach.
UNIB choir’s neat and stunning performance in front of the International Jury led them to win Gold Medal III and this extraordinary achievement should be appreciated by all parties and an inspiration and motivation for all other UNIB students.
“We are very happy that Gema Raflesia UNIB has made another achievement and the achievement this time is of international standard. Of course, this is very proud for all of us. “I congratulate and hope that this achievement can be an inspiration and motivation for other students to achieve even more achievements in the future so that UNIB becomes more advanced and superior,” said Vice Rector for Student Affairs, Prof. Dr. Candra Irawan, S.H, M.Hum. [Author: Purna Herawan/PR].