The Old Joes’ Choir which comprises of past Students of St. Joseph’s College, Colombo 10, recently took part in the 8th World Choir Games held in Riga, Latvia. The Games featured 27,000 Participants from 74 countries and over 465 choirs from around the world.
The Choir competed in two categories namely the Barbershop Choirs and the Musica Sacra (Sacred Music) with accompaniment. The Choir won a Gold medal and was crowned as World Champions in the Barbershop choir category having accumulated a total of 91 points.
The Old Joes’ Choir was also able to secure a silver medal in the Musica Sacra with accompaniment category scoring a total of 68.13 Points.
Speaking to the media on the Choir’s successes, Project Chairperson for the World Choir Games campaign of the Old Joes Choir, Rehan Almeida said “The Choir was overwhelmed with the result. He said that “the Choir has been truly blessed by God given the countless number of miracles that they experienced through their preparation, not to mention having to cancel the project, only to have it miraculously resurrected through the grace of God.”
He also said “the Choir owes its thanks to the immense amount of hard work put in by the Choristers together with the unimaginable support given to the project by the key figures who featured in the preparation which includes some of the prominent members in the field of performing arts in Sri Lanka.”
Finally Rehan wished to convey the heartfelt thanks of The Old Joes’ Choir to all those who through their well wishes and support made the project successful.
This endeavor has involved 6 months of practice for the members of the choir along with a fundraiser concert which featured leading Sri Lankan vocal groups such as the Soul Sounds, The Revelations and The De Lannerolle Brothers who have already represented Sri Lanka on the world stage.
The choir’s choral directors Eshantha Peiris, Geethika Cooray and Nicole Liyanage mentioned that they were “proud of the team’s effort and are confident about a strong and sustainable future. They mentioned that they are in the process of training new successive choral directors to take the choir forward and also hope to explore the barbershop choir space further”.
