Joina City hosts choral festival

Friday explode to life as more than 250 voices drawn from five local choral groups compete for honours at the festival of choirs.
With only a few days remaining before Christmas, shoppers at Joina City who should by this time be busy shopping around for Christmas will enjoy the refreshing vocals of local choral groups that will be singing mainly gospel choral songs at the final round of the festival.

The festival, which began last month, will end this Friday. The festival that is being sponsored by Kingdom Bank and supported by National Foods is a culmination of developmental initiatives by Brand Africa, a creative agency whose main purpose is developing and communicating business and talent in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular.
Director of Brand Africa Audra Wilson-Max said her agency, through its “Inspired by Zimbabwe” brand initiative, aims to promote celebration of Zimbabwe and all things Zimbabwean.

The choral festival is designed to showcase Zimbabwean vocal talent through choral music, while at the same time delivering a unique Christmas gift to the shoppers at Joina City Shopping Centre, and Zimbabweans in general, in this five-week-long programme.
“There is so much talent in this country hence through the ‘Inspired by Zimbabwe’ initiative we are exposing this talent as we celebrate local talent. I believe there is no better way to do this than through choral music” said Audra.

She added that the festival, which was running under the theme “The Magic of Christmas at Joina”, would become an annual event that should see more choral groups drawn from across Zimbabwe showcasing their talent to the Zimbabwean music lovers.

While commenting on the quality of music and performances by choral groups that are participating, Audra said choirs have been at their best while shoppers and Zimbabweans in general have shown their appreciation through positive feedback.

“We are happy with the participating choirs. They always look exquisite on the stage. The feedback we are getting is motivating. We are hearing shoppers and Zimbabweans saying thank you for bringing back something that we had missed. I believe, from this feedback, people appreciate choral music”

Choirs that have performed and made it to the final round on December 23, 2011 so far include Budiriro, Kuwadzana, Highfield and New Life.
For the qualifying rounds, a panel of three judges and the vote of the public have decided the finalists.
Besides promoting local talent, Audra said the programme also aims to revive the spirit of celebrating Christmas through choral music.

“We are trying to revive the spirit of celebrating the magic of Christmas which is something that we as Zimbabweans had missed for a long time due to harsh economic conditions in previous years,” said Audra
Choirs are allowed to sing three songs with one being the set piece “Gloria”.

Choral music is an early form of music mainly sung in churches without the accompaniment of instruments.
A choral group comprises at least four people but can have members in excess of 50. Usually a choir master is required to direct the group as they sing notated songs.

According to Audra, the choice of choral music was mainly driven by the fact that pure vocals are well blended without the interference of instruments.
“Choral music is beautiful music which allows you to appreciate and enjoy the voices as they are without instruments,” said Audra.