The University of Santo Tomas Singers (UST Singers), under the baton of its founder and conductor Prof. Fidel Calalang Jr., won the Grand Prix, the Golden David Trophy, for the Best Choir at the 4th Florence International Choir Competition in Florence, Italy.
The 32-member ensemble from Asia’s oldest university bested 12 other choirs from different countries such as the USA, England, Estonia, Japan, Bulgaria, China, Poland, Armenia, Hong Kong, and Spain.
The UST Singers also won four First Prizes in the categories for Sacred Music, Mixed Choirs Adult, Modern and Contemporary Music, and Popular, Folk, Gospel, and Barbershop Ensembles.
Prof. Calalang was also awarded special prizes for the Best Interpretation of the Obligatory Piece (“Vergine, O Natura Sacra” by Gaetano Lorandi) and his choral arrangement for solo and choir of “My Heart and I” by Ennio Morricone won the Best Contemporary Composer’s Arrangement.
The choir soloist Roberto Tagalog won the Best Male Soloist Performance award for his rendition of Ruben Federizon’s “Gabaq-an.”
The jury consisted of seven choral experts from Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands. Competition performances took place at historic venues such as the Palazzo Vecchio, Salon Dei Cinquecento, the Basilica de Croce, the Basilica de Santa Trinita, and the auditorium Sant’Apollonia.
The UST Singers, consisting of students and alumni from the different colleges and faculties of UST, recently concluded its 28th International Concert Tour last week, covering different European countries and earning raves and ovations in the different cities they performed in.
The Singers was founded in 1992 by Prof. Calalang, faculty of the UST Conservatory of Music, and has since embarked on 28 international concert tours, winning for the country and the university 80 top prizes from different choral competitions worldwide, including the Choir of the World Grand Prize in the UK in 1995 and 2010.
