Qatar’s leading youth choir has just won Best Video in the prestigious Michelangelo International Music Festival online edition Winter 2021. The Qatar Youth Choir recorded To Sit and Dream, by Rosephanye Powell, for its “Walk with Me” fundraising program, which highlights the plight of child refugees and aims to support their education. Every element of the video was created by the choir, with singers Rehan Valsan Pillay and Ghita El Mernissi devising, directing, filming, and editing the final product. Soprano leader Nayna Nair takes the starring role, and all the actors are choristers.
The multi-award-winning Qatar Youth Choir, which is sponsored by the Swiss International School, represented Qatar at the World Choral Expo in Lisbon in 2019. It currently has some spaces available for young adults aged 13+ who love to sing, while its sister ensemble, Qatar Junior Choir, is also recruiting singers, aged 8-12 years. In December, Qatar Junior Choir released its own world premiere, of Bela Bartok’s poignant Don’t Leave Me, set to animation, also for Walk with Me.
Alena Pyne, who directs both choirs, says:
Evidence shows that children and young people who join choirs are likely to be or to become high achievers, disciplined, and able to focus. They learn not only musical skills, but the organization, the art of listening, teamwork, and adaptability: skills they take into their other studies and carry forward in their everyday lives.
Source and image credit: Press Release
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