Recently, at the 13th China International Chorus Festival and the Chorus Education Conference of the International Federation for Choral Music the Peiyang Chorus of Tianjin University performed well in the Chorus Festival, attracting tremendous attention, winning awards and eventually winning the championship.
The China International Chorus Festival (CICF) approved by the State Council, was held by the China Arts & Entertainment Group and the Ministry of Culture. Since 1992, it has continued for 24 years, and it is a Grade A world choral event as determined by the International Federation for Choral Music. It is the only national-level and global chorus festival with world recognition at present in China.
The current China International Chorus Festival attracted a total 238 choruses from 44 countries and regions. In total, over 11,000 choral music lovers signed up to participate. There were nearly 200 choruses which performed in the group performance events. There was no lack of world-class choruses from the United States, France, Israel and Eastern Europe. After 4 days of tense and orderly competition, evaluated by 25 experts at home and abroad, Peiyang Chorus stood out among many world-class teams and won the first place in the adult mixed chorus group. They also won top ten chorus and other awards.
In particular, the conductor of the Peiyang Chorus, a young teacher from the Arts Education Center of Tianjin University named Wen Yuchuan earned best conductor, best piano accompanist and other awards in the Chorus Festival. As a result, Peiyang Chorus won almost all the awards in the Chorus Festival, and became a Grand Slam winner. Eventually they won the championship title in the 13th China International Chorus Festival.
"In preparing for the current China International Chorus Festival, we have two big magic weapons to achieve success and win. One is the outstanding choral timbre of Peiyang Chorus, the other is the choice of the original works performed", Wen Yuchuan said. "The tradition of Peiyang Chorus never stands still, and we like to take the initiative to challenge ourselves to perform new works, hard works and good works. This time our program included two new original songs. They were two mixed chorus songs based on the excellent traditional culture of China. We want to be able to let the world learn more about China through the voices of the Peiyang Chorus.”
The program of the Peiyang Chorus, Mo Shang Sang and Three Variations indeed became the focus of attention of the national and international experts. Mo Shang Sang, created by Wen Yuchuan was an attention-grabbing work of the current China International Chorus Festival. This piece of work, based on the masterpiece of Yuefu songs of the Han Dynasty in China, describes the beauty and integrity of Qin Luofu, a mulberry-picking woman. Through adhering to a rigorous classical style the composer described the social life and the scenes of a county town, advising and urging farming in the spring, in the cultural tradition. It also shows an idealized image of traditional Chinese women who are faithful and wise. And it formed a choral narrative poem filled with the color of comedy. The Three Variations was created by Cui Wei, the Resident Composer of the Peiyang Chorus. With the melody and the tone of a famous ancient guqin music, the Three Variations on the Plum as the theme, the work featured wide variations and integrated tubular bells, bass drum, bamboo flute and other instruments into itself. The sound was magnificent, uninterrupted and shocking in its splendor and beauty.
"The Peiyang Chorus has been the setting the benchmark for domestic choruses all the time, and it leads in terms of the choral sound, the selection of works, etc," the judge of the Chorus Festival, the conductor of Chinese National Symphony, the professor of Chinese Academy of Music, Jiang Jinyi said. "In this contest, two original works of Peiyang Chorus of Tianjin University surprised me. The Chinese traditional culture is the root and soul of our nation. It is valuable that as a college student chorus, Peiyang Chorus was able to draw on the strength of the excellent traditional culture, create masterpieces as well as move and educate people with the music."
