Orjwan Choir wins Gold Medal at Brahms International Winter Festival
Orjwan Choir won the gold medal after harvesting the first place in the adult category for its participation in the Brahms International Winter Choral Festival, which was held in the Austrian city of Mortsochlak.
Maestro Beshr Issa, the choir leader, won the Distinguished Leader Award, while pianist Shatha Tohmeh won the Excellent Musical Accompaniment Award.
Director and founder of the choir, Maestro Issa, indicated in a statement to a SANA reporter that after the choir won the silver medal last year for its participation in the International Peace Choir Festival, which was held in Vienna, Austria, the festival management decided to recommend the choir to participate in the Brahms International Winter Choral Festival. This festival coincides with the 190 anniversary of the birth of the famous German composer Johannes Brahms.
Issa added: The participation of the Orjwan Choir in the festival, which was held via the Internet, was through two singing works that were filmed and recorded in Tartous Archaeological Museum.
Issa stated that the choir’s victory in this competition, is evidence of the craftsmanship and ingenuity of its members, and an inevitable result of the amount of work, effort, passion, and our view of music as a main carrier of thought, culture, and civilization.
He pointed out that it is not the first time that the choir has won an international award, as in 2019 it won the Golden Olive Branch award at the International Choir Festival of Musical Theater that was held in Greece, and the first prize at the International Art Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2021.
It is noteworthy that the festival was held between the 9th and the 19th of last January, was attended by 170 choirs from 24 countries, and the jury, which includes a group of the most famous and skilled musicians, singers, choir and orchestra leaders in the world. The winning of the Orjwan Choir with the gold medal was announced in mid-February.
The Orjwan Choir, founded by Issa in 2015, includes about 250 male and female singers, from 7 to 50 years old, and sings in more than 25 international languages with its three choirs (children, adolescents, and adults). It has many contributions inside and outside Syria. Issa also founded the Music Friends Association in Tartous as a cultural civil society in 2016.
Issa signed two choir twinning agreements, the first with the Greek Quarries Choir in March last year and the second with the Venice Youth Orchestra in May of this year.
Inas Abdulkareem