On Thursday, 4 August 2016, South Africans will see three top university choirs sing of their best in the Eastern Cape regional of Varsity Sing, a new choral competition on kykNET.
Following last week’s elimination of UCT, this week’s episode will have the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) sing-off with Rhodes University and out-of-towners Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).
The three choirs perform at the Feather Market Hall in Port Elizabeth, while judges Loyiso Bala, Christo Burger and straight-talking Marvin Kernelle have the task of selecting just two of the three choirs to progress to the semi-finals. For this regional round, the ever-bouncing entertainer Emo Adams sits in the guest judge seat.
The choirs will perform for the judges over two episodes before one choir will be eliminated in next week’s episode. First up in tonight’s non-elimination episode, are the students of NMMU, who showcase a very big sound.
They boom through a performance of Great God Almighty, led by choir conductor Junita Lamprecht-Van Dijk, to mostly positive feedback from the judges. It is probably the best performance of the night. Their sopranos however, having the biggest showing in the sound of the choir, over-shadowing the talent of some the choir’s other lines. Through the performance, the choir is able to express nuances with loud and soft singing. Burger comments that the song is a good test of their singing dynamics.
Next up is the historic Rhodes Chamber Choir, understood to be one the oldest university choirs in the country. They are a smaller group and are lead by Dr Andrew-John Bethke, who is also the director of music at Grahamstown Cathedral. They sing one his own compositions, Halalisa, where they showcase the choral talent of swaying while singing.
They are a choir that sounds like it has too many individual voices and too many singular sounds. Burger comments that it is harder to achieve big, uniform sounds with a smaller choir. Kernelle calls them out for their swaying; pointing out that their movement was out of sync, with some having more motion than others.
NMMU are third up on the singing podium. They are a choir that reflects the diversity of their university with a proportional representation composition. They have six campuses across three provinces. The choir consists of 10 members from each campus. Choir practice must be a logistical nightmare. Led by choir conductor Sibusiso Shongwe, they gave a satisfactory performance of the Afrikaans piece Op Die Rante.
Varsity Sing premieres at 8.30pm on Thursday nights on kykNET. Click here for the season’s full schedule.
By Wendyl Martin
Weekend Argus
