Voxcom Femme Conservatory of Music UPH Achieved Two Gold Medals on BICF 2017

UPH?s representative in Bali International Choir Festival (BICF) 2017 has successfully brought home great achievements. Aside from 3 gold medals from the UPH Choir team, the Voxcom Femme team from the Conservatory of Music UPH also brought home 2 gold medals.

This annual competition has been held since 2012, and this year has officially become the sixth time BICF was held. BICF 2017 was held on July 14-20, 2017 with a total of 7000 participants from 140 choirs coming from 14 different countries, and 14 panelists who are choir experts, coming from various countries. This festival is consisted of 23 categories and is divided into 2 rounds. The competition itself consisted of 3 rounds: Open Competition, Championship, and Grand Prix and for choir teams who are able to meet the predetermined score can compete to the next round and finally, there will be one team who will be chosen to compete in the Grand Prix.

The Ensemble team who represented CoM UPH for this? year BICF was Voxcom Femme, a female vocal ensemble with its 10 members, and 2 vocal professors. These 10 students have previously been auditioned and most of them are students of the CoM Vocal Performance, Composition, and PAPM Concentration, and there is also one student from the Faculty of Law.

Voxcom Femme had participated in the Acapella Category and has managed to obtain two gold medals for open competition and championship level. Voxcom Femme was also chosen to perform at the Grand Prix.

Voxcom Femme brought two pieces during open competition; they were ?Bottom of the River? and ?This is My Wish? which was arranged by Nadia Delarosa (member of Voxcom Femme). During the Championship and Grand Prix, Voxcom brought another piece called ?Circle of Life?, which was also arranged by Nadia Delarosa. The preparation for this festival had been pretty intense, both for the song itself, as well as the choreography. Supports given by the lecturers of CoM UPH have also added the team?s readiness for this competition, with two of them coming from their vocal professors, Cassia Agata and Sarita Wurangian, who were also the conductors of this team. 

For UPH, BICF 2017 becomes the first time for them to join this kind of festival. The original goal of CoM UPH is to seek for new experiences and the final goal is for these students to be able to compete in an international choir competition abroad.

For CoM UPH, these achievements have become a great encouragement for them to work harder to reach their next goal, and it has also given them valuable experiences in performing with other choirs, both national and international.

The passion to work for better achievements is also felt by the members of Voxcom Femme. Following is one of their testimonies:

?Participating in BICF is very interesting for me because I get to see many other choirs; not just from Indonesia, but also from other countries. In BICF I also get to meet lots of amazing people from the music industry. I learn a lot from them and other choirs who have also performed amazingly, and it motivates me to become even better in the future.? (Tyasta Pangalila, Music Education 2016) (rh)

The Award for Acapella category in Open Competition and Championship Level (left); Participants of Voxcomm Femme performed on Bali International Choir Festival 2017 (right)