UST Singers reap international awards

MANILA, Philippines – The UST Singers consists of students from different colleges and faculties of the University of Sto. Tomas. Under the mentorship of Prof. Fidel Gener Calalang Jr. (standing, middle) of the UST Conservatory of Music, the group has consistently astonished audiences with their renditions of music of different genres and from all periods. Since its founding in 1992, the UST Singers has gone on several concert tours around Canada, the US and Europe and won more than 45 top prizes in different international choral festivals, including the “Best Choir in the World” at the 2001 World Choral Festival in Puebla, Mexico and the Grand Prize at the 149th Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales in 1995. At the 30th Mundi Cantant International Choral Competition held at Olomouc, Czech Republic in 2002, the UST Singers won First Prize in all the five categories they competed in. Their most recent achievements in April and May 2010 were at the Bangor International Festival where they won first prizes in the four categories they joined, and at the Fleischmann International Trophy Competition where they got two awards, one for outstanding performance of a piece and the most coveted PEACE trophy, described by organizers as an award given to the choir “who touched the hearts of all who heard them.”