Barrington choir medals at international festival

The Barrington Children's Choir, founded by artistic director Peggy Crawford, was awarded Silver and Bronze Awards at the Golden Gate International Youth Choral Festival, held July 8-14, in Berkeley, Calif.

The Chamber Choir placed second in the Folk Competition for its performance of “Shenandoah” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and third in the Historical Competition for “Bist du bei mir” and “Mattinata.”

Sixteen choristers from BCC attended the Golden Gate International Youth Choral Festival, one of America's most celebrated gatherings of young singers. It attracts choirs from all over the world to perform individually and collectively, compete and build international friendships. More than 600 young vocal artists came from 12 countries and four continents to attend this year's festival to sing in a 640-voice combined choir which performed collaborative repertoire learned during the festival. BCC Chamber Choristers included Kristen Cardella, Camille Carso, Emma Davies, Sylvia Eltherington, Emily Fuller, Alex Guhde, Grace Hayes, Lizzie Holzknecht, Meredith McDonnell, Kellie Mullany, Kayla Ruppe, Maddie Stagnito, Johanna Stegvik, Melanie Tomal, Libby Wright and Madeline Vines.

Founded in 1991, The Golden Gate Festival remains the only opportunity for children's and youth choirs to meet and compete on an international level in the United States. This year, artistic director Robert Geary of San Francisco's well-known Piedmont East Bay Choir hosted the event aided by feature conductors, Stephen Leek of Australia and Maria Guinand of Venezuela.

Also, this year, BCC celebrated its 25th anniversary of developing children in concepts of music learning and artistic performance. It is an auditioned choir averaging 160 choristers in grades two through 12 each year from 20 surrounding Northwest communities. It is comprised of several levels of choirs including Noel, Intermediate Ensemble, Chamber and Bel Canto. Each choir rehearses weekly and performs for civic, church and corporate events in addition to BCC's annual winter and spring concerts. The choir has performed in England, Austria, Hungary, Italy as well as various locations in the United States that include Mackinac Island, New Orleans and San Francisco.

For information on the Barrington Children's Choir, visit www.barringtonchildrenschoir.org.

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