The second edition of the annual choral festival organised by the Centre for National Culture in the Western Region came off on Friday, July 18 at the performance hall of the centre.
The choral festival which is an initiative of the Centre is aimed at promoting choral music among the youth of Takoradi and its environs, and to make it an attractive genre as well.
Seven choral music groups participated in this year’s event. They are Wamco Choir, Ghapoha, Latter Day Saints and Efiakuma Methodist Circuit Singing band.
The rest are King of Kings Choral group, Fijai SHS and Western Forties Choirs.
In a welcome speech, the acting Western Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture, Mr. Stephen Sedofu, said choral music had many benefits but had been disregarded for so long, and that the Choral Festival was just one of the means to make it a preferred choice of genre in music circles.
Enumerating some of its advantages, Mr Sedofu noted that scientific research had shown that choral music helped in developing the listening skills of individuals.
He attributed this to the ability of individual members of the choir to listen to the various parts being played by other members for a harmonious coordination, remarking “choral music is very useful to the human race”.
“Those who benefit most from choral music is senior citizens. Choral music helps those aging to have active mind and good lung capacity. It also helps to reduce memory loss as well as helps to develop the confidence of the members in a group,” he stated.
Mr Sedofu said lack of sponsorship hampered the organisation of the festival. “I would however use this platform to appeal to our guests here to consider owning the Choral Music Festival so as to make the festival grow from strength to strength” he stated.
The Metropolitan Co-ordinating Director for National Culture, Mr. Samuel Yirenkyi Appiah, who was the chairman for the occasion also appealed to the centre to organise the festival at least twice a year to help promote choral music in the region.
He encouraged the youth to take interest in choral music instead of other foreign genres which had bad influence on their morals.
