Magnificent Magnificat Choir from Medan

Last Sunday evening (7 August 2011), some of us had the opportunity to watch an amazing group of young people from Medan, Indonesia perform at the Holy Family Church Kajang. The performance was organised by the St Francis of Assisi and the St Thomas More church. They performed at the Divine Mercy Church on the Friday.

The group is 80 strong and is led a Capuchin priest, Fr Redemptus Benedictus Simamora. He started the choir in 1998 and the youngest to perform that night was 13 years old. We were promised a good performance but I believe most of us were overwelmed by their sheer talent and dedication. The church that night was full although I believe the majority were from outside Kajang.

Sections of the crowd before the concert

Another section of the crowd

The concert started with a rendition of two songs by Father Valentine Gompok of St Francis of Assisi. he too has a good voice and was well received by the crowd.

The choir coming taking their place

The choir performed some classical songs such as Bach's Ave Maria and compositions by Vivaldi and Tom Fettke. They also performed folk songs from the island of Sumatera, Indonesia where they come from.

A very fascinating dance

The traditional dances which they perform is also of very high quality. There is one dance from Acheh which warrants special mention and it is very very hard to do. Kudos to them for doing it so well. Apart from this, there were many other dances.

A group singing some modern songs

There were also modern gospel songs and a performance by Maria, a member of the group who won a national singing contest in Indonesia.

Maria, a member singing

An unfortunate incident happened to the group and a number of members lost their belongings such as mobile phones and cameras. There were appeals of donations to the crowd to assist them. I hope the appeal was successful.

The group is mainly made up of Batak people who is known to love singing. Most of them come from humble background and for them, this is a tough sacrifice for them as they have to undergo so much hardship to be part of the group. The determination and pride in their performance can be clearly seen and I hope that they will continue to achieve greater success.

When speaking of the group, one cannot ignore the contribution of Father Redemptus. When he leads the choir, one can see the passion and love that he has for the music as well as for his members. It is strange how God makes his calling sometimes.

For the final performance, they did Handel's Messiah, a difficult piece but executed well. It is no wonder, they received a standing ovation from the crowd. For the encore, the did Abba's Mama Mia.

Standing ovation given to them

Group photo

It was a truly amazing evening and those who did not attend have missed a great performance. It is their first performance outside of Indonesia and I get guarantee that it will not be their last. I managed to get  a clip from Youtube of their performance. The sound quality does not do justice to them. 

The clip can be watched here, http://youtu.be/-9BVOcRp4Mo.

Until the next time, cheers.