DUBAI: Dubai Duty Free’ choral ensemble – The Dubai Duty Free Nightingales – have been awarded with the “Best A Cappella Performance” at the recently concluded ChoirFest Middle East 2019.
The competition, organised by The Fridge, took place at Gems Wellington Academy in Silicon Oasis on the afternoon of the 8th March and featured choirs from corporate, community and schools across the Middle East with two regional choirs from Syria and Jordan. Each choir performed two to three songs which were adjudicated by three world-renowned conductors and composers, Ragnar Rasmussen, Lorenzo Donati and Frank Havroy.
The 22-member Dubai Duty Free choir features full time employees representing a number of different departments, including Marketing, Finance, IT, HR, Corporate Responsibility, Customer Service and Operations.
Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO of Dubai Duty Free said; “We are thrilled to have won the ChoirFest ME Award for “Best A Cappella Performance”. The Dubai Duty Free Nightingales put so much effort into their performance and manage to fit in hours of practice while also working full time. Thanks to the organisers of ChoirFest M.E. who provide great encouragement to the participants and bring out the best in all of the choirs.”
The Dubai Duty Free Nightingales earned their award for their performances of three musical pieces of different genres, namely: the Latin praise song “Cantate Domino”, a fast-paced Argentinian song “Tangueando” and a Cebuano folk song “Rosas Pandan”.
The choral ensemble went through a 22-day training programme in the lead up to the competition with Ms. Joy Santos, the Filipina conductress who led the UAE Papal Choir during the visit of His Holiness Pope Francis in February in Abu Dhabi.
As one of the winners in this year’s competition, the choir had a special opportunity to perform their three winning songs at the ChoirFest ME Gala Concert on 9th March at the iconic Dubai Opera. As part of the evening, they also took part in the mass choral singing of the inspirational song by Pinkzebra, “Fly Away Home”, along with some 600 choir members which was conducted by Lorenzo Donati.
The Dubai Duty Free choral ensemble has participated in the ChoirFest ME for the past six years and during that time has won four times: winning the “Best Corporate Choir” three times (2015/2017/2018) and the “Most Dynamic Choir” in 2016. Says in press release
