His Majesty Academy wins competition

His Majesty Academy Senior High School on Friday won the 2014 edition of sounds of music competition held in Accra.

The annual Senior High Schools’ Choir competition, organised by the Centre for National Culture (CNC) was on the theme: "Promoting Choral Music and Songs in Schools.”

His Majesty Academy Senior High School defeated participants from other schools such as Harvard Senior High School and Twumasi Boateng Senior High Technical School to emerge the overall winner.

Participants performed four songs each including Mr Bessa Simons’s “Kpelemkpe” being the compulsory song, from which the winner was decided.

In their reaction, the elated Mr Anthony Dumenyo, Choir Master, His Majesty Academy Senior High School disclosed that they could not have achieved the feat but for the hard work, team work, support and encouragement they received from the entire school management.

He admitted that the choir felt nervous and frightened at the beginning especially when they are not so much of a choral school but later regained their composure and boldness as they progressed in the competition.

Mr Dumenyo advised students to be discipline and take their music lessons seriously as it would take them far and encouraged them to do more of extra curricula activities.

They smiled home with a trophy, certificate of participation and scheduled excursion to Shai Hills being sponsored by Wildlife Division as their prize.

The wining school is also scheduled to perform at the Ministry of Tourism Culture and Creative Art with another performance sponsored by the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA).

The runners-ups also received a trophy and a certificate of participation.

Speaking at the third edition of Sounds of Music, Mr Samuel Ashong, Acting Director, CNC, said the music competition was introduced to bring out the God given talents of young students especially when it is also a platform for them to discover themselves.

“It was also aimed at promoting choral music that will help the students to love Art and music,” he said.

Mr Ashong noted that the competition has been in existence for the past 26 years.

He said the competition being the third edition seeks to inspire, motivate and to prepare students’ for their future endeavours.

Mr Bessa Simons, Second Vice President, MUSIGA, urged the Ministry of Education to involve music in the curriculum of education as music is a benchmark to unearth great talents amongst students.

He appealed to heads of schools to help encourage choral singing activities in their schools.

Mr Simons hailed the organisers for the initiative that had brought back choral music to life just when the public thought it had died.

He challenged students to have the passion for choral music because it is a brain developer.

“Choral music develops a part of the brain,” he said.

The best behaved school’s award went to Twumasi Boateng Senior High Technical School with the best conductor award being received by Mr Anthony Dumenyo, Choir Master, His Majesty Academy Senior High School.

Fourteen schools were slated for the competition but only three turned up due to examination constraints.