Based: Cape Town
The Choir has established itself as Ambassadors in Harmony. National tours are undertaken annually and since 1980 there have also been thirteen overseas tours and participation in eight international competitions. In seven of them, the Choir has walked away with the laurels, and has achieved a second place in Tolosa (Spain) in 2001 in the children’s division, which consisted of six previous competition winners. In Stuttgart (1993) the Choir participated in the SA Cultural Week during the International Horticultural Show, while the Choir was the guest choir at the music festivals in Detmold (Germany) in 1998 and Basle (Switzerland) in 1998. After rigorous auditioning the Choir, along with three other prominent children’s choirs, participated in SongBridge 2001 in March 2001. SongBridge 2001 formed part of a mass celebration of fifty children’s choirs at the World of Children’s Choirs 2001 in Vancouver.
The highly successful vocal group, The Voice of Angels, consists entirely of Tygerberg Children’s Choir members and is an excellent instrument to further build out the name of the Choir. A highlight was he Voice of Angels’ participation at Huisgenoot Skouspel Plus, which was broadcast on M-Net in April 2009.
The Choir has also shared the stage with fêted South African musicians and singers, including Kammersängerin Mimi Coertse, Aviva Pelham, Manuel Escorcio, De Wet van Rooyen, the Capab Orchestra in the opera “Hansel and Gretel” under the direction of Christopher Dowdeswell. Gerard Korsten directed them in “Does the noise in my Head” by Hans Roosenschoon.
South African composers have also written special works for the choir, including “Lux Eterna” from the “Youth Requiem” (Pieter-Louis van Dyk), “Driesiemandorie” (Pieter de Villiers), “Kô laat ons sing”, “Magnificat” ,”Caritas” and more recently “Sky” (Hans Roosenschoon) and the “Tygerberg Mass” (Johan Cloete).
For SongBridge 2001 (Canada) Hendrik Hofmeyr composed a commissioned work, “Tu Pauperum Refugium”. This is a work for equal voices and a double choir. On instruction from Erkki Pohjola the three other choirs – Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir of Canada, Odawara Children’s Choir of Japan and Moran Choir of Israel – as well as the audience had a part in this performance. The duration of the work is approximately 10 minutes, and the composer strengthened its character by making use of body movements and tongue sounds. He also preferred the other choirs to be placed in the auditorium to echo the focal point of peace throughout the auditorium in contrast with the choral- like idea of the rest of the work.
World famous conductors such as Eric Ericson (Sweden), Erkki Pohjola (Finland), Roy Wales (England), Michael Bojesen (Denmark) and Kare Hanken (Norway) have heard the Choir or have used them in master classes and have all spoken in the most glowing terms of the superb musicality of the Choir.
