Two Delta singers have sung their way to international acclaim with the British Columbia Girls Choir, helping the group win the Children’s Choir of the World award last month.
North Delta singers Julia Copeman-Haynes and Rebecca Meitz travelled to Wales with 38 other girls in early July for the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, a world-renowned choral competition founded in 1947 that saw 12 children’s choirs from eight countries compete this year.
The British Columbia Girls Choir competed in a number of categories, placing first for senior children’s choir competition and third in the folksong competition. They were tied in points with the Hereford Cathedral Girls Choir of England, and ultimately both groups shared the international title.
For Copeman-Haynes, who graduated high school this year and will be leaving the girls choir, winning the title was a welcome surprise.
“I felt so incredibly lucky to be participating in the festival in the first place that winning left me pretty much speechless,” Copeman-Haynes told the North Delta Reporter in an email. “I couldn’t be more proud to have spent the last four years of my life being a part of [British Columbia Girls Choir], and to have it pay off in such a spectacular way in my final weeks with the group.”
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Meitz, who still attends Seaquam Secondary, agreed.
“Honestly I still can’t believe it,” she said in a press release. “All the girls in my choir worked so hard on this tour and our music. It was amazing for that to be recognized in such an incredible way.”
“I would love to go on another tour with the choir before I graduate,” she continued. “I think this group of girls can do so much and this tour has only proved it.”
And that seems to be in the cards, according to choir director Fiona Blackburn.
“I have been directing the choir for many years and every new season brings an anticipation of new singers and new sounds,” Blackburn said in a press release. “Now that we have won our first international prize, the world is our oyster and we can hardly wait to represent Canada again.”
grace.kennedy@northdeltareporter.com
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