Photography credits: A – Team Photography
The Cape Malay Choir Board (CMCB) choral season has ended almost as quickly as it started.
We waited all year with great excitement and anticipation, and it’s done and dusted over two weekends, with only the field events of the Grand Finale taking place at Athlone Stadium on November 30th.
Ottoman Sporting Club is the deserved choral Season Finale champions. Simply the best, a cut above the rest!
Otties won the highest percentage awards for all the individual items over the three sections, except the junior solo. On Sunday night, they walked away with 1st prizes in the Combined chorus, Moppie (Comic song), and Nederlandse lied categories for a total of 27 points.
Jonge Studente finished in 2nd place on 18 points. The season’s surprise package, Suburban LG Boys, was in 3rd place on 13 points.
Marines completed the top 4 with a creditable 12 points.
After their haul of 34 points in their section, which carries forward to the Grand Finale, the Spartans (Ottomans) must be hot favourites to claim the Silver Fez (Koefieyyah)!
Though the tough old warhorse, Ahmed Ismail and his Jonge Studente still stand in their way.
In my personal capacity, I want to say that this year’s end-of-season format did not quite work as what many hoped for.
Yoh, daai CTICC is ‘n expensive plek!
The effort to cover the venue’s astronomical cost greatly burdens the organisation and its community based choirs, many who already struggling just to field a team.
As much as our paying public loves and supports the competition, paying R35 for a can of cooldrink, R45 for parking and R25 for a packet of chips just makes it too expensive for people to attend.
Ons sal ‘n anne plan moet maak!
Also, rather give us our normal Top 8 and President’s Cup format. A lesson learnt. It was tried and it did not work. Move on.
Back to the weekend’s competition.
Once again, amazing standards and quality of choral singing by all choirs. We can compete with anyone in the rest of the world.
Ons kan sing, my mense en onse youngsters is gevaarlik! What phenomenal talents we have coming through! It is a joy to see Nederlandse lied singers with crystal clear voices full of karinkels. Lekker man!
Suburban LG Boys joined the CMCB at the beginning of this year. Many mistakenly wrote them off.
LG Boys Club chairman Achmat Manzoni says, “I want to thank the CMCB for allowing us to be a part of this organisation. It only made us a better choir than what we were before. We were motivated to up our game (to suit the high quality of the competition) and appreciated the encouragement and support from all the other choirs in the organisation.
“We are over the moon with our achievements for our 1st season. A big shukran to our sponsor, Suburban Hardware in Lansdowne, our Exco, Yusuf November, Allie Boltman, Abdullah Sulaiman, Ismail Kelly, Riedewaan and the awesome ladies of our working committee, Soraya Boltman, Latiefa AbdullahAliyah Abdullah, Hajiera November, Kauthar and Rashieda Manzoni. Without them, we could never have achieved these results.”
He adds, “A big shout-out to the Richards family, Boeta Fuad Richards, Yunus Richards and Fuad Richards Jr. Their hard work, dedication and guidance brought us here!”
Third place against the best choirs in the Malay choir fraternity is a great achievement. Hulle was kwaai en het geskrik vir niks!
I also think that the CMCB should seriously consider awarding points in the junior solo category. The junior soloist rehearses just as hard as everybody else. You have to reward the hard work of our youth properly.
In the past we had big choirs, many more than 100 men on stage with much smaller bands than we have today.
Today, we have smaller choirs with big ensembles of musicians, which cost choirs a fortune.
These big bands cause most of the sound issues as well.
Do we really need this big number of musicians on stage?
If you consider the points allocation for your band in the criteria, does it justify the exorbitant expenses we incur?
I firmly believe that we must go back to the drawing board when it comes to our music.
The CMCB choirs dished up truly great Malay choir singing, thankfully reminding us that our tradition and culture are alive and well.
A personal highlight throughout the competition was that the majority of senior soloists were born and bred in our communities. No expensive operatic imports, just naturally gifted kinners van die Cape Flats!
The choral part of the competition is done, nou gaan ons march virrie Koefieyah, InnieKaap. Don’t miss it, djy gat spyt wies!
InnieKaap’s Facebook Break
We have been overwhelmed by people wanting to know where the InnieKaap Facebook page has gone.
Unfortunately, we had to deactivate the page due to unauthorised downloads of videos and conmen using the InnieKaap brand to approach businesses for donations and sponsorships. Mense, this isn’t us!
We hope to be able to sort out these issues, and get back onto social media soon.
In the meantime, don’t forget to tune into the InnieKaap Culture Hour show on Radio786 (100.4fm) on Friday nights at 9pm.
Also, keep an eye out for the digital version every week on the Daily Voice Facebook page.