2931 Salesian Sisters Go for Gold
austraLasia #2931
 
Salesian Sisters Go for Gold
 
TOKYO: 15 October 2011 -- On October 9, the school choir of the Seibi Gakuen Elementary School (Seibi means 'Resplendant Star' in reference to Our Lady) run by the Salesian Sisters won the Golden Prize at the 78th NHK National School Music Contest, placing them as the top singers in the elementary school category.
    The long-running contest, which started in 1932, hosted by NHK (the national broadcasting corporation), the Japan Society for Music Education and Japan Music Society, had a special atmosphere this year with participants also coming from the affected areas of the catastrophe on March 11.  2596 groups from elementary to high-schools from all over Japan participated in the contest which turned out to be more like a sharing of good will, with the participants dedicating their songs to those people in need.
    909 groups participated in the elementary school category and 11 groups advanced to the final competition, held on the 9th, as representatives of the different prefectures.
   The Seibi Gakuen school choir has participated in the contest for the past 26 years and has been in the finals 8 times. They received the Golden Prize for the 2nd time in 3 years. The compulsory song for all the groups was “Our Companions”, and the other song the choir chose for themselves was “I want to go to School”.  The members of the choir thought of the refugee children in different parts of the world and of the victims of the earthquake and tsunami while they practised for the event and with prayers they dedicated their songs to them. With their motto “Go for number one singing spirit”, the children also tried to live up to their school motto “Purity of heart” and “Constant efforts".
    You can imagine the joy of the sisters and the staff at the school.
    The following is the comment of the principal of the school, Sister Agnes Moriuchi Naoko: “The biggest achievement was that the children were able to grow a lot in the process.  Perhaps because of this, their songs touched their listeners”.