The Ballanta Academy of Music, in collaboration with the German embassy, has completed a school singing competition for Senior Secondary Schools in Freetown at the British Council, Tower Hill.
The Ballanta Academy of Music’s Artist in Residence, Joseryl Beckley, intimated that the school competition was part of the Academy’s activities to look for talents in all kinds of music and that it was in that direction they organised the competition. Noting that the participating schools sang Hip Hop, Gospel and Indigenous songs, drawn from the Services Secondary School and the Sierra Leone Grammar School while few primary and secondary schools in the Western Area were present as observers.
Judges of the competition were Dr Hillary Felony who is director of Music at the Academy, Joserie Beckley, and Jimmy Bangura while the German Ambassador to Sierra Leone Rov Saleman and wife were guests of honour.
Both schools sang their various songs and the judges pronounced the result with Services emerging the best school with 182 points for gospel, 276 for Hip Hop and 229 points for Indigenous songs.
Jimmy Bangura explained about the importance of music and some techniques involved in stage performance, he also expressed disappointment at the poor performance of the Sierra Leone Grammar School and highlighted some of their mistakes during the competition.
The German Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Rov Saleman, distributed certificates.