The Swara Wadhana Choir of UNY won a gold medal at the Leonardo Da Vinci International Choral Festival choral competition in Florence, Italy,  6on July 13-16, 2021. This activity was organized by the online Leonardo Da Vinci International Choral Festival Artistic Committee. This competition is quite prestigious in Europe with judges from various countries, including David Sleter from Australia, Jacek Sykulski from Poland, Eva Ugalde from Spain, and Marjan Kataroski from Macedonia, and was attended by 25 participating teams from various countries. In this competition, Swara Wadhana UNY participated in 4 categories: Youth and University Choir, Sacred Music, Popular, Folk, Gospel, Barbershop, Jazz and Modern Ensembles, and Modern and Contemporary Music. Swara Wardhana brought two teams, namely Team 2019 and Team 2021, where the 2019 Team participated in the Sacred Music category, and the 2021 Team participated in the Youth and University Choir, Popular, Folk, Gospel, Barbershop, Jazz and Modern Ensembles, and Modern and Contemporary Music categories. As a result, UNY won a gold medal in the Youth and University Choir category. In addition, UNY also won 2 silver medals in the Sacred Music and Modern and Contemporary Music categories and five bronze medals in the Popular, Folk, Gospel, Barbershop, and Jazz and Modern Ensembles categories. In the Grand Prix round, UNY won 6th place with a score of 87.55.

According to UNY's Swara Wadhana Choir coach, Driyastuti Yogyaningrum, the Swara Wadhana Choir team started practicing from February to June accompanied by conductor Lukas Gunawan Arga Rakasiwi, who is an alumni of S1 majoring in Music, Faculty of Language and Arts and Masters in Postgraduate Learning Technology at UNY. In addition, the Swara Wadhana team also sang the song Canticum Novum with composer Ivo Antognini, O sapientia with composer Tadeja Vulc and an Indonesian song Gayatri with composer Bagus S. Utomo in the Folklore category.

Quoted from its website, the festival's concept is focused on Leonardo Da Vinci's personality, especially in choosing the place where Leonardo's father, Ser Piero, a notary in Florence and where Leonardo himself worked. Florence – the birthplace of the Renaissance, known worldwide as a UNESCO World Heritage city, with its beautiful historical, architectural, and artistic heritage, forms a stunning backdrop for this festival with Leonardo Sagliocca as Chairman and Artistic Director. (Dedy, ts-Shafia, Arfian)

Source Link : https://www.uny.ac.id/berita/swara-wadhana-uny-raih-gold-medal-di-italy