NTHU Choir recently attended the 10^th annual Vivace International Choir Festival held in Veszprem, Hungary where they performed a selection of Taiwan aboriginal music. The choir's outstanding vocal ability, melodious harmony and exquisite sound brought down the house and received the 1^st prize of Critics' Choice.

For the past ten years, the Hungarian town of Veszprem has held the Vivace International Choir Festival and attracted choirs from all over the world. The NTHU 40 person choir, under the direction of Ms. Jin-Yu Yang, performed a selection of traditional aboriginal folk songs selected groups such as the Atayal, Rukai, Bunun and Truku (Taroko). To dramatize their performance, the choir dressed in traditional aboriginal costume as well as staged traditional aboriginal dances.

Out of choirs from other countries such as Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Poland and Sweden, NTHU's Choir received the highest honor at the competition and is the first choir group from a non-Europe country to receive this honor in the history of the festival.

At the award ceremony one judge remarked that the performance, "was inspiring. It seamlessly integrated melodic vocal orchestration with beautiful dance movements to create a very moving performance. We [the jury] are truly grateful to the NTHU choir for bringing us such a stirring performance and enable us, as well as the audience, to experience Taiwan's aboriginal culture. The choir wonderfully captured the music's feeling through their angelic voices, amazing harmony, and spectacular vocal range. In particular, the performance of two soloists Zi-Yu Guo (a Electrical Engineering department junior) and Yi-Shan Yang (a Engineering and System Science department senior) were very touching. Overall, the performance communicated the message that regardless of time and place, human beings are always capable of conveying their joys and sorrows through the international language of music." Vivace Festival Director, Agnes Szalai, said the group’s performance was, "very impressive." He went on to add, "in my opinion, NTHU's act has been the best in the past ten years of holding this event."