The 14th Chung-shan Cup Golden Throat Chorus Tournament was held on Dec. 27, 2009, at National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. TKU Chorus beat other 26 teams and won the first prize with one cup and 50,000 NT. To create the sense of suspense, the judge said “Do you like Tamsui?” when announcing the winner of first prize, and then all the members of TKU Chorus screamed and cried at the same time, bringing the awarding ceremony to the climax.

Since TKU Chorus participated in non-student section to compete with other alumni choruses and professional choruses, winning the first prize showed how high level TKU Chorus is. The selected song “A Downpour” used inharmonious cluster to express marvelous sound effect, and the judges highly praised TKU Chorus in the aspects of musical performance and skills, conductor, accompaniment, and team cooperation. The assistant conductor Huang Chia-hui, a junior of Dept. of Industrial Economics, indicated that, “We tried to challenge ourselves. That’s why we joined the contest of non-student section because the competition of non-student section is harder than that of student section.” She also expressed her appreciation to the alumni members of Chorus, “Our alumni members really have wonderful voice and helped us a lot. Although their work is busy, they still came back to school to practice with us.” The leader of the alumni chorus Wen Chin-hui, an alumnus of Dept. of Mathematics, said, “The practice process is hard, but through this event, seniors can have chance to interact with juniors. In addition, we not only see junior’s hardworking, but also feel their young energy and passion.”

The leader of TKU Chorus Kao Chen-yao, a junior of Dept. of Chemistry, indicated that the senior instructor of the Chorus Lin Kun-hui is also an alumnus of Dept. of Mathematics, and his patient and careful instruction of the songs is the key to their victory. “Everyone worked very hard to present the best show. Many people even sang on the stage though they were sick,” said Kao. In order to interpret the imposing feeling of their elected song “A Downpour,” they borrowed orchestra bells, bass drum, organ, thunder sheet, and crash cymbals from TKU Wind Ensemble Club to produce the sound of violent wind and driving rain. They also used hands to create the sound of rain drops, and at the end of the song, the sound was gradually disappearing, just like the rain gradually stopped, which gave the song a perfect ending.

The judges commented that “A Downpour” is a very difficult song because it has 14 vocal parts, many more than ordinary songs. There are even 7 vocal parts in the soprano part, showing how fine and delicate work it is. “Therefore, we are really surprised at the perfect performance of TKU Chorus,” said by the judges. One of the chorus members Yen Yu, a freshman of Dept. of Chinese, had learned vocal music in senior high, and she said, “TKU Chorus is indeed a professional chorus, which improves my listening ability and sensibility toward music a lot. Apart from winning the prize, I also learned a lot of things from it.” ( ~Shu-chun Yen )