The St Mary’s Singers is the official school choir of the St Mary’s Diocesan school for Girls in Pretoria.

Here are some of their highlights:

In 2008 the choir reached the finals of the ATKV choir competition in Cape Town and was awarded the “Best performance of an African piece by a choir”.  The choir continuously strives to make choral music part of school life by performing at school and by representing the school at numerous festivals. To contribute to the choir, St Mary’s DSG Pretoria established the “St Mary’s Singers Choral Programme” which entitle girls, who pass an audition, to be taught singing at a very high level. The girls of this programme form part of the choir and their singing tuition is mainly focused on Italian opera arias. 

In 2012, year the choir’s year started off in the previous September last year with a bang. The girls had their eyes focused the one thing and that was to be the best girls’ choir in the country. With that goal in mind, together with amazing discipline and hard work, the girls put in many hours. At every concert they realized what it means to sing and make music on stage, something that other school choirs rarely get to do.

At the finals of the 2012 ATKV competition the choir sang three Afrikaans works by South African composers and one traditional African piece. In true St Mary’s Singers tradition the choir mesmerized the audience with their subtle musicality and wonderfully mature sound. At the nail-biting prize giving, the choir exulted in loud yells of joy when they were announced as the “BESTE MEER ERVARE DOGTERSKOOR” (Best more advanced girls’ choir). The girls also won the certificate for the best rendition of a traditional African work. We are very proud of each and every girl in the choir for their achievement in being the top girls’ choir out of 200 Afrikaans choirs.

In December 2013 the St Mary’s Singers traveled to Thailand to participate in the 10^th Celebration of the “VOYAGE OF SONGS INTERNATIONAL CHOIR COMPETITION”. After winning their category, they were also awarded the adjudicators’ prize for finishing second overall out of all the participating choirs.

This year the St Mary’s Singers will be participating in the annual ATKV APPLOUS national choir competition.