You may know Maira Srivastava ‘28 from the Chili Cook Off, Women’s Talent Show, or Spring Music Showcase, but did you know that this past summer Srivastava and her choir won an international competition in Europe?  

Srivastava is a member of iSing Silicon Valley, a girls’ choir here in the Bay Area. She is part of the Palo Alto chapter as well as the HD choir, the highest performing group in iSing. This summer, they went on a two-week trip to Europe to compete in the European Choir Games. The choir underwent weeks of long rehearsals during the summer in preparation for the trip. Before the competition, which was in Aarhus, Denmark, they traveled around Norway as well as Copenhagen, Denmark. During their travels, they continued to train and met up with other local choirs to rehearse and perform for each other. 

The European Choir Games are a continent-specific version of the World Choir Games, the largest international choir competition. This year, they were also combined with the Grand Prix of Nations, which is for non-European choirs. Thus choirs from all over the world came to Aarhus to compete. Srivastava’s choir competed in two categories. The first was Sacred Music A cappella, and the second was the Youth Choir category. They won first place in both categories!

In recounting her most memorable moments, Srivastava described running up on stage after winning gold and singing the national anthem on stage. She remarked that it was a “really rewarding experience” not only to be able to compete abroad, but to win this competition and be surrounded by her friends and teammates to celebrate on the stage. 

One big challenge during the competition was nerves. The first category that they competed in was both adult and youth choirs and Srivastava said “it intimidated us a little bit because we had only really had experience with youth choirs.” It also came as a lot more of a shock to Srivastava when they won because they had heard all of the adults go after them. 

Another big challenge was the strictness of the judges. Each performance starts with 100 points, which are then deducted by the judges for mistakes.  They were very nervous but ended up winning both categories with scores of 88.06 and 92.75 respectively.

The biggest takeaway from this trip for Srivastava was the way that her choir bonded and came together as a team. From tedious rehearsals both before and during the trip to final performances, Srivastava explained that it still felt like fun and a privilege, not work, especially being with her friends and teammates.

Srivastava remarked that “it is so important to have a community that works toward something together and shares a common goal.”