August 16, 2026 – Surrey, B.C.-based Himig Kabataan Cultural Society (HKCS) took home the Gold Award for College and Adult category at the 15th World Peace Choral Festival held in Vienna, Austria from July 23 to July 26, 2026. It also earned the award for excellent folk and national music.
HKCS is the first Canadian Filipino choir to have competed in the festival’s 15-year history. Like other competing choirs from 18 countries, HKCS performed one European classical music, one assigned by the festival’s artistic committee and one folk music from the participating choir’s homeland chosen by the choir. HKCS’s winning pieces included the Latin church song Locus Iste, the French rustic chanson Il Est Bel et Bon and the Bicolano folk song medley Saro, Duwa, Tolo arranged as an acapella piece by Ruben Federizon.
Founded in 2022, the HKCS began as a volunteer choir for the University of the Philippines’ Alumni Association in BC’s (UPAABC) Balagtasan (traditional Filipino debate in verse) event in the same year. What began as a group of eight volunteers grew to more than two dozen singers who participated in the festival.
Himig Kabataan (meaning “youthful melody”) has performed Filipino music in various local, national and international events in Edmonton, Colombia and Hungary as well as both the Canadian and Philippine national anthems in cultural and sports events.
The World Peace Choral Festival began in 2010 with the goal of strengthening “global harmony through communication and understanding among the younger generation.” Its motto “coming for singing, singing for peace” reinforces the power of choral music to “transcend borders, connect people, and promote peace and mutual understanding.”
About the Author
Rachel Ramos-Reid started writing for magazines and newspapers when she was still a junior at the University of the Philippines’ Communication degree program majoring in Journalism. She continued to write in a public relations/corporate communications capacity in various private and government offices until moving out of the country in 1997 to work as Programme Officer for the arts and culture branch of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO-SPAFA) in Bangkok, Thailand. At the end of her term, Rachel found herself immigrating to Canada in the year 2000 and again searching for new beginnings.
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