Awards
Like two other UP-based choirs (namely, the Philippine Madrigal Singers (the Madz) and the UP Concert Chorus (UPCC)), the UPSA has gained national prominence through its participation in international choral competitions.
Winning the Gran Premio Città at the Concorso Polifonico Internazionale Guido d'Arezzo in Italy in 2001 (thus far the only Asian choir winning the award), the UPSA was eligible to compete as one of the finalists in the 14th European Grand Prix of Choral Singing in 2002. Together with the Madz, the UST Singers and the Ateneo Glee Club, the UPSA is one of only four Filipino choirs who were eligible to compete in the European Choral Grand Prix.
The UPSA is the 2011, 2010 & 2002 ALIW Awardee for Best Choral Group, the Most Outstanding University Choir in the 2004 Who's Who in the Philippines Consumer's Choice Awards and the Philippine entry to the UNESCO International Music Prize 2005 held in Paris, France. The choir recently celebrated its 30th anniversary by conducting its 7th European Tour and holding a grand reunion concert at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on August 27, 2010.
The UPSA also won three awards in the 51-year history of the Certamen internacional de Habaneras y Polifonia de Torrevieja in Torrevieja, Spain. This competition was also participated in by the Philippine Madridal Singers a year before UPSA joined the competition.
In the 2008 European Tour, the UP Singing Ambassadors brought home twelve awards from prestigious choral competitions in France, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland and Wales in the United Kingdom. The awards include two grand prizes, seven 1st prizes, three 3rd prizes plus five grand prize qualifications.
In addition, the UPSA has also won awards at choral competitions in Trencianske Teplice in Slovakia and Prague, the Czech Republic (grand prize); in Wernigerode, Germany (first prize); Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Maasmechelen, Belgium; Cantonigros in Spain; Gorizia, Italy; Arnhem, The Netherlands; Pardubice, Czech Republic; Varna, Bulgaria; and Tours, France.
Gretchen Espina, the first Pinoy Idol is also a member of the UP Singing Ambassadors.
Read more about this topic: University Of The Philippines Singing Ambassadors