Winneba Youth Choir in Malta for Ghana Mission’s anniversary

The sensational choral group, the Winneba Youth Choir, has arrived in the European religious country, Malta, to be part of the 10th-anniversary celebration of Ghana’s Mission in Malta.

The group will put up performances to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the opening of Ghana’s Mission in Valletta, Malta.

Malta, a city-state, has 365 churches, and 7,000 eateries and stands tall as a consummate tourism destination.

The choral group, led by its co-founder, John Francis Arthur Yamoah, will be received by Ghana’s High Commissioner to Malta, Barbara Benisa, and the Head of Chancery, Regina Appiah Sam in Valetta, the capital of Malta, the Mediterranean island nation.

“They are staying for four days to perform on Saturday, August 24 at the Phoenicia Hotel, Floriana, Malta and also on Sunday at a pentecostal church established by a Ghanaian.

The Daily Graphic has gathered that the Minister of Religious and Chieftaincy Affairs, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, will be in Malta to support the high commission in the celebration.

Interestingly, the youth choir could not hold their breaths, as they were compelled to give a sneak peek of what was about to unfold in Valletta at the Kotoka International Airport yesterday afternoon, just before the members boarded the Emirates Airline to Dubai before connecting to Valletta. 

Background

Ghana’s High Commission in Malta, established in 2014, is the only fully fledged sub-Saharan diplomatic mission in Valetta.

Accra also hosts the Mediterranean archipelago’s only diplomatic mission in Sub-Saharan Africa, which opened in January 2023.

Trading between the two countries has been increasing since the opening of diplomatic missions, with 24 Maltese companies doing business in Ghana, as many other Ghanaians also have business arrangements in Malta.

About choir

In May 1989, a young talented musician named George Mensah-Essilfie, who was then the principal organist of the Winneba Ebenezer Methodist Choir, came up with the idea of training the children who accompanied their parents to choir practice into a junior choir.

John Francis Arthur-Yamoah, who at the budding age of 14, was already an assistant conductor of the church choir, assisted him.

The two proceeded to increase the size of the choir using children selected from the Winneba Methodist Boys and Methodist Girls Schools, with the support of the late Albert Benjamin Yamoah, and Mrs Awotwe Pratt; who were the heads of the two schools; the late Jacob Sakyi Sackey, and a former Sunday school teacher, John Hayford.

The choir had its maiden television performance in 1993. Since then, the choir has grown leaps and bounds.

The choir is currently made up of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 24 years who are primary, junior and senior high school students in the coastal town of Winneba and its surrounding villages.

It remains under the leadership of Mr Arthur Yamoah and is affiliated to the University of Education, Winneba-Ghana.

It has been recognised by the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM), of which it is a member, and also the accredited agency for Ghana’s recruitment into its World Youth Choir initiative.