For the past week, members of the Northridge Singers, conducted by music professor Paul Smith, have been taking part in one of the premier choral competitions, Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Those taking part in the competition were by invitation only.

"I am enormously proud of the singers and of their director, professor Paul Smith," said William Toutant, dean of CSUN's College of Arts, Media, and Communication, where the Music Department is located.

"The Northridge Singers have always been one of our premier ensembles. We were honored when we were invited to take part in the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod," Toutant said. "Choirs from all over the world were invited. The Northridge Singers clearly justified the invitation by coming in first as a group, with three soloists taking first or second place, and then taking top honors by being named 'Choir of the World.' This is just great."

Singers from nearly 40 nations jammed the streets of Llangollen, a town of 3,000 in northeastern Wales' picturesque Dee Valley, last week for the week-long festival that culminated in the "Choir of the World" competition Saturday.

Previous Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod festivals included performances by tenor greats Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo and numbers of other luminaries of the international music scene.

Among the countries taking part in this year's competition were Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brittany, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Holland, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Nepal, Northern Ireland, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Sardinia, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales.

In the days leading up to the "Choir of the World" competition on Saturday, the Northridge Singers won first place in the mixed choir division by a wide margin and fifth in the folk song choirs competition. Individual members of the Northridge Singers also took prizes.

Singers Shira Thomas took first and Sara Murphy took second in the vocal solo competition, and Vanessa Douglas took first and Delaney Gibson took third in the songs from shows division.

Before the group left for Wales, Smith said he was confident of the Northridge Singers' chances in the competition.

"We're going over there to win," Smith said on the eve of their departure.

In rehearsals before they left, Smith and the Singers were preparing to push the choral envelope. In addition to traditional classical and gospel songs, they also prepared a spectacular New Zealand Maori war song, accompanied by a tribal drum.

Smith said his singers were able to deliver any kind of music.

"The choir's classical repertoire has been even better than the folk," he said, "but I want them to have the experience of all kinds of music, gospel, folk, all of it."

California State University, Northridge has more than 31,500 full- and part-time students and offers 61 bachelor's and 42 master's degrees as well as 28 education credential programs. Founded in 1958, it is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley and the fourth largest in the 23-campus CSU system. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges recently said CSUN "stands as a model to other public urban institutions of higher education."

The Northridge Singers