A brief history of the ACA

How did it all start?
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After lunch one day, Ko Matsushita, Johnny Ku, and John Pamintuan went to the Starbucks across the School of the Arts (SOTA) where they were confined for two weeks as jury in the Singapore Youth Festival 2013.  Ko took a photo and playfully captioned it "Asian Chorus Alliance." 

​Nelson Kwei brought the above three guys to a crab restaurant after the competitions.  Before Ko's flight to Japan that night, another obligatory photo was taken and captioned by Johnny, "Asia Choral Alliance." 

​In 2016, the four friends met again at the Taipei International Choral Festival, made some future plans, and true enough, were brought together in Cebu, Philippines during the first edition of the Asian Choral Masters 2017.

Aida Swenson is another story.  Aida's and John's paths have been crossing for the past decade since John's birthday dinner in Manila 2009.  They met again in Manado 2010; Hoi an, Tondano, and Newfoundland 2011; Cincinnati, Manado, and Jakarta 2012; Murung Raya and Manado 2013; Riga and Taipei 2014; Taipei 2015; Chiang Mai 2016; Kaimana 2017.  Nelson also attended the same dinner in Manila 2009, and was in Riga 2014, and Chiang Mai 2016.  Johnny was in Cincinnati 2012, and is music director of the annual international choral festival in Taipei;

And in 2018, Ko, Aida, Nelson, Johnny, and John were finally together at the 1st Taipei International Choral Competition.  

Two more chances to meet after that, in Penabur 2019, and Baguio 2020 just before the worldwide lockdown.

It was as if fate had planted an axis where our lives intersect.  Now, we take charge of our destiny.  We hold your hand, as we unite Asia, and become one in choral music!

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Photos of our meeting. 
L: First meeting on 22 May 2020
R: First general assembly on 26 June 2020