The choir qualified to participate in Tolosa with the May 2005 victory at the 34th Florilège Vocal de Tours International Choral Competition in France, where it won six awards, including the Grand Prize. This year's event was open only to select winners of several European international choral competitions.

"We are all so very proud of our University of Utah Singers and their conductor, Brady Allred, who represent the best and the brightest in the School of Music," said Robert Walzel, director of the U.'s School of Music. "They honor us all with this wonderful accomplishment." The 47-member group performed pieces that represented the Renaissance, Romantic and contemporary periods of music, including "Ave Maria" by Javier Busto, who was invited to be on the jury after competition repertoire had been submitted; "Cloudburst" by Eric Whitacre; and "Psalm XCVI" by Utah composer Merrill Bradshaw.

Allred said one of the judges remarked that the choir sang not only with technical accuracy, but also great feeling and emotion. That's what gave it the win, Allred said.

"We worked so hard at getting all the notes, rhythms, phrasing and dynamics, adding facial expression and personal intent to our performance of every song so that we could give a gift of ourselves and of music to everyone we performed for," said choir member Kerrin Gates, a music-education student at the U.