Macau, China. The 3rd International Music Festival of Macau (MICF) or commonly known as Cantata Macau 2018 held at the Cathedral of Macau and that hosted over 400 choristers of 14 choirs from 8 different countries, concluded on 9 December 2018 with the message of the Bishop of Macau, Msgr. Stephen Lee. The bishop exhorted the audience and the participants to extend the harmony and communion in the choral singing to their personal lives and to the society at large. He also said that the result of such harmony and communion is peace and joy. He also announced the opening for the registration of Cantata-2019.
The Festival was co-founded by Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy, CMF together with Mr. Barrie Sanchez Briones, and the choir master of the English Mass at Saint Lawrence Church, Macau and Patricia Ho, a well wisher of the Claretians. It was founded not only to conserve and promote choral singing, a Catholic Tradition for centuries, but also to signify Macau, which is called the Las Vegas of the east, as a place of spiritual and cultural pilgrimage center.