We Sang Our Hearts Out
Monday, September 10, 2007
The VJC choir after their performance in the Open Mixed Voices category.
and the screams were ear-splitting when the results were announced. Everyone immediately leapt out of their seats and hugged each other in delight. Our choir - the Victoria Junior College (VJC) choir - had clinched the Jury Prize in the international choral festival A Voyage of Songs 2007. We also emerged category winners for the Open Mixed Voices and Open Equal Voices categories, and came in second place for the Youth Equal Voices category.
The VJC choir has a long tradition of doing well in international choral festivals (having won numerous gold awards in recent years), but this is no mean feat as the choir members change frequently due to the short two-year JC programme. We really pour our heart and soul into choir practices every year, to ensure that our blended voices perform up to international expectations.
This year, preparing for A Voyage of Songs was not a straightforward task for many of our choir members. During the June holidays, many of us had to prepare for their upcoming mid-year examinations and a large number were overseas. It was only after the holidays that choir practices became more intensive, as we tried to maximise every minute of our limited time to polish the nine songs we would perform at the festival.
Moreover, the girls and boys were competing separately for two categories, which was something new to us. Nevertheless, we all managed to pull through, working almost every day to improve the choir’s standards.
The VJC choir onstage with trophies for the Jury Prize and two category wins.
When we reached the festival in Pattaya, Thailand, we found that there were participating choirs from other countries with members at least three times our age! They definitely sounded fuller and more mature than we did. Despite this unexpected development, we put it behind us when we went up on stage and put in our best efforts, enjoying the songs we had practised so hard to perform.
The rest of the festival also provided an eye-opening experience for our choir. We learned more about different types of music and we had the opportunity to interact with choirs from all over the world and listen to traditional folk songs originating from countries such as the Philippines, Australia and South Africa. We also joined workshops to learn the songs and singing skills of different cultures.
The trip also further strengthened the bonds within the choir, as the students and teachers had become much more united and attuned to one another. We look forward to future chances to show our mettle on the international stage - where we can learn more and become an even stronger choir.
Contributed by:
Low Ching Chieh
Student
Victoria Junior College