WEBISODE #1: SYC is 45!

SYC & friends

This year the SYC is 45.  We celebrated this with friends around the world, in a three-choir festival in Japan, in a concert with an Australian choir, with other local choirs in a tribute to pioneer Singapore composer Leong Yoon Pin, and on song-duty at the National Citizenship Ceremony.    

 

We close the year with a special concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall on 13 December, with special musicians on stage.  We have Vytautas Miškinis (from Lithuania, land of choral giants) to direct the SYC Ensemble Singers in an evening of music from the Baltic states, and also local jazz musicians  Tamagoh and Tony Makarome to premiere a work for choir, jazz trio and additional piano, the “Light Mass” (by Miškinis himself).  We are privileged to have such luminaries as our friends, on stage with us. 

 

Share this extraordinary celebration with us. 

 

Tickets at:

$20, $25, $30, $35 (inc. SISTIC fee)

 

Promotions:

Keppel Nights 50% subsidy $11 (excl. SISTIC fee, conditions apply)

Visit www.keppelnights.com to obtain a valid Keppel Nights password.

Meelespea

Hello everyone! Here’s a link to a video of a recording of ‘Meelespea’ by Veljo Tormis. According to the video, the word ‘meelespea’ means ‘forget-me-not’. It sort of makes sense, since it is dedicated to Gustav Ernesaks. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYiE5Lh-Bmc

-Delin

Plaukia

Hey peeps, have a listen …

Plaukia antelé by Jurate

Jen

She’s Out of My Life

And here’s a video of us singing Kelly Tang’s She’s Out of My Life @ THREE Vol. 2. Tokyo, 2009. “A Contemporary Motet on a theme by Michael Jackson”. Commissioned by SYC in 2001. Lyrics and original melody by Tom Bahler.

5 years

september 2003 was the year that i joined the SYC Ensemble Singers. now it’s September 2009. i have survived here for 5 years! there were many changes: e.g. the choir’s name changed from Singapore Youth Choir to the SYC Ensemble Singers; change of uniform; change of voice part (from alto 1 to alto 2 to sop 1)….. etc. from a quiet + introverted + anti-social junior, i’ve turned into a  give no face + garang + authorative SHENEEN.   huge change.

i NEVER regret joining this choir. even though i have to sacrifice my saturdays, bf nagging from day 1 till now about this- now he’s given up nagging and just closes both eyes. i cut my lesson on wednesday (means cut my income ), i save most of my holidays for syc trips instead of going home to spend more time with family… yada yada yada…  i m still proud of being a member of this choir.

i learnt a lot. really a lot. I’ve learnt to be a better ensemble singer. I’ve learnt to speak out more. my English improved because people over here in singapore DON’T speak Mandarin. my diction improved because people over here speak good English. and now,  i don’t feel inferior anymore.

i’ve learnt from every single piece that we’ve sung. each of them is so well written. many good memories are because of such good music. and when we revisit a piece of music, i feel like i’m meeting an old friend. feels goooooooooooooood~!

6th year begins

- left handed

思念

Hello everyone! Here’s a video of us singing 思念  by Leong Yoon Pin @ THREE Vol. 2. Tokyo, Japan, January 2009.

思念 (“Nostalgia”). Composer: 梁荣平 (Leong Yoon Pin). Commissioned by SYC in 1989.

A Personal Tribute to Mr Matthew Leong Yoon Pin

My first encounter with Leong Yoon Pin was through his music, in the form of a recording of 新娘來了 “Here Comes the Bride”.  As a young JC chorister led and fed on a generally sugary diet of light romantic pieces, operettas and pop/folk arrangements, Leong’s “Here Comes the Bride” was by contrast, a juicy steak on a silver platter that made me sit up and pay attention.  I thought to myself ‘Why are the harmonies and the ending so weird one?  The song sounded like it hasn’t ended yet!’  I replayed the track umpteen times in search of answers, only to be surprised further by new ‘weird’ things on repeated hearings…

The few years spent in music academy certainly helped, but it was really the years of singing with SYC that have really opened my ears, eyes and mind to the possibilities of music and how it works – brilliantly phased entries, breaking free from the shackles of the tyrannical 4/4 meter thus keeping it easy for choirs whilst maintaining rhythmic interest and forward movement; Mixolydian tendencies and otherworldly harmonies creating a uniquely Leong musical language and the almost melancholic endings in search of a final resting place…  Hearing the same piece last night brought back fond memories of my infant steps in choral music and somehow, the music remains as fresh as the first time when I heard it a decade ago.

Leong is a composer who believes in tailoring and writing music that is both enjoyable and at same time, highlights the strengths of the commissioning ensemble.  Some composers find such ‘tailoring’ limiting or even downright suffocating, the musical equivalent of putting oneself into a straitjacket.  Yet despite being ‘straitjacketed’ (by the way, Leong doesn’t think he is being limited in any way), he has managed to dance freely where others cannot, displaying an uncanny ability to create a mood, build an atmosphere or just simply expressing all that he desires with the most economical of means whilst making the ensemble sound good at the same time.

That having been said, one can only imagine what were his perceptions of the Singapore Youth Choir (SYC) back then, when he was commissioned and wrote pieces like the avant garde “Nightmare” (1988) or 思念 “Nostalgia” (1989), stuffed with text painting right down to the chosen form and structure.  For the choristers of today, having been fed on a diet of new/ avant garde music every SYF, such musical language may possibly seem like part of one’s normal everyday conversations…but imagine the stir it must have caused both musically and politically 20 years ago when it was first premiered, its performance helping SYC to become the first Singaporean choir to win first prize in an overseas competition, at the famed Llangollen Eisteddfod no less!

Having written a thesis on “Leong Yoon Pin and His Choral Music”, rehearsed and conducted many of his pieces with school choirs, it was absolutely fantastic to have come full circle, to finally sing and perform the works that he had originally written for the SYC Ensemble Singers in last night’s concert “Leong Yoon Pin A Choral Odyssey”.

Brilliant music aside, the repeated pilgrimages to his sea-view home for scores, curry fish head lunches at Bedok, and the many conversations about music, conducting, composition, current affairs and life itself revealed a passionate human being who is humble, unassuming and unaffected by the trappings of (what others might view as) ‘success’.  His kind actions show an extremely considerate character, who is always putting others before self.  Thank you Mr Leong for being a living role model to us all.

Albert Tay

A very amused Leong during a visit.

Leong having fishhead curry with Americ, Kit Yeng, Dr E.T. and me.

stay healthy!

lots of people have fallen sick recently (including me)– hope everyone will take care of yourself. as you know, the weather is crazy and h1n1 is everywhere, please drink lots of water, eat fruits, take vitamins, bring an umbrella if you want to go out. sleep early also, don’t stay up too late….

sick at home is NO fun. i am glad that i am back in action. hahahahah!

-sheneen

KI-AH~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!

The title looks harmless enough. But BEWARE: it can be detrimental, to the ears, when sung at the range of high F – C#, especially in the kulning style.!

I am sure everyone in SYC knows what’s kulning by now, since we’ve done it at last Saturday’s and tonight’s rehearsals. Especially after tonight’s rehearsal, we now know who are the herding girls in disguise huh. LOL.

Anyway, for the unaware, and according to Wikipedia, ‘kulning’, or herding calls, is a ‘domestic Scandinavian music form, often used to call livestock down from high mountain pastures where they have been grazing during the day’.

It has a high pitch quality, produced using headtones, and often only sung by women. Apparently, different families would pass down their unique kulnings so that their family’s cows would recognize it and respond to it (by using their bells, duh.)

And, interestingly, I found a sound clip of ‘kulning’ on wikipedia as well. It sounds very ‘pretty’ to me, but the unmistakable quality of ‘herding call’ can still be heard very clearly; the bright, piercing sound of calling out to your cows and goats to come home. We need to sound like that!! Like we are calling the cows and goats of SYC to come back to the choral studio.

Take a listen here and keep your speaker volume down, just in case. =)

-Huijun-