Something wonderful happens when a bunch of people come together to sing. We inhabit a space where diversity is celebrated, where community is built, and the whole of what we achieve is greater than the sum of its parts. We, the SYC Ensemble Singers, know this because we are living proof. 

In March 2012, we’d like you, young people and the young at heart, to experience a unique choral journey as Italian composer and Monteverdian heir, Corrado Margutti, brings his music (mostly) to Singapore in a week-long atelier. Along the way, meet seemingly divergent kindred spirits, forge new bonds and explore Old World Music Made New.  The atelier culminates in a concert performance of selected atelier works.

Singers must be able to read music and have at least 3 years’ experience singing in a choir.  As the atelier can only accommodate a maximum of 48 singers in a balanced number of voice parts, you may be asked to audition.

Atelier Sessions

Dates: 12, 13, 15 and 16 March 2012 (session break on 14 March)
Time: 3:30pm to 6:00pm
Venue: SMU Arts & Cultural Centre (Singapore Management University)
Fees: $120 (inclusive of scores)

Atelier Performance (as a concert segment)

Mostly Margutti
SYC Ensemble Singers with Jennifer Tham and Corrado Margutti
Date: 17 March 2012
Time: 7:30pm with venue rehearsal to commence in the afternoon
Venue: SOTA Concert Hall (School of the Arts)

It started with THREE

Although I missed the second installment in Japan, it was good to come full circle (or maybe triangle in this case) with the third THREE concert in Manila, reuniting with friends from the Ateneo Chamber Singers and Gaia Philharmonic Choir. And also friends from the UST Singers who came to support.

Full of Love, full of Hope, full of Joy! Together for a better world, there was much to celebrate about. But maybe we under-estimated the power of our rain chant..

Then there was Super Duper Steve D

Who could have asked for more. Soul + Jazz + Classical + Tropical/Caribbean/Oohgachaka all in one. It was such fun working with Steve Dobrogosz, getting to speak with him on his musical ideas behind the pieces and singing his newly written Singapore Songs. It was also great sharing the stage again with local musicians Tamagoh and Tony Makarome.

Singers of the World, Unite!

As if we heeded a cry to gather, we then headed for Sopot, Poland to take part in the 7^th International Choir Festival – Mundus Cantat Sopot 2011. Traveling halfway around the world in slightly over 24 hours, we forged new friendships with fellow choristers from Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. One of the highlights of the festival was the march down Bohaterów Monte Cassino Street. I still vividly recall us waving our flags proudly. “This is my country, this is my flag…this is my family, these are my friends. We are Singapore, Singaporeans!” loudly we proclaimed. Feelings of pride and patriotism coupled with excitement and open-hearts filled the air as we embraced each others’ cultures while sharing our own. As we sang our much-loved local pop-song – Bunga Sayang, it felt like we had transported our new found friends to our village by the sea (we even had special effects from the cool sea breeze).

Singing Ko Matsushita’s Cantate Domino with the other choirs at Sopot Pier brought a different meaning to caring and sharing. I’m happy that we could also do our part as instruments of peace to help our friends in Japan. After all, what would a voice be if there were no heart?

Japan came to us – Astrordinary

With a blast (literally), we were brought into a different universe by Ko and our fellow friends from Gaia as he came to conduct us at yoKOso! As we flew across time and space continents, we visited music from the different periods, genre and languages. Parlez-vous français?

I love early music as much as I love contemporary works. Thank you for the chance to sing one of my favourite pieces – Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium.

And also for the chance to experience onsen-dipping, snowy mountains and fishing villages.

In exchange, some of us went over..

Campavali

Amid the packed schedule, we took time to roll-crawl-hop-skip-run all in the name of bonding and fun. I really enjoyed our brief taste of touch rugby and water-bombing. Let’s do it again!

Campavali

On a separate note, congratulations again to 2011 Cultural Medallion recipient, Dr. Kelly Tang. Thank you for sharing your music and vision with us!

Of black on black & more patriotism

Talking about realm, rehearsing the Rothko Chapel can sometimes send one pondering much, reflecting on shades of black on black..Ohm.

And then there was the performance day itself. That day will definitely be one of the most memorable days of 2011 for me. So you see, some of us hold what one might call a ‘day job’ that sometimes being called a ‘day’ job is a misnomer.  We were supposed to report at the Esplanade at 630pm. 545pm, an urgent issue at work cropped up. 620pm, the scenic sprint across Esplanade Drive/Bridge from One Raffles Quay began. 635pm, arrive at Esplanade fully warmed up. 730pm, performance. It was a good performance. 8pm, done with Rothko Chapel and off to the Singapore Conference Hall for our rehearsal with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. We were rehearsing for a performance for Poh & Co’s anniversary which featured one of Mr. Poh’s own composition “愛” – love your country like how you would love your family. 10pm, done with rehearsal and back to work. So who said bankers have no life?!

No more ‘do-the-shoulder’ bogey for me for a while though..

Kodaly & Caroling

What better way to end the year by lending our voices to the Kodaly Seminar as we played demo choir for the participants, as well as carol with the St Andrew’s Secondary School choir.

Looking back at 2011, I must say that it has been a very eventful year. All these against the backdrop of losing our home at 54 Waterloo Street. But evidently it can only get more exciting from here. Have road, will travel. Thank you SYCES for a fantastic 2011. Thanks for the music, the friendships and for keeping me sane. Until 2012, wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Kenny

Dr László, the Principal of the Kodaly Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, was a great advisor to the participating conductors in the seminar. I was intrigued when he demonstrated how a conductor’s actions were crucial in setting the ambiance of the song. For example, if one plays a starting chord in a certain order (such as ‘la-mi-do’ instead of the straightforward ‘la-do-mi’), he can better bring out the intended melancholic atmosphere through the singers. Further contributing to the atmosphere is the way one plays the chord, and if sorrow is the emotion to be conveyed, one has to play it with great subtlety.

As a chorister, I have also learnt to be more responsive to anyone who stands in front of the choir to conduct. I have to admit that I caught myself auto-piloting at times, and I became more aware of it during this seminar, being conducted by 10 seminar participants with diverse styles. I learnt that although I should understand how the shape of the piece should be like, such as dynamics, I should also be singing according to the style which the conductor in front intends us to portray.

Though I know that it is no easy feat to be a conductor, this seminar has made me admire conductors even more. I was elated for them when they presented their conducting skills during the graduation performances! Though we only managed to watch them grow from the last fourth day of the seminar onwards, I felt they have achieved a lot, and I was really blessed to be part of the choir producing the fruits of their labour. Besides the master class students, it was heartening to see many budding music teachers from the introductory and intermediate levels do their presentation.

Under the guidance of Dr László, Ms Tham and Debbie, the Kodaly seminar was completed successfully. I have great confidence in the musicians present that they would continue to instill a passion for chorale music in the many generations to come.

-Siewlin

Are times that bad??

-Ivonne

Here we go, first K-session after the last choir practice of the year. These kids are really high entertainer! (wahahhaahahah!) I love their energy and passion towards singing. Really.

– sheneen

Highly recommended.

Lysol neutra air sanitizing spray.

Keeps our rehearsals smelling good, our lungs happy. An essential for any choir rehearsal.

Nic :p

Okay, but back to reality, this year is my 4th and final year in University, and it has made it much harder to make time for choir already. With all the immense workload and deadlines that I had to meet, for the first time since I joined the choir in 2007 April, I had to miss one performance/event with SYC Ensemble Singers!! That gig was the Rothko Chapel performance, which we were supposed to perform together with people from YST. I was feeling a little disappointed that I had to miss out on that performance, however, looking from another perspective, it was an opportunity for me to take a short breather after such a hectic year in choir.

So, your might ask, what exactly do all these things have in relation to the entry title? Well, basically what I would like to say is that sometimes, when we are all so busy with choir events, gigs and performances, we might ‘lose’ our way, and start to lose the very thing that made us love singing… the passion, the thirst of knowledge. Well, I had the firsthand experience after I had to take leave away from choir for about 2 weeks to prepare for my exams. As the saying goes, “Absence make the heart grow fonder”, and in my case, absence from choir make me realise that I really miss choir a lot, not just the people, the music, but really just getting to sing together with other people and make wonderful music!! It is times like this that it gives you the chance to step back and take a look and ponder exactly what we are looking for through singing in the choir. This is something that we people in a result-oriented country like Singapore might be very susceptible to experiencing.

Okay, I am not like encouraging people from choirs to start taking leave and breaks just to get the passion- for-singing feeling back again. Lolx, conductors will just KILL me for that… XD But, what I feel is that sometimes, we just need to occasionally take a step back and evaluate ourselves, our lives and the purpose of what we are doing. This doesn’t have to apply just to choral singing only… Take it as an opportunity to rethink and reorganize ourselves, so that we are better able to handle the various curveballs that are thrown our way.

May everyone soon find their way back in life, and be on track to hitting homeruns again. Cheers~

“DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO!”

bLobB3r (Songern)

- Delin

thought of this song.

-Roads (SYCES with Steve Dobrogosz)-

the songs we sing thread their way through my life in an unending, ever-changing soundtrack.

there’s a song for every road, every journey.

-Boon