- All of us were excited on the bus! There was a traffic jam, so it slowed us down.
- Some choir members were singing on the bus lol.
- But after we entered Malaysia, everyone soon began to fall asleep on the bus...
- Our Malaysian tour guide told us stories about the history of Port Dickson and Malaysia. We were also familiarised with the palm trees that we saw along the way.
- Expected arrival time: 1pm. We arrived at 4pm @ Tiara Beach Resort.
- We were to stay at Block D; the furthest block away from our training areas (grand ballroom, Kemang rooms, Junior Tiara room, etc.)
- Some rooms had not been cleaned yet! Thus, Li Shan wrote a "note" to housekeeping. xD
- For dinner, we had a nice buffet. Everything was delicious, except for the flies. In the end, everyone was disturbed by the creatures.
(Note: Buffet for all our meals.)
- We weren't the first ones to perform, so we watched the other school perform first. There were even JCs there (VJC & MJC) and other excellent choirs as well.
- Jinny was crazy 'bout the boys. Very infatuated.
- OMG! And then it was our time to perform. We were really nervous and shaky, and about 700 people were watching us perform. Plus the 5 master conductors watching at us intently at the front. x_x
- We went smoothly at the beginning, but when we came to the bridge of the song, everything began falling out of place...:
1. The pianist lost her place. (She played something random.)
2. We couldn't blend in together, almost screaming at each other.
3. Cannot hear each other.
4. At the end, Mr Lim cut the last note short.
5. All of us went off the stage, very embarrassed.
- Lol, at least Mr Lim wore the reindeer head band that Jinny and Jia Liang bought for him. The master conductors laughed when he put it on (hahaha)!
- After the concert had ended, we followed Mr Lim to the Block D car park for our debrief. We discussed and shared our feelings about the performance, and we knew exactly what went wrong. Kinda expecting Mr Lim to scold us, but he didn't. Phew.
- Mr Lim had a late-night training session with the S2s. Used Yvonne's room (shared by Jia Liang, Hwee Min and Min Hui).
- The other sections went to respective rooms to do their grp reflections. Alto: Lin Ye's room. S1: dunno :P
- We practiced Psallite and Sanctus. Um, we kinda woke up the opposite block, and a few girls peeked out of their window to look at us.
- Well, at least we cleared our doubts about the notes that we were unsure of.
- Everyone else went back to their rooms for the night, to prepare for a very busy day in the following morning.
- Woke up early, and had breakfast at 8am. Our resort guide (Uncle Tim) was already waiting for us. He's always early. :D
- After breakfast, we headed down to the resort square to play some bonding games. Monster was the best and funniest game! Thanks Li Shan~
- Went for rehearsal (training) with Mr Lim at Kemang Room after that. This was a little warm-up before our first master class with Mr Reuban Lai!
- At first, all of us were scared to respond to his questions. But he was a really nice conductor, so our training with him went smoothly.
- Some S2's: "We were scared of him because of his British accent. But then he's a funny guy."
- Philomena turned out to be his fan xD
- After lunch, there was another rehearsal with Mr Lim before our 2nd master class with Mr Arwin Tan.
- Mr Arwin Tan is a Philippine, and Ming Min was wondering about his surname. She thought that Mr Tan married a Chinese woman with the surname "Tan", and she had the idea that "Tan" wasn't his surname so he followed his wife's surname. ._.
- But, he was the best conductor that had taught us for the entire trip there. He also acknowledged our marvellous singing skills. 8D
- Dinner time: Fly Dance! Jia Liang had enough of flies, so she did some weird movements to scare them away.
- SYF Presentation: Day 1. We were to perform on Day 2, so we were part of the audience for the night. We admired the choirs that had more boys in it. Just to list some of the good choirs (not biased hor!):
1. Commonwealth Sec
~ produces a deep, well-sounding melody
~ exciting and very entertaining
~ good staggering, smile a lot
2. East Spring Coral Sec
~ depth, full-sounding
~ beautiful!
~ Sopranos: able to hold long notes beautifully, sustain well
~ good approach at volume (from piano to fortissimo)
3. Meridian Junior College
~ the entire choir is awesome! :D
~ lively, bouncy, very exciting to listen & watch
~ good staggering
~ Sopranos: very beautiful and mature-sounding (Mr Lim wants this from us)
~ Tenor, Bass & Alto: beautiful blend with Sopranos
4. Catholic High Sch
~ entertaining (lively)
~ perfectly in tune. melody!
- We had warm-up with Blessing at the square before Mr Lim's training session.
- Mr Lim revised phrasing with us for Psallite & Sanctus
- Our 3rd master class was with Mr Ronaldo Raz. Mr Lim thought that he was a football player xD
- He taught us a lot, so refer to the training notes.
- Also, he's a funny guy that made us laugh a lot :D
- Next was our exchange. We had a fun time with Catholic High(KL), Unity Sec and Christ Church Sec. We were to perform 2 songs and we did Psallite and Sanctus.
- Catholic High was a really good choir. Their conductor was unable to make it, and so their student conductor took over the job. He was awesome, conducting the huge choir like a real conductor.
- Went back to our rooms to rest. We had our SYF presentation later, so we had to get some good sleep. It was all exciting.
- Wore our Choir Tee to perform. Didn't bring our gowns, so we kinda stood out from the rest. (Other choirs wore formal attire; gowns, suits etc.)
- Psallite went smoothly and beautifully. We enjoyed ourselves on stage, singing our hearts' out and following the music. It was fun! :D
- DUNDUNDUN!! Sanctus:
~ Beginning (S1s) went okay. It was until...
- And so, Mr Lim cut the entire choir off, and turned to the audience apologetically. He figured out that he would apologize, and he said:
"I'm sorry, I forgot my scores."
- Then, we started over again. This time, we entered, and finished without anymore noticeable flaws. Omg.
- After the performance, we went out for another debrief. Mr Lim's face was red from embarrassment.
- We got some treats from the teachers! Mrs Teo and Mdm Sharifah bought us chocolates, Uncle Tim packed for us some fried fish crackers (keropok) and Mr Lim bought us ice-cream. It was all so delicious, and we were deprived of all the snacks because we were to sing on stage. Thank you!! 8D
- This time round, all of us were really sleepy. We slept on the bus, and some of us were so excited to get home.
- It was a fun experience, learning together at the Choir festival. Hope there will be more festivals that we can attend!
Mdm Sharifah
Mrs Teo
Mr Lim (whose picture we saw in the yellow book 8D)
Uncle Tim
Our Malaysian guide (which name we forgot)
Tiara Beach Resort (housekeeping, etc)
Jia Liang (fly dance)
Other committee members
The choir members who turned up for the trip and shared the experience together!
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