Symphony of Voices 2007

Thanks to DJ, I managed to catch SOV this year for free. SOV, or otherwise known as Symphony of Voices is VJC's annual choir concert :) It was nostlagic.

Songs you have learnt before never gets erased from memory. Perhaps that's what happens when one sings the song over and over and over and over again and again and again and again, til you know the exact lyrics, where u're supposed to be loud/soft, etc....

Yesterday a few songs were familiar to me.

Il coro delle malmaritate : an italian song by Luigi Dallapiccola which tells of the pitiful and terrible fates of ill-married women.

Counting Frogs: written by Zechariah Goh Toh Chai. its a famous Chinese nursery rhyme. I loved learing/singing this song, because its very challenging as the different parts come in at different timings and it gets faster and faster...quite a tongue-twister as well. Of coz, who can forget the start where we all had to sound like frogs..... its fun. It's like Kucinta, where we were "miao-ing" in the song.

Organ Fugue MBV579: music by Bach, arrangment by Ward Swingle. I remember when we were learning this song, it was really fun. There were no words, only "bam", "da", "va", "dam". I was surprised i actually remembered how to sing it. heh.

I felt brought back into time.

Once I have felt the cold excitement as I stood backstage, watching the guys take their places on stage. Once I have felt the nervousness as i took a step onto the stage with the flood lights, with the eyes of the audience on me as I took my place on stage. I would grasp onto my skirt to clean off the perspiration from my palms. Once I was up there decked in white, standing in the front row at Victoria Theatre. Not once, or twice, but many times, for concerts, competitions, etc. Once I have felt the euphoria of delivering a song to a captivated audience. Once I have smiled to myself at the end of each song as the last note hung in the air. Once I have felt this great sense of satisfaction knowing that the song was flawless, that all the hours, weeks and months of practices have paid off, knowing that we have grasped every aspect of the song, singing the essence of them all. Once I stood there glowing in pride as the applause resounding in the hall.

I remembered it all so clearly. I remembered why it is I loved singing, why I loved being in a choir that prides itself in choral excellence. I remembered why it is that despite being able to go to any JC i wanted, i chose VJC - their internationally renowned choir.

I remembered it all so clearly, like it was just yday...not 7,8 years ago. The choristers look so young. Was I once as young as they are? Thus, I dug out my old VJ photos, my old choir VJ photos. The pages of the album have all turned yellow.