The Novo Concertante Manila

School day is as usual, boring and frustrating. I went home extremely early today, 1.30 pm, and it seems like ages since I’ve been home this early. This, is another memorable day. Today, I get to experience fantastic performances of the Novo Concertante Manila in the Royal Ipoh Club. This Philippines choir is probably one of the best I’ve seen so far. They were awarded a gold medal in the Choral Olympics and boy, they are amazingly humble and friendly. The choir, comprised of only about 20 members, performed perfect renditions of their cultural music, a medley of Malaysian songs, English songs and even Chinese songs ! I watched in awe throughout the performance, it was extremely entertaining and superb ! During the fifteen-minute interval, we were even invited to take pictures with them, what an honour ! I personally believe that the sopranos can reach a note as high as B flat, unbelievable ! And you know what, those who watched will know, I love ‘Joseph’ !!! He’s one of the cutest basses I’ve ever come across, so cute, so chubby !! His solo part was terrific !! RM 20 is totally worthwhile for such an impressive performance. But the bad thing is, I caught a glimpse of my ex English teacher there, and she turned out to be the teacher advisor of the AMC choir, which means to be my rival, what a coincident !! However, i managed to force weak grins while our eyes met. ( Ex AMC girls who have joined the Sam Tet Voices are proclaimed as "traitors of AMC ", isit really that serious ???) Our teachers and seniors also tried to greet them and portray 'friendly' smiles, but deep down inside, I knew pretty well that they were cursing each other. Have they totally forgotten that they did a collaboration for some kind of functions before, and that they were friends before ?? How did they become enemies overnight ?? Is it because they are competing for state champion each year ?? Again I wonder, when will such rivalry end ? Or will it ever ?

TEARS, JOY AND LAUGHTER

20th of April 2006 – this is certainly a memorable day in my life. Today, my school choir, the Sam Tet Voices, grabbed champion in the Kinta 2 district level secondary schools' choir competition. The competition, I can say, is quite stiff. It would have been a twist of a twig for Sam Tet secondary school to win in the previous years because I believe that the vocal qualities and music literacy of the members are certainly better. This year, due to the failure of the Dark Forces to knock the president off the ‘throne’, great havoc was being created by those despicable impedimenta – they left the choir, leaving us with no pianist, no sectional leader, no discipline master and insufficient members. However, the best thing is that irritating, digusting and annoying cheapskates, with a inch more of human qualities compared to baboons have left the choir. Even without these farts, we, the loyal and true choir members are able to push ourselves up to the previous standards. We’ve proved to them that they are nothing but morons who have infested the choir with their ‘superior’ skills. We have proved to them that we can achieve, we can strive for the better, we can succeed and reap harvest even without their help. I pity the teachers who were troubled at their fled, I doubt whether I should convey susanna’s message( that she missed them a lot ) to the unfaithful lot. Anyway, things are at a change now, teachers no longer worry about their disappearance, and I won’t even bother to tell them what susanna told us because they are not of worth. The new members might be expressionless, emotionless and even tone deaf, yet, we managed to beat all the other teams after toils of practice . This is what choir is all about. We train, we teach, we reprimand and we force the members to perform better, eventually moulding them into characters with confidence, charisma and passion. Even though we did not perform at our best during the competition, but all in all, we still won, so who cares if we rushed a bit or even went a bit off tuned ??!! All these don’t really matter now, we’ve won anyway. For now, there will be higher demands and expectations from the school, seniors and teachers. No matter how tough it would be, I believe that we can step further towards our goal – state and national champion ! No doubt, competitions wil be stiffer then, like what we experienced last year. Even though we lost, we walked out with pride, as I believe we had done our best. We might not be able to satisfy the crave and demands of the judges, but people who knows music, who reads music, who understands and appreciate music will be able to differentiate between the excellent and the bad. I’ve learnt that results of these competitions are not to be taken seriously as the substandards of the competitions and defective judgement have proved prominently that entertainment, instead of quality is what they ask for. Music has really enlightened my life . No regrets there will be or joining the ST Voices, though I did slack a bit in my studies…..Everything is worth risking, as while risk, we gain and achieve. So members, lets cherish this moment of joy and triumphant together for all the hardwork and sacrifices ! Let music be the driving force in whatever we do. Let the indomitable spirit of music intertwine with our lives and satisfy the crave of our souls. May the zeal in our hearts for the choir and or choral music remain forever, neither diminishing nor extinguishing.

YOU said, “ that’s bad ”
I said, “ so what !? ”
YOU said, “ he lies… ”
I said. “ he’s fun ”
YOU said, “ don’t be silly ”
I said, “ shut up !! ”
But then, the matches burnt my hand
And he was not there to care for me…..
He left me, in the dark, alone…
But I was not alone
YOU said, “ I love you ”
I said, “ why ? ”
YOU said, “ because I love you ”


WHAT IS LIFE ??

When living without the lifemaker ……..