“joie de vivre”

Exams are finally over…..it was quite an uphill struggle to deal with practices and revisions. But it was worth though….i’m not sure how I did in my exams but we’ve won the state level competition. Yes we did !!! We are going national !!! Guess what, if we manage to win the national level, I’ll have champion certs for district, state and national level choir competition, plus a Silver diploma for international level, superb isn’t it ??!
Even if it’s a fiasco, no harm done, I’ll get full marks for co-curricular vitae anyway. Now, I can only cross my fingers and pray hard that my results will not turn out to be too bad ..….

It’s the holidays now, I’ve been busy practicing for the Choral Festival 2006 the first few days. On the 1st of June, we departed to KL for a 4-day-3-night stay I conjunction with the 4th Young Singers Choral Festival. It’s the first time for the Sam Tet Voices to perform to the public, not to mention Nightingale Night. All of us were very excited about the trip, hoping it to be as fun as the International Choral Festival last year. But sad to say, the trip was not that enjoyable, but still better than none.
On the first night, we were given a curfew hour of 11.30 pm, since we gotta wake up early the next day. The inn we stayed in looks quite peaceful, nice and secluded. We rehearsed a while at 9.30pm and things started to happen…..
A few ‘girls’ staying in the inn with us from other schools raised their middle fingers and blurted out rude words when they saw some of our boys. As for the boys, still young and easily provoked, fought back by calling them names. And there goes world war 3….
If I’m about to write down al the details, I’m afraid I’ll have to type until midnight. So just make it sweet and short. Finally, both sides were calmed but small disputes were still aroused once in a while without the teachers’ acknowledgement. It’s fine for me though cos I won’t act soft while dealing with those ‘buses’ (nai woon, jiayi, pek shi and joseph will know, haha…) Then, later that night, the teachers came banging at our doors to alert us about something bad happened in the inn. 2 gals from other schools were being pulled into a room by 2 men suspected to be Mexicans on the first floor (only 2 floors in the inn) ,and what happened next needn’t to be narrated ,I believe….
Due to that incident, there comes the ‘fiat’. All of us, especially the girls are forbidden to loiter around after 10.30 pm, which means no moving to other rooms and no pillow talk !!! Too bad ! We were kinda lackadaisal when the order was given. However, we still chatted in our own rooms till midnight.

On the first day of the festival, we sang at the master class and were given a big round of applause. Susan Medley, one of the tutors conducting the master class was kinda astonished and was greatly impressed by our performance. A great start isn’t it ?! We learnt a few songs and some singing techniques then that’s the end of day 1. We practiced again that night, had rootbeer and then went straight to bed cos there were frequent room checks by teachers and festival officers throughout the night.

The second day of the festival was sorta dull…. At night, a few of us chatted in Yixiang’s room till 11pm.When Mr Mak came to check, we told him a fib. We said that we were discussing crucial matters concerning the choir which cannot be delayed. Then he gave us extra 30 minutes before we had to go back to our respective rooms. We took the advantage to chat and talked about jocular stuff in the festival…

On the last day, all participants were to perform in the closing ceremony and needless to say, Sam Tet Voices were also invited to perform 2 songs. Again, we were showered with shrieks, screams and thunderous applause after we performed. Then the Westwood Chorus from Singapore, the festival’s visiting choir performed a whole lot of folk songs from different countries. I expected them to be great, but their performance was not that impressive. I even expected more from the KL Young Singers. They sang ‘Serunai Malam’, the same song arranged by Geneviene for Sam Tet Voices a few years ago. I was disappointed. Some of the audience even told me that the STV performed better than them. It’s true that they have more laconic vocal and better glissando, but their performance was not a good one. Finally, all the festival participants went up stage to perform. It was such a great tableau !! 200 people singing on stage !! That’s not really a daily occurrence and I doubt whether I’ll ever get the chance to perform like this again.

The festival ended quite well. We hopped into the bus immediately after the closing ceremony to catch a bus in Puduraya back to Ipoh. Home sweet home. Nice experience the festival was, though not as exciting as the international choral festival last year.
The end of the festival opened up another page in our lives. Some took on different paths, while some continued the same path ahead. Everything went back to normal, with the exception that we had to say adieu to several ex-members. No one knows when another reunion is possible. But when the time comes, we’ll have tones to share and once again, different people from different backgrounds will unite again through the love towards music. Music has drawn us together, forming invisible bonds between one another, which enable total strangers to come together to share the passion towards music. Gleeful moments pass by swiftly. Yet, life has to go on. It’s time to put our priorities right. We really have to work hard to achieve our own goals. So all 5th and 6th formers, let’s not lag and keep on striving in our studies !!


Susan Medley bless u all !!!


(dedicated especially to nai woon- sorry we didn’t bid u a proper farewell.
Do well in matriks ya !! I might turn out to be your course mate 1 later, haha !)