Hey Choir!

I've got a really important announcement to make, so please take this post seriously...

Common Tests would have ended by the time next Wednesday comes, so, please be prepared for a big change in the way we do things at choir. We really need to focus a lot more, and work as hard as we can. And this has to be done as a choir effort, not just some people working hard for the better good of the choir, k? Please always remember that personal responsibility comes before choir responsibility. That means that before the comm, conductors and teachers can try and help the choir, each and every one of us has to go home and do all our homework, learn our music and be prepared. Now, going on to our big plans...

By choir camp, we should have learnt our whole repetoire. In other words, we have 4 practices left to finish learning Kodomo, Ave Regina Coelorum, Examine Me, Hodie Christus Natus Est, Ubi Caritas, Laudate Dominum, Mian Yi, Ting Tan Qin, Doo-Wop, Hail Holy Queen, Joyful Joyful and God Be in My Head. That's 12 pieces, excluding all the other pieces the conductors have yet to give us. Also, we will have to master LonDali, Examine Me and Hodie by choir camp in preparation for the Branko Stark workshop.

As you can see, we have A LOT of work to do. HOWEVER, although this seems like a very great task, I believe that we can do it. We will be having small group practices held in the morning (6:55-7:15) and during recesses (10:20-10:40 and 11:20-11:40) on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from now onwards. It is compulsory for everyone to be at at least 2 of these practices. Please make sure that you are there. SLs will be handing out sign-up sheets soon for you to put down in black and white which practices you are committing to attend. Yes, you are more than welcome to attend more than 2, if not all of the available practices. Please note that all this is being done for your good, so that you have the chance to practice your music.

Before practice on Wednesday (3rd March), please make sure you know Examine Me, LonDali and Hodie thoroughly. This includes new-comers. If you don't know how to learn the score on your own and need help, I am in 4M (linkway, level 2). You can also look for your buddies, octet leaders, SLs, any comm member or anyone else in choir. Ms Tham Pei Wen has also kindly volunteered to help, so if you need help, you can go to her too =D

Choir, I really hope that we work together, and put in our best effort. Remember our CNY performance? It showed us that nothing is impossible for this choir. Please remember to be prepared to work VERY hard for the next 4+ months, whether or not you are going on tour. If you have any problems or worries or anything you feel you want to address, I am in 4M =D Don't worry, I'm not going to scold you even if you say that I'm asking you to do something impossible. I rather know that you think I'm asking you to do something impossible, than you suffer in silence.

Okay. Work hard, and WE CAN DO THIS!!
Love you all!
eli sayampanathan

CANTABILE 2010

Presented by the MGS (Sec) Choir

and guest choirs from CHIJ Toa Payoh and MGS Primary


Date/Time: 29th May 2010, 7:30pm

Venue: MGS Auditorium, 11 Blackmore Drive

Ticket Price: $15 (Free Seating)


Please purchase your tickets from any mgs choir member.

heyyy choir!

hope you've enjoyed the first performance of the year. it's amazing how we've come so far, within 2 days. wednesday we werent that great, but we really pulled through, and friday's performance saw this huge jump in standard. just wanna encourage y'all to continue putting in the hard work, cause we got this big hill to climb, with "cantabile" and "russia tour" at the top. xDDD. not to mention that we've now seen what we can do if we put in the effort, we could flyyyy!!! i suppose that we can fly above aeroplanes in the next few months, and continue going up till we reach orbit. or mars. or pluto. ah you know what i mean. xDDD.

just a few reminders (as usual):
- try and learn up the rest of O Virgo Benedicta
- put in solfege for Examine Me until pg4 on the score, stop at the last system of the page, where the time changes to 6/8 and it says "moderato". (F - doh)


yep i think that's it for now.

xDDD
-christie-

HEYHEYCHOIR!!!!! =D

Yes, for all new-comers, I'm sure you'll all be able to relate to what Sarah said in the previous post...choir, just wanted to say how awesomely proud I am of all of you!! The choir sounded relatively awesome (except for the bad mikingssss...), and, well, yeah...

Well, we know how much effort it took us to get here, right? Since this was the first performance of the year, our standard for this performance would probably have been 50% of our potential. So, imagine if we work as hard (or harder!!)...Cantabile WILL be the best thing humans have ever heard. =D+D=D+D=D+D

Go and look through all your scores over the 5-day weekend, start memorising whatever you can, and be ready for choir on Friday!!

Well, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, and...okay, HAPPY TOTAL DEFENCE DAY.

Enjoy!
eli sayampanathan.

spread the love...

Reflection on Today's CNY Performance

Hi all,
This is my first time posting on the blog... ...
I am supposed to post my reflections/what I think about today's CNY performance... ...
Well, I feel that everybody was great and I think that all of us have put in our best and were enthusiastic. Also, all our efforts that we put in in memorizing the scores have paid off as I think the audience did enjoy the performance and some of them were clapping along to the music too.
This performance was also a new experience for me as it was my first time performing in MGS. At first I was a bit nervous but gradually, I started feeling more at ease and even quite enjoyed singing.

I like today's performance on stage and I am sure glad that we were all able to perform on stage today and no one had problems memorizing the scores!

However, the preparation was sure intense but well, it was worth it! And I think that also without God, and our conductors who have put in effort to train us and everybody in the MG Choir who practised really really hard, this performance would not have been successful.

In general, I am really happy that we were able to put up a good show for our friends and teachers in school and show that our choir is indeed a gold-standard choir! :)

-Sarah Ng-

Hellooooo (:
So, how's life in choir, so far?
Fun, I hope. (:
Anyways.
We have to memorise 大地回春 and 新年个儿大家唱 by Monday kay?
I know how you feel.
Don't worry cause [ahem]some people[ahem] have more difficulty than people who learn Chinese. XD
(Btw, for those people mentioned above, if you don't understand anything from the scores, please, PLEASE go and ask someone who knows)
Alrighties (:
I'm done here.
BYEEE and
Good luck memorising the scores (:
Mich

Heyoo Choir!!!

Well, now that auditions are over, the choir should be more stable, so we have to start running like racehorses, k? As in, we shall start practicing to the high heavens...

Audition results have been let out, so all successful auditionees, CONGRATS!! Good job on making it into the mg choir. It would not have been easy, but then again, the mg choir journey is not an easy one either! =D But hey, generations of mg girls have done it, so you'll be just fine...

Please look through all your scores (the whole choir...not just choir of '09), cause we've got a lot to work on in the coming weeks!!

BUHBYE!!
eli sayampanathan

ps. Go sell fundraising cards if you havn't finished!!

Heyosss choir!

hope y'all have been revising your scores, cause the new people are coming in tmr!!!

so as always, a few reminders:
1. brush up on kodomo, and start memorising
2. londali should be memorised, and if you havent then the deadline is this week.
3. more focus during practices please, we got uphill work to do!

----

yay my desktop can work alr, so yeah i can post more, i hope it doesnt crash again.

-----

To new people:
Welcome to the MG Choir!
please be reminded that the first practice for you gals is tmr,
please be at the bamboo courtyard at 2.10pm, your P.E. attire.
cause there's this thing called PT, a.k.a physical training.

------

-christie-

It only takes 2 steps to sing with the

MGS CHOIR

Step 1. Attend the Choir briefing

20^th or 27^th Jan 2010

2:30-5:30pm @ LT1 (*note change in venue– was previously conference room)

You will be given a “tour” of the mg choir which will give you a better idea of what is expected of you if you decide to join us. You will also get to attend part of a choir rehearsal and you may clarify your doubts during a question and answer session.

This briefing is compulsory if you want to be part of the choir. You can sign up for the audition after the briefing.

Step 2. Audition

22^nd or 29^th Jan 2010

You will be assigned the time slots and venue when you sign up after the briefing.

Please prepare a short song (no pop songs) to sing during the audition.

Audition results will be released through email and will be put up on the choir board by 1 Feb.

Please refer to the Choir notice board outside the MEP rooms (near auditorium) or the choir blog http://mgchoir-.blogspot.com/ for more details.

“Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!”

Psalm 147:7

hey ppl!
rmb to go thru ur scores! (kodomo and londali) try to just see thru the new scores!
don't forget! newcomers are walking in to see the choir! so be in ur best behaviour k?
and lastly, pls pay $120 and ur info to ur SLs ASAP!
-lee khim!

GOSH. I love the last post. It's awesome!! I shall treat whoever did that for lunch on Wednesday. =D Yes, you get the point, choir, we have awesome conductors and teachers and a awesomely fantastic choir with such fun-loving, hyper, enthusiastic, angelic (i hope!!) members (that's you, by the way, so you BETTER agree...), so GET PEOPLE TO JOIN!!!!

For those wannabe-mgchoir-members, it's definitely worth it joining choir. As a sec 4 (LOL. scary stuff, mann...), I can honestly tell you that I'm counting down the days, VERY regretfully, to the day I have to cry. At farewell...which better be good!! cuz I really want to cry...hinthint, Yann Ting...heheh...

Yeah, choir has held memories for all of us which are never to be forgotten...I'm gonna tell you a story. NO, DON'T START SCROLLING DOWN. it's not that loooonnnggg.....right?? Ok, you know, I joined my church choir for the advent season this year, cuz I figured it may be the last year I get to do it, plus it's kindda cute being the youngest member of the choir...I was talking to the church organist cum choir director (not conductor...).Suddenly, she started talking to me about her days as a secondary school choir member...I knew she was an old mg gal, so I was like, "yeah, I know, mg choir, right??" and she started jumping with her hands over her mouth. and she's probably 50/60+ years old. and she was in church. and she was JUMPING. You see, that's the effect choir has on you, k?

Basically, in choir, we learn about awesome stuff like solfege and music history and other stuff...it's awesome, cause you can go talk about it to some other musicians, and some of them have never ever heard of it before, and then,,,,you can make them look dumb =D=D=D=D=D
Also, unlike other performing arts groups, you don't have to have any prior qualifications. All you need to be able to do is sing....and considering that you're reading this, you probably do it every day in the shower anyways...so...yeah.

In the gist of it all, choir is awesome. Your best memories in MGS will be your time spent in choir. I'm not joking. I'm waiting for me to be 20 to actually realise that, but I can tell you in advance. For those of you in choir, treasure your years left in choir. For sec 4s, treasure your days/months/hours/minutes/seconds left in choir. For those not in choir yet, join choir so you get to hear me nagging at you about all this XO.

EVERY SMART PERSON WILL TELL YOU THAT YOU SHOULD JOIN CHOIR OR REGRET FOR LIFE. BE THE SMART ONE =D

Love,
your awesome best friend,
eli. sayampanathan.

About the Choir

The MGS choir strives not just to bless the people around us with the joy of music, but also bless each and every one of our members by inculcating several essential skills.

In(ter)dependence, diligence and a sense of shared responsibility are instilled into each chorister as music is learnt and made. Our conductors and teachers reinforce the important of making music as a group, taking great carae to establish self-discipline in every member because "a choir is only as strong as its weaker member".

By mastering vocal skill and techniques taught by our conductors and by growing as a choir, the MGS choir hopes to be of service to the school, the community and our Heavenly Father with the voices he has blessed us with.

Practices are twice a week, Wednesday and Friday, 2.30 - 5.30pm.

Our Conductors

Jennifer Tham

Jennifer is best known as the conductor of the Singapore Youth Choir (now the SYC Ensemble Singers) an ensemble she has led since 1986. A composer by training, she believes that the student chorister is the future of choral music in Singapore, and enjoys infecting young students with her own enthusiasm for music and the expressive medium of voice.

In addition to her work in schools, Jennifer has served on several artistic committees for the International Federation of Choral Music and serves on the Board, chairing a working group for the development of the Asia Pacific choral network. She also represents Singapore in the Choir Olympic Council and has been on the jury at the World Choir Games and at competitions in China, Germany, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. She has taught choir conducting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and has given workshops and courses to conductors in Indonesia and Japan.

Jennifer is a recipient of the inaugural Young Artist (Music) Award given by the National Arts Council and is a member of their arts resource panel.

Albert Tay

Albert believes strongly in cultivating high levels of disciplined musicianship, musical in(ter)dependence while having fun making music. Alberts choirs have won distinctions locally and internationally. He also believes in creating an appreciation by music written by living composers. Albert serves the SYC Ensemble Singers as Conducting Assistant.

Albert was selected to be an active participant in the conductors' masterclass organized by the International Federation for Choral Music, representing the Asia South Pacific region in the 7th World Symposium for Choral Music held in Kyoto, Japan. Apart from Theodora Pavlovitch (Bulgaria), he has also worked with established conducting teachers such as Karl Turunen (Finland), Alberto Grau (Venezuela) and Gary Graden (Sweden).

Albert majored in voice and studied vocal conducting with Jennifer Tham and orchestral conducting with Dr Robert Casteels at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with a Diploma in Music with Distinctions and BA (Hons) from the University of Wales (UK). Albert is a recipient of the Georgette Chen Scholarship and Arts Bursary, both awarded by the National Arts Council (Singapore) and the NAFA Scholarship for his diploma and degree studies.

Teachers-In-Charge

Tham Pei Wen

tham_pei_wen@moe.edu.sg

Angela Ng

angela_ng_suat_theng@moe.edu.sg

Cherie Heng

ong_su_ling_cherie@moe.edu.sg

welcome back to school, choir!!!
hope y'all have fun in your new classes and such.
anyway, as you may have noticed in the practice today, we need to speed up the learning of the pieces. soon enough, the competition scores will come in one big load, and we'll need to learn all of them by may (cause of the pre-tour concert).

please please please please please make an effort to go on this russia trip. from seniors, I heard that these trips are really worth going for, and that they really learn a lot. after all, how often do you sing in these international competitions, with top choirs from all over the world (maybe) ? xDD so please try to come for the trip. plus the more we sell the fundraising stuff, the more the subsidy will be, so we'll pay less if we sell more stuff.

few reminders:
- people go and get the name of your mortal from eli
- hand up your forms for the russia trip with the cheque
- revise scores!

oh and to those curious sec1s who read the blog (not sure if they do)
join choir!!!!!

xDDD
-christie-

HEY Choir!!! =D

Okays. Yes, as Christie said, come and get the name of your mortal from me. Before choir ends next Wednesday....and don't complain if you don't get one of your close friends, cause the whole point of the angel-mortal thing is to help you make friends with other people in choir who you may not know as well...and make sure you pamper your mortal, and send her LOADS of letters, k? If you find you're not receiving anything from your angel, come tell me, and I'll go and find your angel, k?

Also remember to practice all your scores...make full use of the rest of your holidays!!! Ms Tham and Mr Tay said that next year will be a realllllyyyy packed year, so if you want to have time to do anything other than choir stuff, you should learn your music ASAP. Remember, we have 18 pieces to go...plus all the other music we're gonna have to learn. Don't worry...we'll try and make choir as pleasant an experience as possible...

Remember to go and sell your fundraising stuff, k? If you have people still willing to buy more, you can go buy some off other choir members, or go see the teachers or something. Also publicise that we may have more cards printed shortly...yes, we're gonna have to sell those.

kk.
love you all!!
see you next wed!
eli sayampanathan

KODOMO!!!

hey guys!! this is my 1st time posting something here!
because of ellissa, i have to scan this out for u guys!! (i have only 1 monitor, and the scanner attached to the CPU is the one that has some problems with starting up the com...)
hope u ppl read it!!
(i think u can click on it to enlarge..)

[:leekhim:]

*have a gd yr ahead!!! (:

hi choir!

so y'all know that next year will be a very busy year, and hence I think we have to step it up. we got a longggg way to go. so we gotta concentrate!!! esp with new people coming in next year. must set good example okay.

ok just some reminders:
1. first practice of the year!!! 6 jan, wednesday, after school (obviously. xD)
2. go and get the name of your mortal from eli
3. practise your scores

LOL i'm quite high now.
yeah so anyway,
the list of people in which section will be posted soon, i think.
I think that's it for now.

lotsa craziness,
christie

HEY CHOIR!!

kk....Partae's over, people...hope you all enjoyed yourselves! =D Things were not as organised as I would have prefered them to be, but people were scolding me for trying to get things too organised, so....yeah...I hope that none of you were dying to go home or anything, cuz that's not the point of a party, is it??

Yeah, don't forget that the year's events are not over, k? We still have practice on the 30th Dec, so make sure you turn up for that. Go through all your scores and stuff like that, cause it won't be very nice for the conductors if we have to start from scratch all over again, right? Yeah, let's do them proud!! =D

kk. tatafornow!
eli sayampanathan

HI CHOIR!
I'm here to post something utterly random but totally cool.
Like, I'm sure you've all heard Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say" right!
SOOOOOOOOOO
Like some people say he ripped off Imogen Heap's "Hide And Seek" but whatever.
Anyway!
I found this awesome singing group/choir/whatever who sang it!
AND IT'S LIKE AMAZING.
SO WATCH IT!
Cool or WHAT!
Did you hear the dude singing the high note? And we can all learn something from this totally-not-frivolous-post/video. Note their dynamics! And blending! And they all watch the conductor etc.
And yes, they're all dudes.
Let's not be too blown away by that awesomeawesomeawesome performance and remember Ellissa's equally long post.
Love,
Marian

Awesome times...

HEY CHOIR!!!!

Hope everyone is looking forward to the X'mas party! =D YOU BETTER BE. Just to ask, can anyone bake? Cuz we need volunteers to bring food and stuff....We'll let you know how we're gonna get the food FOOD done, but we need people to volunteer to bring cake, cookies, cake, cookies and more cake. Yeah, I know it's bad for our voices, but WHO CARES? We all deserve a bit of fun for 1 night. (yeah...and let's all keep it to the night of the 11th of dec, k?)

Awesome things are being planned, so please keep an Eye on your Email (you see? There's gotta be a reason for this awesome coincidence, right?), cause we'll be updating you =D

SO, please drop me or Rachael an email if you can bring cake. or cookies. or anything else. OH! And if you're waiting for us to ask you personally if you can sponsor anything, please don't...cause I don't read minds....Just drop me an(other) email to tell me what you want to sponsor, so we don't have to keep a budget in mind for that.

Yupz. Are you'all practicing your scores? YOU BETTER BE. hehe...naw....just make sure you're prepared for choir next year, k? Don't keep practicing until you get bored of choir, or the comm will have to work extra hard to get you all alive again next year....

OH! And please remember to drink lots of water, k? I'm guilty...I just recovered from a sore throat....so, learn...It may be rainy season, but the rain doesn't just seep into your body by magic. yeah...

Oh, and I know how much we're all missing choir (right, Right, RIGHT???) So, here's a thought for you...

"I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite."

-Isaiah 57:15 (2)

Please remember to tell me if you can't make it for the party on the 11th, and OH! If you still havn't gone for 3 concerts this year, there are LOADS of concerts to go and watch during the holidays, so email me, and I'll tell you some good ones to go see, k? Or you can pick up the Esplanade diary (which you can get at the Esplanade, by the way...) and see what good concerts there are. Yes, you can go even if you've already done 3 concerts for the year. More is good.

ok.
love you, dears!
eli sayampanathan

yo choir!!!

ok this is kind of a sum-up of what's been going on, for those who missed practices recently.

-we finished ting tan qin
-attempted yagi xDDD
-got new scores (mary's song, children etc.)
-learnt first few pages of "children" (the japanese song)

hmm hope that holidays have been so far enjoyable, so to speak.

oh ya I found this video on youtube. it's our performance from the Sounds Of Hope concert.
"You Raise Me Up" Mgchoir+String Ensemble
dunno who posted it. haha it doesnt have picture, but then again, you dont need pictures to hear a choir right?



here's the link if needed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3nD0LLuofc
there's also the other performances of the concert.

lotsa awesome randomness,
-christie-