The Voices of Singapore Strengthening a Nation Through Choral Singing

when we sing alone

we feel a whole range of emotions

when we sing alone we are able to pull

thoughts and messages from the deepest

depths

of our soul when we sing

with someone beside us suddenly those

thoughts and messages

are further developed there is

a strengthened message in the knowledge

that someone else

is sharing the same idea as you

and when we sing with an entire group of

people

those thoughts and messages are further

amplified

many times over the voice and the sounds

that we make with our voices

magically turn into motivation

drive passion interaction

and reflection

that is the power of choral singing

choral music is today one of the world’s

most

accessible art forms it is also

the world’s most well-loved art forms

where anyone

and everyone can be a part of

the voice is the most

diplomatic and democratic instrument

simply because

it costs nothing

coral music today is used in the

elements of

culture community youth and ideology

and also to express every single element

of life

i was born into a loving family of four

i was fortunate to have been exposed to

music at a very young age

my father played the gita and the piano

and my mom sang

in school choirs so there was always

music at home

i remember my father always serenading

my sister and i to sleep without his

voice

we would never be able to sleep

when i was five my dad bought me a tiny

white keyboard

and taught me the simplest chords on

them

as he taught me he sang songs

that i still remember to this day

naturally when i grew up i loved

playing the piano and singing along it

was

and it became an outlet for me to

express

that for which words could not express

because you see while it was awkward for

me

to talk to myself about how i felt

it was never awkward for me to sing

about how i felt

music became my outlet to express

my highest and lowest points in my

childhood one of the most memorable

times

that i’ve had in my childhood was when i

was primary five

when the entire cohort in my school had

to go for the national day preview

as i sat in the stadium together with

thousands of other screaming children

and youth

i felt this electric atmosphere

enter my body i’ve never felt anything

like it before

i was waving my arms in the air and

singing my heart out

i had no idea what was happening

everyone around me was doing the same

what shocked me the most was seeing the

quietest boy in my class

stand and raise his arms and

sing as though his heart meant

a thousand times more than what he said

that day was a day i always remembered

because that day

gave me a taster of what the power of

singing in communities could be like

fast forward a few years later

into my young adult life when i decided

to

pursue a career in music

i majored in core conducting and piano

and composition

and i conducted numerous choirs from

institutional choirs to school choirs

children’s choirs and professional

groups

and through all these experiences that

i’ve had

i was always assured and reassured

in every choral experience

that choral singing can improve

a person’s life for the better

i have seen countless individuals

join a choir dejected upset depressed

afraid insecure scared

and lonely only to come out of a

rehearsal after a few months

passionate motivated driven happy

i have seen whole families and i have

taught whole families

who join the choir together only to find

a bond

unlike anything they have ever had

before

there is something special that happens

when

a parent sings with a child

i have also taught singers who came from

broken families

who found a new musical family

in which they could have social support

as well as emotional support

we have had singers who came

from families who have lost loved ones

and

sang inquires to heal

there are countless other stories of

individuals

that join choirs and transform into

confident people

and change their whole entire being

from the way they speak to the way they

walked the way they dress to the way

they think choral music has that power

to transform

after a few years of conducting i went

on to pursue

my postgraduate studies in wales at the

royal college

at the roy welch college of music and

drama

it was then that once again it changed

my entire perception

of music making spending one and a half

years

in what they call the land of song

opened my eyes to different

possibilities of music making

you see because in wales they have a

long tradition of centuries of singing

that go down to the 12th century

of the bardic traditions and the aesthet

and the music festivals and the old

cold mining days where the men used to

sing

during my first week in cardiff i

remembered when i walked along the

streets

people were singing everywhere either

spontaneously

or caroling there were

office choirs and it was always

a norm in welsh offices to have

office choirs so that colleagues can

sing with each other

it provided a level of understanding of

each other there were community choirs

children’s choirs and cathedral choirs

it was an incredible country to be

living in for the one and a half years

of my life

the most memorable experience in wales

was

also in a stadium

my one and only rugby match that i went

to watch

my friends gave me an experience unlike

any other

as i said in the stadium i watched

thousands of spectators

mostly men breaking out spontaneously

into well songs

they were so proud of their heritage and

their songs

it was an incredible experience

there was no stigma of male singing

in wales

when i came back to singapore i was more

driven than ever

i was driven to make a difference in

singapore

because i knew of the benefits that

choral singing could do

i knew of all the wonderful things

that choral singing can do

in 2016 i started the voices of

singapore festival

this festival was a free festival for

all

to participate in the festival had

thousands of singers from all walks of

life

it wasn’t a competition the aim of the

festival

was to promote the singing singapore

that we already had

singapore had so many races so many

different groups

we wanted to provide a stress-free

platform for

singaporeans to enjoy

and the annual festival that we have had

saw

thousands and thousands of people who

came together from all walks of life

families will bring families will bring

friends will bring

many other friends to enjoy the music

and people with day jobs will come

before

the festival to enjoy the singing

of others it wasn’t about

how well you sang or what was

great or who was the best

it was about giving a part of your voice

for the greater good of the community

fast forward to 2019

voices of singapore is now

an official non-profit organization

instead of just having the festival

every year

we had choirs of all types

we had community choirs we had

professional groups we had chamber

choirs

women’s choirs men’s choirs children

youth

and we also had a research choir with

nus

that looked into researching on

preventing dementia using choral music

it was a wonderful year 2019 where we

traveled

many places to promote singaporean music

we saw many people transform through

choral singing

then

december hit when covet 19

was first announced and shared with the

world

23rd january 2020 the first

case of kovite 19 happened in singapore

and it sparked panic among us all

within a few days we had renew of news

of

singers who were stuck overseas of

singers who had

friends and families who were stuck

overseas who were desperate to reunite

what made it worse was when we had a

singer

who was exposed to a cov19 patient

outside

the choral society so to play safe we

had to cancel

all our rehearsals and our concerts

it was truly a difficult time for all of

us

as the team at voices of singapore set

down to discuss we were

having a very difficult time thinking

about what to do next

but more so what was going on in my mind

was because this was such a time of

insecurity and uncertainty i

knew that music had the power to do

something

i knew that music and singing

using an instrument that everyone had

had the power to do something in this

time

so after hours of discussions with the

voices of singapore team

it was then that

the singapore virtual choir was born

virtual choirs in the world are not a

new

thing they have been in existence in it

for a long time and the

basic process of a virtual choir is

having an individual record him or self

on a video

send it to an organizer who collates all

the videos together to present it

as a virtual choir the singers do not

need to be in the same place together

but for voices of singapore we wanted

the singapore virtual choir project to

be something so much more

we wanted the project to be

promoting strength unity

and love within singaporeans

so we embarked on not the end result we

focused

on the most important element which is

the process

we enabled each and every participant

to understand the voice to to make sure

that when they sang they understood each

and everything that they did

we made the recording experience as

beautiful as possible

so that singaporeans watching it

overseas were recording themselves could

imagine

the beauty of singapore when they sang

for singaporeans

we also did training videos that helped

those who have never sung before that

went

into every single word and every single

meaning of the text so that our thoughts

were aligned

i remember the day before the launch of

the video

we what we thought would have received

100 videos

eventually came to 904

videos from singaporeans from 26

different countries

and also people living in singapore it

was overwhelming

and when my team and of editors sent the

final video when i was jogging

i stopped i sat on the bench and i

watched the video

and after one minute

i started bawling my eyes out because

the

level of energy and passion in

each and every singaporean each and

every person living in singapore

who contributed to this video was

overwhelming

they had so much to say within their own

stories but when they came together

they sit so much together

during the launch of the virtual choir

the week of the launch

we were very grateful to have received

media attention nationally

and also a lot of compliments and of

people who said

how touched they were but for me

one thing was the most important

it was one comment that made it all for

me

it was one comment on the youtube video

of the home

video that said this from a healthcare

worker

this song makes me more motivated to

perform my

job well i heard this song during my

my shift break today to all healthcare

workers

we can do this

this sentence meant everything to me

because this sentence

transcended just having a good

and nice sounding music video it was a

call to action

this showed that singing

changed the lives of people this

showed that like the participants

in the virtual choir it doesn’t matter

where you are from or what

you do or how old you are or what

your family background is

all of you can make a difference

in the months that followed voices of

singapore

continued our mission and vision of

building the singing singapore

and we helped help serve a charity

organization to raise

funds for our migrant workers as well

but in all these choral singing

always touches and manages to change

people

there is an intense feeling when the

instrument is within the body

i leave you with one last phrase that i

hold very dearly to myself because at

the end of the day

no matter where we come from we all have

voices and i leave you with this phrase

at the end of the day it’s not about the

number of breaths you took

but the moments that took your breath

away

i leave you with the last slide of home

virtual choir

[Music]

thank you

you