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