OUR CHOIR - vulnerablecreations.files.wordpress.com · The King’s Singers and others, such as Bob Chilcott for this piece, have developed several vocal harmony arrangements of the

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With an illustrious history of music-making that dates back to 1969, the same year the College was founded, the NJC Choir has a consistent track record of excellent performances in the past 47 years. As a member of the Ministry of Education’s Choral Excellence Programme since its inception in the 1980s, the Choir has been invited to perform on various important occasions such as the Appreciation Dinner for MOE Ministers in 2011. In 2015, the Choir presented three songs at the Parliament House, as a mark of respect to the nation’s founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew. The Choir also performed at the Singapore Legal Service National Day Observance ceremony in August last year.

The Choir contributes actively to the lively arts scene in the College through its own concerts as well as through collaborative performances with other CCA groups such as the String Orchestra. At the same time, the Choir has established itself in the international choral scene through its participation in competitions in Italy, Germany and Ireland. In 2012, the NJC Choir competed in the 40th International Choir Festival in Olomouc, the Czech Republic, and emerged with two Gold Awards, as well as an opportunity to compete for the title of the Ultimate Festival Winner. Most recently, in the biennial Singapore Youth Festival Choral Competition, both the Senior High and Junior High Choir clinched Distinction awards at the 2015 Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging of JC Choirs and Secondary School Choirs by an international panel of adjudicators.

OUR CHOIR

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SENIOR HIGH CHOIR

SOPRANOSPersis Lok

Rachel Teng Rui QiLim Jia Li, Valerie

Emily Meow Xin YiOshima Erika

See Su Yun AliciaNadrah Bte Mohaime

Megan QuekLim Hui Yi

Jane Kwa Qian YingGuo Ziting

ALTOSWen Junting

Allison Lau Li YinKoo Ruey Yi

Tanya SangrungMei Ruoying

Xing WantingPrakhya Bhatnagar

Lee Yan QiBeverley Yap Qian NingNabila Fatharani Azka

TENORSTruong Hai Bang

Koh Zhi Hong JasonLiu Jialiang

Muhammad Reyaaz Bin Haji Abdul Basheer

Kirshann Venu DasLiu Guangyuan

BASSESXu Hao YueHu Xiangji

Toh Yong Fong NathanFan Runyao

Koh Wei Ming

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JUNIOR HIGH CHOIR

SOPRANOSCheong Xue Min Chloe

Natasha KowshikGoh En Qi

Riya WaratheLee Jia JIa

Tan Wei Shan CharmaineJustina Tan Sue Ching

See Jia Wei, TeresaNg Xin YinAnnie Lim

Charlotte Chia Si YunAn Ye Tong

ALTOSFenna Hoi

Jiang YuchenYang Yujie

Victoria Ong Dai QiYao Yi

Neha LakshmananTan Xin Wei

Abinithi ArunkumarFaith Tan Gin AnnJavier Tan Zhiquan

Rose Cai Jia AiJerry AndikkoLer Yi Cheng

Leow Yu Xuan

TENORSJustin Wong

Cheong Hao ShaunMuhammed Syahmi B

SumadiGabriel Tan Hshun Hui

Rauf Imtiyaz B Mohaime

BASSESJosaf Toh Jun WenKenji Joseph Wong

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OUR CONDUCTORSJUNIOR HIGH CHOIR - MS DAWN YIN

Dawn began her journey in choral conducting in the Victoria Junior College choir as their assistant student conductor. Her passion for choral music led her to pursue a full time career in choral conducting since 2005.

Dawn aims to cultivate an appreciation and sensitivity towards music in her students. She also strongly believes that choral singing is a tool that can be used to develop character and spirit, and it is with this in mind that she leads her choirs. Under Dawn’s direction, her choirs have gone on to achieve outstanding results in both local and international choral festivals.

Dawn is also very actively involved in the local choral scene, and presently sings in ONE, a semi-professional choir conducted by Ms Lim Ai Hooi.

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SENIOR HIGH CHOIR - MR LIM TIONG KIANG

Lim Tiong Kiang is a choral conductor and vocal trainer with more than a decade of experience helping music-lovers of different ages and backgrounds excel in the art of choral singing. His school choirs have consistently done well at the annual Singapore Youth Choir Arts Presentation, winning Distinctions, Gold with Honours and Gold awards.An avid chorister himself, Tiong Kiang sings with ONE Chamber Choir which won the First Prize in the Chamber Choir category at the 1st Andrea Veranacion International Choral Festival 2013 held in Manila. They also emerged Second Prize in the mixed and open categories of Llangollen International Eisteddfod, Wales, UK. TIong Kiang currently serves as an assistant conductor with ONE Chamber Choir.Tiong Kiang is honoured to have been commissioned to compose both the lyrics and music for the school song of North Vista Primary School. He is also grateful for the opportunity to have worked with aspiring teenagers from the Cerebral Palsy Alliance of Singapore on their presentation for the 8th ASEAN Para Games 2015 Opening Ceremony held in Singapore.

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PROGRAMMECombined ChoirJenga Imani Yako

Senior High ChoirTambur

Northern LightsIddem-dem Mallida

Junior High ChoirAnd So It Goes

TegamiIma Kokoni

Short People

Combined ChoirButterfly

Intermission

Musical

Dawn began her journey in choral conducting in the Victoria Junior College choir as their assistant student conductor. Her passion for choral music led her to pursue a full time career in choral conducting since 2005.

Dawn aims to cultivate an appreciation and sensitivity towards music in her students. She also strongly believes that choral singing is a tool that can be used to develop character and spirit, and it is with this in mind that she leads her choirs. Under Dawn’s direction, her choirs have gone on to achieve outstanding results in both local and international choral festivals.

Dawn is also very actively involved in the local choral scene, and presently sings in ONE, a semi-professional choir conducted by Ms Lim Ai Hooi.

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COMBINED SONG

Jenga Imani Yako Composed in the Kwaya music tradition of Tanzania by Composer Israel Kagaruki, this vibrant Swahili song means “build your faith” and encourages people to keep moving forward and to never give up, even though they may face hard times. Easily learned by school, church and festival choirs, the music includes percussion, text, translation, pronunciation and suggestions for adding movement.

SENIOR HIGH CHOIR SONGS

Northern LightsNorthern lights is a four part choral piece written by Norwegian Composer, Ola Gjeilo. He was inspired to compose this piece in the winter of 2007, as he witnessed the Northern Lights over a wintry lake in Norway. This natural phenomena embodies both power and peace, shrouded with a tinge of mystery- as reflected in the dynamics and tone of this piece. It is a beautiful and calming piece that would leave one in awe and mesmerisation of nature’s winter magic.

Iddem-dem MallidaIddem-dem Mallida is a traditional Itneg victory battle chant arranged into a choral piece by Professor Elmo Makil. Its origin is the Mountain Province of Northern Philippines. Though this piece largely conveys the joy and pride of the people who had won the battle, it also commemorates those who had died in battle.

SYNOPSES

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TamburTambur "Régi táncdal" ("Old dance song") is a traditional hungarian folk song composed by Hungarian composer Lajos Bárdos. The Tambur is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. This piece has a wonderful, lively tempo with clever changes of accent, typical of authentic Hungarian folk music.

JUNIOR HIGH CHOIR SONGS

And So It Goes‘And So It Goes’ is a lyric poem written by Billy Joel in 1983. Joel wrote the song about a doomed relationship with model Elle Macpherson. Their relationship was dramatic, as Macpherson was only a teenager while Joel was reaching his mid-30s. It has been covered by many subsequent artists. The King’s Singers and others, such as Bob Chilcott for this piece, have developed several vocal harmony arrangements of the song, which are often performed by high school and college choirs.

Tegami"Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e)", which translates to “Letter (Greetings to a 15 Year Old)" is the eighth Japanese single by Angela Aki. This song is about a 15 year old who writes to her 30 years old self. It seeks for advice on how to live life through the many troubles, painting a scene of a young woman striving to capture her dream, with endless struggles. The later part of the song includes a reply from the 30 year old adult, to the 15 year old self. In the midst of formidable obstacles that hindered the 15 year old self from her dream, the adult encourages herself to not give up.

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Ima KokoniThis song, written by Reiko Ito and composed by Ko Matsushita, emphasizes the joy in being able to sing then. This song was written after the occurrence of the Great East Japan Earthquake, in a time of physical bareness, in which one has lost everything except his soul. In such despair, this song declares loudly to the fellow survivors that they are alive. Furthermore, it speaks not just the voice of a single person but rather that of a choir.Composed for the purpose of being sung at a charity concert, “Sing for Japan”, the author wrote this to encourage the people in East Japan, to exclaim “There is hope!!”.

Short People"Short People" is a song by Randy Newman from his 1977 album, Little Criminals. The verses and chorus are lyrically constructed as a prejudiced attack on short people. In contrast, the bridge states that "short people are just the same as you and I." Newman interprets the song to be about "prejudice" as was widely thought, but added that it was "about a lunatic". The song has been performed by various Choirs, such as the King’s Singers.

COMBINED SONG

ButterflyComposed by Mia Makaroff for the Finnish a cappella ensemble Rajaton, Butterfly has a haunting and lilting melody. It speaks of the beautiful world as seen from the eyes of a newly-emerged butterfly, as well as the inevitable fate that awaits it at the end of its short life. The emotions of the song are brought forth by the majestic chords that express wonder and excitement of the butterfly.

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MUSICAL

Written and produced by our own choristers, this musical is a crossover of the musicals The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked. The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical) is based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux, and features award-winning music from the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Its story revolves around the beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious disfigured musical genius. Wicked (2003 musical), on the other hand, is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It is an alternative telling of the classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and revolves around the friendship of the two witches of Oz, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch of the South).

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The NJC Choir would like to show our appreciation to the following people and groups who have supported us and helped make this concert a success:

Our Principal, Mr Ang Pow Chew, Vice-Principals, Mr James Lim, Mr Liong Huai Yu and Mr. Zainal, and the school administration for the support given in all the pursuits of the NJC Choir.

Our teachers-in-charge, Mr. Ng Kian Tiong, Ms. Chua Siok Kheng, Mrs Mandy Keng, Ms. Wan Wai Sum, Ms. Meena Kaur, Ms. Oh Wen-Ci and Mrs Peter Thia, for their constant support and guidance through our journey as Choristers in NJC Choir.

Our conductors, Mr Lim and Mdm. Dawn Yin, for unfaltering faith in every one of us and for imparting invaluable musical knowledge, and in doing so, nurturing us to become a better choir.

Our friends from NJC's Photography Club, Digital Video Club, the stage crew, the ushering and reception teams for the invaluable assistance.

All in the audience, especially our family members and friends, who have supported us all the way.

All those who have helped in one way or another.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS