Today, I went to Victoria Concert Hall to participate in the event as an audience, along with Carol. We got the tickets from YJC. Each school has to sing 3 pieces, one of which is a set piece, and the other 2, choice pieces. After 3 schools, I realised how boring can it get with each school sing the same starting song. The only variation is the interpretation of the piece by the conductors and the choirs.

I attended the AM session, meaning, I got to see my Alma mater performing (in fact, they were the first school) along with several heavy-weights. Yishun Junior College did a good job in presenting the 3 songs, although there are spots where it sounded messy, and and hard to understand. It is also advantageous to them for being the first to be up on the stage. The judges will not have any expectations based on previous choirs’ performance. Right after my Alma mater, Victoria Junior College, followed by Raffles Junior College performed their hearts out. It was rather telling that the choir members of both VJC and RJC had some degree of vocal training. The sound produced are quite pure, bright and vibrant, emotions were filling in the notes.It just makes me wanting to take up vocal lessons, a musing I had when I was in Monk’s Hill Secondary School.

The forth school to perform was Jurong Junior College. As expected, everyone had expectations of them doing as well as the previous schools. However, the walk-in already let them down. They had 8 guys, and I assumed enough number of girls to make up the numbers. There is a minimum number of members in the choir before the choir can enter itself for the Central Judging. The conductor did not had the command aura around her. The first few notes out of the choir members sent shivers down my spine and I grated my teeth. I was kind of glad that Carol was spared from this as she had left for a short toilet break. The guy who sat beside us commented, “Epic C.O.P!” It stands for Certification of Participation. In secondary school’s central judging, a COP can mean good effort, try harder next time. In junior college level, what kind of performance are you putting up? You mean this is your best??? Well, they asked for it. The notes came out wrong, flats and sharps; the dynamics were screwed up. I applaud them for their efforts, or lack of it…

After that, the ‘entertainment’ value decreased. The set piece, once again, was getting boring; most of the choice pieces each school choir sang were un-imaginative, or not engaging at the best. But then again, SYF Central Judging is an event for the performing arts of the schools to present on even grounds. So having choice pieces alone can be deceiving of the groups’ performance. By having a set piece, it establishes a common ground for all the performing group. Smart, but still boring…

The school choirs who sang in the morning are:

1. Yishun Junior College
2. Victoria Junior Colege
3. Raffles Junior College
4. Jurong Junior College
5. Anglo-Chinese Junior College
6. Catholic Junior College
7. Duman High Institution
8. National Junior College
9. Tampines Junior College
10. Meridian Junior College

There are 9 more other schools that performed in the afternoon session. I cannot attend further as I had to go back to camp. Anyway, Carol was there for waiting for the results and her sister’s school (Nanyang Junior College) to perform. When the results was out, I received it via SMS (rather, I pestered Carol to give me the results even when it was not out yet.) YJC gotten Silver! Like finally! I am pleasantly surprised. JJC gotten C.O.P, Seragoon Junior College gotten Bronze. 7 other schools gotten Gold With Honours, and the rest, Gold. When Bradley came, he asked for the results too. He was not that surprised to hear about JJC’s performance.

Going back to such event made me realised that I still miss choir, but I somehow, I don’t miss the past… I saw Candee and some others, but I did not talk much to them… I felt rather detached.. >.<

Update 060509: The results (courtesy of Choral Directors’ Association)