2nd Competition, State Level, Sekolah Sri KDU

Usual competition morning routine. Rehearsals were hectic as the competition days came nearer and nearer. Rehearsals during the holiday break, Ng Shyh Poh was there teaching us with Tyler Chin. Both very memorable teachers as they are really motivating, just like Susanna. Susanna was away travelling so, they took her place to train us. First day, Shyh Poh took the lead by teaching us all sorts of techniques. I was terrified by him honestly. Especially when I have not actually had the alto part solid.. well.. I did, I was just TOO SCARED to sing solo when he was doing some checking with the altos. Callie our pianist of the year was having her piano exam somewhere, so Tyler was playing the piano. I marvel him as he played our pieces almost flawlessly and it being the first time him playing it. He was a great pianist! And furthermore, he self learnt it on his own.

We worked hard and Shyh Poh was (hopefully) happy. Tyler (tenor), Shyh Poh (bass). Aaron Teoh (Tenor) , Tyler's extraordinarily cute friend was there too. Aaron and Tyler sings in the Young Kuala Lumpur Singers also known as YKLS under Susanna. Shyh Poh is from the Dithyrambic Singers directed by Ian Lim Kean Seng.

Competition day was 2 days after the Young Singer's Choral Festival (YSCF) and we all came back with sore throats and hoarse voices. Our performance to Susanna was bad. It was not up to standards and it was horrible! I still remember what had happened. All of us were terrified and disappointed. "What are your excuses?! sore throat?! Come on! Who ask y'all to scream so much at the festival??..... Do you know, your performance today is horrible! What happened to the team who won in Interschool?! I'm not even sure that your team would place at state level!"

I remembered every word. I'm not going to say who that person was, but whatever she said was all true. We were a let down and the competition was the next day.

We practiced harder determined to make ourselves better and not disappoint anyone anymore. It was our turn to perform now. The hall at Sri KDU was big and somewhat intimidating. Being a private school, the hall was very well equipped with a full grand piano, spotlights and what soever not. The only thing was, they didn't have condenser microphones. (Condenser mics are those mics which are special and pickup every sound around it and it is very very sensitive. These mics are designed specially for musical instruments and Choirs.)

Before we were up, we had a meditation session with Shyh Poh. Tracy was there too. Wen Chin (alto from Dithyrambic Singers) and Tracy is a soprano from the YKLS and also one of the Kuala Lumpur Children's Choir teachers.

We started our song and we tried our best. Out of the 7 altos, Me, Mable, Shao Jun, Hui Tze, Alyssa, and Siti Salwa, 4 of us were having bad throats and were barely able to sing. I tried as hard as I could to sing. It came out! yay! sound! harmony! But it was painful. The feeling of swallowing sand was scorching my throat. There were some points where I had to sing softer and do a little bit of lip singing. And also, we weren't standing in our voice groups, we were actually standing in mixed position. Yee Hsuen, sop 1 was on my left and Imran, bass was on my right. My harmony was much better at the time and I had improved a lot learning and paying attention in every rehearsal.

It was over and we took a bow and went off stage. We waited to all the other choirs performing. Some were good, some were not so good, some were very good. Finally, it was over. We were competing with Catholic High School Choir and SMK Kepong Choir. They are two choirs which are of very high standards in this competition. It was the first time the Seafield Choir was in the State level anyway. We weren't expecting any high ranks but we hoped at least the "Juror's choice award". They called out from third place......

Third Place goes to.....

SMK Catholic High School!

We had a shock of our lives. SMK Catholic H.S are one of the best choirs around. Who would have gotten 2nd place and first place!? Emotions going wild, we were holding hands and squeezing fists tightly. Please let us rank, Please let us rank was all that was going around in my mind. Everyone was nervous.

Second place goes to...

*Ohmigosh,Ohmigosh, I think I'm gonna faint!*

..................................................................

..................................

............

...

..

.

SMK SEAFIELD!

Oh my gosh! I cried! That was the FIRST time I've ever had tears of joy!

The first thing I did was sms mom, dad, and sis of the news. OMIGOSH! I still cant believe it!. Called Tyler and he was extremely happy too! And of course, few years consecutive winners, SMK Sri Kepong. We were thrilled of the news, that we beat CATHOLIC HIGH! It was almost Impossible! We didn't expect that coming. At all!