Much as I don't want it to end, WYCF did end this afternoon. It was pretty sad. I made a lot of friends over there. With the duration being just a mere two weeks ... the whole camp was not long enough!!! Especially not with so many fun people.

It really is kind of an empty feeling - knowing that the whole two weeks of hard training and crazy moments have ended. Although I'm always sleeping during the break times in the auditorium since I only go out if I want to eat or meet Evangeline and Yibin, I still had lots of fun.

There's Michelle bunny who is always so hyper and cute. She's also the most friendly actually.

Kim, who can be considered one of the most rational of us and is my 'uncle'.

There is also Sarah, the really friendly person. Unfortunately she had to go overseas so didn't see her after the first week.

Agnes, my 'mother' and 'grandmother' of Ms Yin, I think. I still remember what she said: “因为我要子孙满堂”. And I think everyone from SSA knows her birthday.

I will always remember Alyssa as the girl who draws great manga sketches. She was also one of the first few that I introduced myself to on the first day of the SSA soprano one sectionals. And also the one I'm always standing next to for all performances.

Sheena, who is always really friendly and has the Elmo keychain.

For the slightly more senior ones, there is Yvonne, who is our section leader. She is also the willing 'wife' of Melvin, who is at least four years younger than her.

Amanda (Yar-mahn-dah) the senior one but she doesn't need to worry since she looks young. Haha, she will get sad if someone talks about her real age.

Yee Ching, the next SSA Sop One section leader who is also our dear soloist for Mieli. She is a really great singer.

Shirley the considerate person who will wake me once practice starts otherwise I will just sleep on. But I will wake up once someone plays the piano so that doesn't happen often actually. =P

Wendy who always offer to take photos with her phone

Samantha who is quiet but will talk to you if you take the first step.

Zi Xin, I'm sorry that I sometimes get you mixed up with another girl and you're a really nice person.

Melvin, the only boy in SSA and is doted on by the Soprano Ones as he's the youngest too.

Then there is Josselyn, who is really helpful.

Aisha and Charlotte who are always together and they really take a lot of photos with almost everyone.

Melissa, Wan Xin's and Agnes' friend from SSA alto who is as friendly as Agnes too =]

And there's our Ms Yin who has helped us incredibly during the pre-festival period. She saved the Soprano Ones from giving up on ourselves for Ah, Dolente Partita. Ms Yin also made the Sop Ones refrain from 'attacking' all the high notes with warm ups in the dance studio that include singing insanely high notes in pp. Ms Yin and Ms Angila pushed us on everyday and yet never hesitated to show their support for us.

Ms Angila who did the Mary had a Little Lamb and Happy Birthday exercise with us. Not to mention the German pronunciation for Shreight or something. I just remember the three fingers for the Shi-righ-teh thing. And the posture classes including the bending down part which you asked us to do with SATB too. It was kind of tiring doing the posture thing but we know you just wanted us to look good. I think.

Mr Turunen helped to lessen our phobia of Ah, Dolente Partita and challenged us with all the dynamics in all the songs - especially for Der Wassermann and Mieli. There was also the emotion part whereby we had to think of our feelings for the song since three out of four of the songs were related to love and passion. There was this girl from Alto that asked him about it. Since we were too young to know what is really love, he said

"Just think of the boy you like. How you want to be near him, and see him. But you don't have the courage to tell him or talk to him."
"Sir, what if the boy doesn't like you and wants you out of his sight?"
"Erm, but you still want to be near him, don't you?"

Well, we did manage to do the songs well during the real thing. Except for Joiku. It was interesting singing a different version of Joiku. We had to change our voices to sound like five-year-olds and sound like forty-year-olds at the end. Our clapping was shaky but it was really good considering that crescent choir took one whole month to do the clapping perfect without a single mistake from everyone. I think the Um-pe-e-ci-ka part was also nice since I taught the Sopranos how to do it =DDD

And thank you Juniper, for shouting that I rock after the SSA choir performed. I was really surprised but happy. Thanks! I don't know if I missed out anyone but there were really many people who were really great from the festival. Most of them are from my section though.

I love all the songs that we have learnt in such a short amount of time, with so many other great and passionate people. We learnt vocal techniques through the lectures and workshops. We had combined rehearsals in the morning with Mr Bob Chilcott and our own SSA, SATB rehearsals after lunch at CCAB for the whole week. SSA was conducted by Mr Kari Turunen who, like I mentioned, helped us a lot for Ah, Dolente Partita. He's a great conductor who gave us all the confidence to tackle the difficult songs.

Mr Chilcott is also a fun conductor who stresses on the importance of dynamics. He will do anything just to let us sing better, from dancing to trying to express the gentle feelings in The Goose and the Swan. That was my favourite song by the way.

I really like all the different conductors. It was really fun getting to know different conductors and their different styles. I got to make so many friends and got lucky this year. I really hope we can get together again to perform or at least meet up once more. If you ask me to describe how this experience has been for me, I would just say that it has been incredibly wonderful, and I shall cherish the memories of the past two weeks.

Labels: choir, WYCF