SYC Ensemble Singers on Tour

JOURNEY

In our 40-year journey as a choir, we have traveled to many faraway lands, to find our place and voice on the international stage. Although we are heading to yet another contest, for us it has always been about becoming better than we are. By turning up the heat, we hope to forge a resilient flexible ensemble. SYC tour veterans will tell you that the trophies are not what we remember. It's always the other things - things that remind us why we sing to travel, and travel to sing.

We sing because song builds bridges between peoples. Making music together seems even more urgent in these times of unrest. Every two years or so, for the past 30 years, we have brought nations together in song and shared our voices with thousands of others at festivals and competitions worldwide.

The occasion to sing has brought Singapore to the rest of the world and the rest of the world home. The spontaneous joint wailing of Wade in the Water with Der Kleine Madrigalchor in a Tees-side stairwell led to Singaporeans invading Aachen, camping á la sardines in German homes; and then to fair-skinned bare German bodies on the beaches of sunny Sentosa. We have found that Finns really enjoy satay by the hundreds (thousands?) of sticks, and that herring is an acquired taste. They politely say the same of that local delicacy, durian. And of course, before, during and after eating, there's much singing.

Wherever choirs gather, there's always much singing. How breathtaking to be able to sing a Rachmaninoff vesper with not one, but two choirs from Russia, standing arm-in-arm on the open grass in Cantonigros. And Favero's Te quiero with Argentinians waiting in the breakfast line in the seminary in Alava. What a wonderful way to start the day. Others are always thrilled that a choir from Singapore would know something of their culture. They learn of our small English-speaking island-state (way way off mainland China), and are intrigued by our melting-pot sounds and music.

When we go halfway around the world, against the backdrop of other choirs, other sounds, we also find our voice. Not quite Asian, not quite Western - on the international stage we are forced to define ourselves over and over again in the liminal space. Limen is the latin word for threshold, an indeterminate state experienced by persons as they pass through the portal from one stage [of life] to another. It is said that great things come from within this in-between zone, a place where no rules apply. How significant on our maiden voyage as the SYC Ensemble Singers.

Watch this space.