Vox Naturae with Chifuru Matsubara (Japan)

Welcome.

In the time since our last concert (some time ago, with Venezualan dynamo María Guinand, in March 2002), we have been busy - performing for the Esplanade's Grand Opening and testing out their Concert Hall, singing with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (twice!), providing extra-terrestrial chorus support  for the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, karaoke'ing with a huge magical musical Christmas tree in the Old Town Square of Prague and begun our second recording of Asian Choral Works. All of these are but route-markers along the journey towards our 40th birthday in 2004.

Tonight, in this concert with Chifuru, you will see and hear us in the process of becoming that choir of the 21st century - a vocal collective of singer-musician-dramatists with both ensemble and solo capabilities. Constantly honing our craft and dedicating our instruments to the service of the music of our time, we are preparing for the launch of our mature troupe - the SYC Ensemble Singers - early next year.

When presented with the repertoire for tonight, we were simultaneously exhilarated and terrified. It was daunting to be faced with the complex Vox naturae for stage and offstage choruses (our longest through-composed Schafer work to date), and Jack Body's Carol to St Stephen with 16-part divisi and 3 solo roles to boot. As well as the 9-part Shizu-Uta for a 19-voice female chorus. Who did he think we were? Perhaps others see us better than we see ourselves?

Well, there is something to be said about facing down our fears. We find that we are more resilient than we think we are, and definitely excited by challenge. How else are we to survive future epidemics (real or imagined)? Or an apathy for the arts?

So here we are, after 39 years, standing up for what we believe in, still conducting an intensive inquiry into making music meaningful for ourselves and our audience.

What is Choir? What is Music? What does it mean to come to a concert? You decide.