Bangkok International Choir Festival 2016

Khai Yi Khor

On October 6th, Thursday, all the choir students gathered around in the choir room after school, before leaving to the airport to participate in the Bangkok International Choir Festival 2016 (BICF), which was held at International School of Bangkok (ISB).

The next morning at 7:30am, Dalat’s choir students departed to ISB. It took approximately an hour to reach the destination. Inside the ISB campus, workers were driving golf carts and giving ISB students rides to school. Each of Dalat’s choir students was given a nametag to help other schools recognize and differentiate students from schools all over the world. There was a total of 400 choir students from various schools that gathered in a chevron theater to do their rehearsals. The schools who participated in this year’s BICF consisted of ISB, Dalat, Grace International School (GIS), Seoul International School (SIS), Bangkok Patana School (BPS), British School Jakarta (BSJ), NIST International School, Ruamrudee International School (RIS), Thai-Chinese International School (TCIS), and St. Andrews International School of Bangkok (St. Andrews).

Moreover, all 400 choir students stood and sang for ten hours or so, rehearsing for the next day’s festival concert. For two days in a row, the choir students did the same routine over and over again. The festival concert on October 8th, Saturday, was a success; the harmony of the High School Mixed Choir reverberated across the chevron theater, its notes knitted with confidence. The songs that were sang throughout that day were “Dance Today With Joy,” “The World of Our Dreams,” “Ride in the Chariot,” “Ritmo,” and “I Am a Song”; they were directed by the Male Ensemble Northwest (M.E.N.) from the United States. The individual workshops, also led by the members of M.E.N., made all the choir students feel at ease, while showing them how to have fun and to be passionate about achieving musical excellence. Without the members of M.E.N., the festive concert wouldn’t have turned out as well. Throughout the two days in ISB, Khai Yi Khor (12) made friends with Beryl Hsu, Mable Ye, and Yae Rim Park, who were juniors from BPS.

When Dalat choir students were asked about their overall experience in BICF 2016, Aster H’ng (12) stated, “It was very scary, but also very amazing as it was a once in a lifetime experience. So if you have the chance, you should go because I can’t think of any other time that you can do something as cool as this.”

Although all the choir students were exhausted after singing and standing continuously for hours, BICF 2016 was an amazing experience to all; and it will forever be engraved in each and every one of the choir students’ memories.

From left to right: Mable Ye, Beryl Hsu, Khai Yi Khor (12), Yae Rim Park

Dalat Choir students [missing out Jerald Ooi (11), who was unable to attend BICF 2016]

All 400 Choir Students, members of Male Ensemble Northwest, and each school’s directors together