Choir Crashes Straits Quay

Seth Kelley

On Saturday, November 24, a portion of the high school choir brought the Christmas spirit with a small performance at Straits Quay. The mall’s staff gave this choir a prime-time slot, which meant there was high demand for their angelic mix of voices.

The choir performed their November’s worth of work on acapella arrangements of “White Winter Hymnal” by Robin Pecknoid and “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley. But they went beyond the standard conglomerating of their twenty voices—give or take. The former song included several body percussion solis from the women, and the latter song opened with a vocal solo by Joseph Chandra (11) and Celestine Teoh (11).

“The most challenging part about the solo for me was learning how to blend my voice with Joseph’s, while at the same time, maintaining my projection and conveying emotion,” reflected Teoh. “One reason I enjoyed performing in Straits Quay is that it gave me a chance to exhibit my passion for music.”

This short flash-mob-like performance stretched the singers’ skills and allowed them to experience a challenging setting they had never before tried—letting the acoustics of the open air carry their voices into the listeners’ ears.

Shannon Frohlich (12) commented, “Considering I've been dying of a cough recently, singing for around 10 minutes without coughing my guts out was an extreme challenge. Luckily, I made it all the way through without going into a coughing fit. It was great. Oh, but the audience couldn't really hear us because the microphones weren't really working. That was also great.”

Performing for a small audience at Straits Quay allowed the choir to, in a sense, test-run their songs—looking for ways they could improve their performance in anticipation of the upcoming Christmas concert. But it also brought the choir together and deepened the friendships they formed over the choir trip and during class.

“I was just really thankful that we had the opportunity to officially perform at a venue like Straits Quay,” said Su-Ji Lim (12). “The fact that they invited us is amazing. They had mics, a keyboard, and stage lights all set up for us when we came. I appreciated all the time and effort the production team must have spent putting it all together.”