ON SYF

Well, if you've been wondering what happened to the online posts here, it's cos I've been busy with SYF. I think instructors have developed a love-hate relationship with this bi-annual event. Well, so what is it? SYF is the short form for Singapore Youth Festial Central Judging. It's a programme that MOE has created to keep track and assess the standard of the performing arts in schools. Every year, the event rotates between Primary and Secondary. This year it's Primary schools. Schools could send their students in for Central judging in Choir, Band, Dance, Drama, etc.

This year, SYF for Choirs started on the 15th April and went on till 22nd April. I must say that my experience of this year's SYF is definitely much much better. For a start, they got renowned international choral experts from Slovania, Taiwan, Korea, United States as well as two of our local experts to be the adjudicators for this year's event. I would say that it's the first time that we were assessed by such high quality adjudicators who were specialists in the choral tradition. So I'll give them 5 Stars for that.

Secondly, the conductors really got a treat this year after SYF when these adjudicators actually gave us free workshops in conducting! This is definitely a milestone in the history of SYF. I feel that overall, this year's event was organised very well as they also took into account the development of conductors in raising the overall standard of SYF.

There was also a dialogue session with the adjudicators at the end of SYF on the 22nd of April. This was also useful in getting feedback for the overall event and to know how the choirs did overall.

I conducted 3 choirs this time: ACS Primary, CHIJ Our Lady of Good Counsel and West Grove Primary School. They all came in Silver. Well, I was a bit disappointed that CHIJ didn't get a GOLD but I was pleased with ACS and West Grove. The event gave me some opportunities to talked to fellow conductors. One of them said, "Don't worry, Slow by SLOW we will surely all improve"... haha. I thought that was an apt comment.

Being a conductor has surely been a colorful journey for me. It's filled with wonderful moments and times in which I just wanted to give up. It is certainly not an art-form that one partakes on his/her own. So many factors come into play to groom an excellent choir. Most importantly, at the end of the day, I would say that SYF did provide a platform for choirs to have a chance to go on stage and do their best.

I hope that through this event, students will not just relate being in the choir to SYF cos that will be really sad. Being in a choir to me is really about singing together. I wish SYF could be more fun and less stressful and that conductors can have more fun. Sure, it is an excellent platform to learn about commitment, dedication and excellence in what we do. However a student is already faced with that every day at school. So my take is, why not more fun and creativity for SYF and give students a chance to interact, learn and listen to one another and celebrate being a child, celebrate friendship and celebrate being able to sing together, cos that is surely one of life's greatest joys!