Victoria Chorale Shines in World Choir Games 2006

I was listening to our WCG live recordings on my iPod today.
Plugging my earphones into my ears and shutting myself out from the outside world.
And all I could hear, were the voices of VC resounding in my ears...
It was such a pleasure.

Listening to the recordings brought back many wonderful memories. It really doesn’t feel like everything has been over for more than a month already…

As the tracks were all jumbled up in my playlist, I carefully selected and played the songs in the exact sequence of our competition in Xiamen.
This moment I realised.. that all the images, sounds, and emotions, are still very fresh in my mind.

Surge. Not one of our favourites, but we managed to triumph over it.
We made it - VC made a simple song come alive.

Tu Es. Our favourite baby for Sacra!
For some reason, we sing it every other practice, until it got alil’ boring. But it’s ok, we like it nonetheless.
This song taught me marcato. With all the drilling, I think I’ll always remember what marcato means.
Gates of hell. Romance? Nope!

Tenebrae. I should say, no other song I’ve sang has moved me like this one has.
The music is just incredible.
It’s a pity we neglected it this time round. Somehow it’s like the little imperfection in our entire Sacra set. But we made up for it, with...

Stabat. Our worst fear for Sacra, naturally.
Powerful, but a tough challenge.
The song is almost 10 minutes long, I had wondered how much stamina we needed to sustain it to the end…
Gasp for air. Drop jaw. Whatever we had to do, VC pulled it through.

Stabat was sensational. I felt the magic again as I listened through our live recording..

The day before the results ceremony, I remembered looking into the mirror in my hotel room and fantasizing about how nice it would be if we won the Sacra category…
Having come all the way here, this would be the best thing we could ever have for this competition.
But at the back of my mind, I knew I could only dream but dared not expect.

26 July morning. Everyone were in high spirits, it really feels good to be looking forward to something, together.
As we sang National Day songs at the top of our voices at the venue lobby, we sang to the world, telling everyone we are here for Singapore. It’s a strong sense of identity and pride we shared for our nation that touches all our hearts.

Finally… when the WCG anthem roared, VC knew we won.
~Victoria Chorale won the champion for the Musica Sacra category~

It was an extremely emotional moment for all of us. Tears of joy and disbelief. Cries and laughter.

The Singapore flag was raised, everyone present stood up as the Singapore national anthem sounded through the hall.
The world witnessed Singapore’s victory and our presence in the choir scene. We sang our anthem at the top of our lungs, and we cheered to celebrate our victory.

It’s a dream come true. And it’s indeed too good to be true. All that we had put in for this competition finally proved to be worthwhile.

VC won 2 gold medals and a champion trophy in World Choir Games 2006.
We have done Singapore proud, and we hope she is proud of us too.

Looking back, VC had been through ups and downs for this competition in the past 7 months. But this adds much more value to our hard-to-come-by victory…

I will never forget how every single one of us tried to make a conscious effort to remember to drop our jaws in order to achieve the kind of sound required for sacred music. We knew we were not born to have what it takes, but we will do whatever it takes to make it happen. And we’ve proven to ourselves that we can. And we did.

VC spirit came alive once again, and it came so strongly this time. All that we did was not for our personal glory, but for VC.

I feel lucky and blessed.
Thank you for giving us this miracle, and giving me this opportunity to be a part of it.
This experience will always be with me no matter what comes after this…