SYC & Friends

It's amazing what happens when we get together with Friends.  We filled the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space with the love, hope and joy of the THREE choirs (Ateneo Chamber Singers, Gaia Philharmonc and us).  We flew eagles over the rugged peaks of Burrinjuck with our newfound playmates, The Australian Voices.  We wrestled with and among ourselves in the musical-lab-cum-mind-gym of Birth and Death, a brilliant gift from old friend Chung Shih.  With twelve other choirs, we paid homage to Leong Yoon Pin, pioneer composer, beloved shi fu.  With Maestro Yeh Tsung and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra as our stalwart allies, we dared to ask pointy questions of People: Will you make the difference?  Will you seize the day?

Magic.  That's what happens.  And now This is happening.

This is where we get high, with a little help from our Friends.  Lithuanian choral giant, ah beng drummer and his brudders, flying Smurf-pianist, future and past SYC-ers materialise on stage with us in one euphoric mess (oops, we mean Mass) for choir and jazz trio plus.  Vytautas himself is a unique all-in-one musician;  composer, conductor, pedagogue, Song Festival Director (check out his bio), with early career choices that include wrestler and cook.  Picture the Man air drum while speeding down country roads.  Maybe former Soviet oppression allows a freed people to laugh in the face of danger (oncoming traffic).  Maybe.  Well, he's definitely therapy for the chronically kiasu (kiasi).  The land of lakes he hails from is the Magic Kingdom of Singing, because Song is their weapon against cultural genocide.  To the Lithuanian is to sing the sutartines.  On stage tonight we are deeply honoured to share a piece of the action, to hold the fort.

Our past is full of such moments.  These YouTube-able episodes connect us to a large global community of composer-, musician- and singer-friends, Choral Music lovers, MJ fans, poets, artists and other magicians.  Wow.  Our immediate family, where bonds are forged with the might and magic that is Music.  For forty-five years now, family and friends have answered our Call to Arms in summoning Muses to conquer Different Modes of Seeing-Being-Doing, in carrying out the Crusade against Musical Arrogance And Apathy.  Assist SYC!  And you did.

We, your Friends the SYC, could not have done all This without you.  Thank you.

Tomorrow, we return to status quo.  That is, a future filled with more magical spells:  a joining of voices with the New Zealand Youth Choir, a trip to Tuscany, Christmas THREE in Manila, a concert with jazz pianist-composer Steve Dobrogosz on keyboard.  Virgin territory is always mystical.  For, once upona time, in a tiny built-up fiefdom surrounded by formidable sultanates, we founded the guild Come On This Brave Journey, Dare To Find New Ways.

Comment.  Like.  Join this Guild.