The concert was successful and well appreciated by the audience and proved a relevant exercise for the choirs.
Ticket sales were not up to expectations and is an area to relook at but the initiative to provide a positive environment for choirs to expose their repertoire is a good one that should be built on.
Not all the choirs performed up to their own expectations but that is an issue that should be managed by the conductors and schools in terms of preparation time but still provided an opportunity for good reflection for all teams.
The closing groups who performed pop a cappella provided some reprive from the choral performances and added a nice touch to the end of the evening without over shadowing either performance styles but showcased a different way of performance for vocal groups which was a good outreach effort to new audience.
2. Festival Programming
Choirs that performed included St Andrew’s Secondary, Ang Mo Kio Secondary, Pasir Ris Secondary, Chirst Church Secondary, FajarCappella, TAS Youth Voices and TAS Singers.
The programme content consisted of a wide variety of songs from historical art songs to contemporary choral arrangements and folk and pop choral arrangements and performed in different vocal formations from SSA to SATB.
We also had a cappella groups who sang a variety of arrangements from the pop and rock & roll genres.
Overall the programme offering was a nice mix for the family-oriented audience.
3. General Feedback
The choirs sang fairly well, with a special note that St Andrew’s sang extremely well.
The hall was surprisingly appropriate for choral performance and also pop a cappella (with mics). Singers did not have trouble hearing one another unlike in other halls. Sound was warm and well represented and hall was large enough to encourage projected singing and well supported singing.
Depending on the programme line up for each choir, some felt the experience was worth the preparations while others did not perform on par due to accumulated projects leading up to the show.
The lack of a holding room saw groups warming up throughout the venue but it did not pose a huge problem otherwise apart from poor acoustics for hearing for warm ups which for young choirs is not appropriate as they go on stage out of tune. A studio was provided but not all teams went over to use it.
Those who did, studio was too small for the 70 pax choir and lock on door was not left unlock for ease of access for some of the later a cappella teams.
4. Ticket Sales
Considering that each team was encouraged to move 100 seats each for personal fund raising, the turnout was slightly disappointing. Approximately over 400 seats.
The mission of the concert is to have the choirs pull in their supporters and provide all teams with a sizable hall and audience to perform to and to receive positive encouragement from the performance.
5. Publicity & Marketing
For VM, choir publicity to their school and families was ample although not all took the effort to sell tickets efficiently.
We will consider a much earlier release of tickets for all future VMs.
6. Audience Cross Section
Mostly family and friends and school staff who were very supportive of every group. This is the positive environment we were targeting and will continue to target.
7. Festival Logistics
Logistics was well done. Not too much confusion from the teachers this year apart from a few who did not read or receive instructions proper from their teachers-in-charge. The flow of events was effective. Even food and drink distribution and sound check times were effectively carried out. 2 choirs were late for the sound checks.
8. Aspects to Improve & Build On
To engage more choirs in the project and to encourage grater ticket sales. Perhaps a lower ticket fee which can be decided by the school should they wish not to fund raise.
To announce the availability of such a concert much earlier and to a wider array of schools and private contacts.
We should focus on getting feedback form the participants and trainers and teachers to see how we can further improve this initiative.
