Stafford International School choir rocks national university of Singapore
The 41 member senior choir of Stafford International school took the 600 strong audience from nearly 100 countries by storm when they presented two concerts on 6th of January 2012 at the National University of Singapore performing in 2 separate auditoriums first for prospective undergraduates and thereafter for post graduate students. The Staffordian choir of boys and girls between the ages of 14 to 18 presented a memorable concert titled “Shades of Sound”.
Presenting 9 songs in nine different languages the group consisting of Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass sections was conducted by Francis D’ Almeida their choir Director and was accompanied in the key-board by Mrs.rayanthie Kumarasinghe.
The event commenced with the Sinhala Buddhist pilgrim song Dhanno Buddunge with six female dancers clad in elegant turquoise blue dress performing an exquisitely choreographed oriental dance. Then came Ragupathi Ragawa in a choral version with male and female voices singing alternatively to create a dialogue effect.
This was followed by an ancient Hebrew Chant Hashivenu sung in a three part polyphonic arrangement to bring the first spiritual segment to a close.next came the ethnic section with the golden era Tamil movie song made popular by famous Chandra babu titled Kalyana Samayal Sadam.
Came the cascade of melodious songs of diverse nations thereafter with the Korean Japenese U- E- O- Me- U- I- te; Indonesian Malay Burunkakka each of which evoked enthusiastic response from students from the respective country, blending with the harmonious rendition by the choir. The final segment in four part arrangement had Rakbo Perera performing the solo section of the Italian song of Funicule Funicula with the choral backing which made the swing and sway putting their hands together to keep the up beat timing. Rakbo kept the audience spell –bound with the dynamic presentation well supported by the choir enthusiastically.
The concert concluded with the soul stirring mind inspiring 1996 Rugby world cup theme song “World in union”, with Anne Marie de Silva, playing the role of soprano soloist. As the song rose to a crescendo delivering its inspiring message, there was pin drop silence almost moving the eager listeners to tears. As the long sustained final bar in brilliant harmony came to a crisp end the audience responded with equally long sustained applause.
Indeed the Staffordian concert “Shades of Sound” was a historic musical event which gave a colourful image of a well groomed Sri Lanka choir that could easily be an envy even to well matured adult choral ensemble in its form and content.