Let Your Heart Sing ebooklet

tp choraleTemasek Polytechnic Chorale (TPC), is a 40-strong choir group,comprising of excellent singers from Sopranos, Altos, Tenorsand Basses, led by our resident conductor, Ms Ong Chiak Yin.Other than internal events, such as our concerts and openhouse, we also actively participate in external charity eventswith the Wild Empire Choral group such as the President’sChallenge Charity Event.2017 was truly a fruitful year for TPC. Not only did we open thePresident’s Challenge Event, we also had the chance to gooverseas to Spain, Lloret De Mar, to participate in a renownedinternational competition, “Voices of Montserrat”, representingnot only Temasek Polytechnic, but Singapore as well. We werehonoured to bring back both Gold and Silver awards. Togetherwith the Wild Empire Choral group, TPC also held a festivalcalled “A Little Singing Festival” in October.One thing that all our choristers have in common is our passionfor singing. Our goal through this concert, is to make you feelour passion for singing and our love for chorale. To us, TPC isone big family, and tonight, we hope that you are able to feellike a part of this family.

Ms Ong Chiak YinA Mathematics graduate from the National University ofSingapore (NUS), Ms Ong Chiak Yin started her career as aprofessional choir conductor two decades ago. Her sheer willto learn and incredible passion for music drove her to travel theworld, mastering the art of vocal training and conducting inmany countries.Her excellence in conducting has brought her internationalacclaim, from achieving many awards, to being honoured withan invitation to be an international adjudicator in Europe.However, her heart remains at home in Singapore where shetirelessly conducts several school choirs.Even though most of her singers begintheir journey without prior musical training,Ms Ong recognises and harnesses their pure passionfor singing and drives them to do their best.

President’s Foreword Good evening dear guests. On behalf of TemasekPolytechnic Chorale, we would like to thank you all forgracing our concert this evening. We are excited andprivileged to be presenting present to you a new seriesof our annual concert - Let Your Heart Sing. Unlike theprevious years, we will be bringing you an excitingrepertoire of choral pieces, solo, and acapella music.The Chorale has put a great deal of effort into tonight’sperformance just for all of you. We would like to thank ourresident conductor, Ms Ong Chiak Yin, for her boundlessguidance and patience. We would also like to thank theStudent and Alumni Affairs Department for their constant support throughout all these years, and for making this concert possible. Last but not least, we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude towards you, our audience, for joining us this evening. Without all of you, this concert would not have been possible. We hope you enjoy the concert as much as we do. On behalf of Temasek Polytechnic Chorale, Teo Xin Yu President

Concert Synopsis“Let Your Heart Sing” is the annual concert brought to youby TPC. We hope that through this concert, we canportray many different feelings through songs, by lettingour hearts sing for us. In many cases, songs carry deepand hidden meanings which we hope to bring alive to youthrough our repertoire.“Let Your Heart Sing” is divided into 3 segments for youto enjoy and experience different genres of music. Firstwould be choral pieces that the entire TPC would besinging. Some of the songs that you may know, includes“Somewhere” from the Broadway musical “West SideStory” as well as the famous piece by Queen, “BohemianRhapsody”.

The second segment consists of solo pieces done bythe seniors of TPC, who were selected to perform setpieces of their choice. Some of the songs from thissegment include “Wishing you were here againsomehow” from The Phantom of the Opera, as well as“Empty chairs at empty tables” from Les Misérables.The last segment consists of acapella songs performedby various groups formed during 2017’s orientationcamp. These songs range from groovy beats such as“Cheerleader” to sacred songs such as “Hallelujah” andmany more. We hope that this new and upcoming genreof music would amaze you as it is also our first timeventuring into such pieces among ourselves.

RepertoireFrozen arr. Roger EmersonA Scandinavian music with haunting choral songsincluding Heimr Arnadalr, Vuelie and The Great Thaw(“Vuelie” Reprise) were used in the Disney animatedfeature \"Frozen\" to capture the stark beauty of the frozennorth. “Heimr Arnadalr” (meaning Home Arendelle) wasthe song played during Elsa’s coronation ceremony. Verðug dróttning stór Worthy Queen of Greatness Hjartaaf gulli skínna The heart of Gold shines We crown you withKrónum þik með vonum, Hope, love and faith ást ok trú Beautiful, stony land, Home Arendelle Fagra, grýttur land, Follow the Queen of Light heimr ÁrnadalrFylgið dróttningu ljósins

BohemianRhapsodyarr. Mark BrymerOne of the most enduringpop hits of the 1970s,Bohemian Rhapsody was sungby the band, Queen. Despitenot having a Chorus, this songis made up of an introduction, anoperatic passage, a ballad segment, a hard rock partand a reflective coda. Identify the different parts ofthe song as you hear the chorale version of thiselectrifying piece. Somewhere from West Side Story arr. Robert Edgerton A stunning acappella arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's classic. A lush, romantic, and superbly expressive piece, this song starts with the sopranos and basses echoing one another, and slowly building up to the verse of the song. A stunning acappella arrangement A stunning acappella arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's classic.

Butterfly arr. Mia Makaroff &Anna-Mari KähäräThis piece was originally sung by a well-known acappella group from Finland,Rajaton, which also means “boundless” inFinnish. Listen to this peaceful and puremelody and the playful yet mournful lyrics.This song tries to convey the message of “lovewhile you can, because life is otherwise too short.\" Seasons of Love from RENT by Jonathan D. LarsonSeasons of Love is a rock ballad sung in the musical andmovie, RENT. This song paints a picture about the qualityof one’s life by using measurements of time asrepresentations to describe the emotions of love thatone experiences in life. The lyrics describes how love istruly the most meaningful way to describe one’s life. Thissong will be our closure, to remind us of the fun andstressful times together as a chorale as some of the year2s would be on a hiatus for their internship as well asthe year 3s who are graduating in the upcoming month.

Come Up to My Officefrom Parade arr. Jason Robert BrownFrom the Tony award-winning musical“Parade” where a Jewish factory manager,Leo Frank, was accused and convictedof raping and murdering a 13-year old employee,Mary Phagan. Mary’s 3 teenage co-workers falselytestify in court that Leo Frank was a lecherous seducerbased on their fantasy with “Come Up to My Office”sung by Leo Frank, portraying himself persuadingthem to come up to the office and doing suggestiveactions behind closed doors. This song will besung solo by Shawn Lee. When He Sees Me from Waitress by Sara BareillesFrom the musical Waitress, this song narrates the story of Jenna’s life as a waitress, being in an abusive relationship and the measures that she took to overcome the many challenges that she faced. “When He Sees Me” expresses Dawn’s, one of the waitresses that Jenna works with, view on the date she would go on later in the evening and portrays the apprehension and excitement of her first date. This song will be sung solo by Camille Keck.

Empty Chairs At Empty Tables from Les Misérables by Claude-Michel Schönberg Sang by the cast, Eddie Redmayne, from the musical phenomenon ‘Les Misérables’, this song was written for the scene where Marius (played by Gilles Buhlmann in the Original French stage cast in 1980) was recovering from his wounds from the revolution and imagining he is back at the ABC café. A very meaningful song that portrays Marius’ strong sense of survivor’s guilt. This song will be sung solo by Tng Hao Kiat.Nothing from A Chorus Lineby Marvin Hamlisch & Edward KlebanFrom the musical “A Chorus Line”, which provides aglimpse into the personalities of the hopeful Broadwayperformers as they describe the events that shapedtheir lives and their decisions to become dancers. Thesong is originally sung by Diana Morales who recollectsher high school acting class. It portrays her feelingsabout the absurdity of her teacher’s instructions and herhopelessness when her teacherand peers repeatedlyturned her down. Thissong will be sung soloby Stephanie Mok.

Get Me To ChurchOn Timefrom My Fair Ladyarr. Frederick LoeweFrom the musical My Fair Lady, this piece was sungafter Alfred, the lead's father had his social statusincreased and after celebration, the song acts as a pleato his friends to ensure that he would not be late for hiswedding in church.This song will be sung solo Wishing You Wereby Jeremiah Lim. Somehow Here Again from The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd WebberBased on a world-renowned musical “The Phantom of the Opera”, this song expresses emotions of grief, nostalgia and longing for her late father as Christine walks to her father’s grave in the cemetery. Being brought up single-handedly by her father as her mother passed away when she was six, Christine had an inseparable relationship with her father. The lyrics from this sombre song depict how Christine missed her father’s companionship and the advice that he gave her while she was growing up. This song will be sung solo by Nikita Ng.

Mary Did You Knowperformed by CalorA Christmas song, originally composed by Mark Lowryand Buddy Greene. It was recorded by Michael Englishin 1991. The song eventually became a Christmasclassic, recorded by many artists over the yearsincluding Pentatonix and Clay Aiken. It invokes feelingsabout a mother to her child after the child left homeand did wonders elsewhere. The many verses showand tells a story on the various great wonders Mary’schild did.“We clicked with the song and without much thoughtwe chose this meaningful piece. The rhetoricalquestion of asking Mary ‘did you know?’ gives the songa sense of movement as it explains the wonders andmiracles of what her child did. After listening to thispiece, we just had to sing it.”-Angel and Freda, Calor

Hallelujah performed by Nar Hallelujah was originally performed and written by Leonard Cohen back in 1984. Later in 1994, Jeff Buckley released his very own version of the song that only received widespread attention after Buckley’s death in 1997. The song has a beautiful meaning behind it: “It explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value.” - Cohen.Say Something performed by LumbreAn indie pop ballad, written by The Great Big World,and only featuring Christina Aguilera months later. Thissong was sung portraying a break up. The lead singerexpresses anguish, humbleness and regret while theversion with Christina Aguilera is sung with herportraying as the ghost of the singer’s lost lover.“It is a very sentimental song, with impactful words.The song helps people pull through and conveyfeelings of sorrow and pain in a world whereemotions and feelings are not regularlyexpressed.”-Camille, Lumbre

Aha! performed by Calor Originally by Imogen Heap, Aha! is a song that uses multi-tonal tracks that are built into distorted sound pops. The song was then covered by Pentatonix which then recreated the song into theirs. “The reason this song was chosen was that Aha! would be a challenge for the singers. The song has neither a simple melody nor harmony but it has its ups and downs.” -Nikita, CalorCheerleaderperformed by NarThis song was originally recorded and released asOmi’s Single in 2012. Following that, a remixed versionby Felix Jaehn was released in 2014 which latergained success in 2015, reachingnumber 1 in 20 countries. Thesong speaks about the joy offinding someone to support theprotagonist, be it a significant otheror just anyone who is capable oflending that support.

Sopranos Nikita Ng Camille Keck Teo Xin Yu Nur Hazirah Freda Lee Pamela Low Michelle Neo Nicole Ong Jolene Tan Elizabeth Yeo Peck Wen Her(Front row left to right; Back row from left to right)

Altos Chan Li Ling Justine Aya-ayStephanie Mok Valerie LeeGrace Ong Lim Qiu YinLovie Oei Pon Wei Ying(Front row left to right; Back row from left to right)

Tenors&Basses Christophe Soh Ng Teck HeanJacob Tay Jairus YeoTng Hao Kiat Victor QiuRey Ng Rayson ChooJeremiah Lim Shawn Lee (From left to right)

acknowledgements We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the people that have made this concert a success: Mr. Aaron Wong, Student Development Officer from Studentand Alumni Affairs Department for working with us to organise this concert. ----Ms. Ong Chiak Yin, Our Resident Conductor, for believing in us that we can make lovely music with our voices by training us. --- Main committee, thank you for being our tireless leaders and the best committee anyone can ask for! ---TP Production Crew, TP Digital Media Crew, for sacrificing your time and energy so that our concert can be a success. ---Emcees and Ushers, you were invaluable to the facilitation and engagement of the audience. --- TP Chorale members, for persevering and working so hard together as one big family. Last but definitely not the least, to you, our wonderful audiences.Thank you for taking the time to come down and support us in our love for music and singing. E-booklet Done by: Angel, Christophe, Elizabeth, Jacob, Lovie, Nicole, Valerie and Wen Her