Season finale

My singing performance season ended this week. It has been a remarkable year for the choir and a great learning experience for me as a singer.

In February, we presented Oratorio Terezin in Carnegie Hall, New York. Canadian composer Ruth Fazal came across a book of poems written by children in Terezin, the half-way house camp in Czech Republic for the Jews during the holocaust before their deportation to Auschwitz. In 2003, Oratorio Terezin was born, in memory of the talent and courage of the victims.

Our performance in New York was the American premiere of the piece and it was a true honour to pay tribute to the music and to the history in one of the most gracious music halls in North America.

In April, we presented several beautiiful but rarely performed choral pieces by Brahms - Schicksalslied, op.54 (Song of Destiny) and Nänie, op. 82. as well as the Alto Rhapsody with soloist Susan Platts. We also sang Mendelssohn's Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), a very popular piece in its epoch, and often regarded as inspired by Beethoven's Symphony no. 9. The concert arguably was one of our best in my three years with the choir. One could feel the concentration, the passion and the discipline shared by 150 of us on stage, responding to the most subtle gesture of the maestro Noel Edison.

Fellow choir members often say our singing commitment is like a second job. Well, it is and the reward we get every year - the friendship in the choir, the training and discipline and the sheer joy of music making - makes many of us go back for more.