here i go again: That Time I was in a Malaysian Show Choir

So, I don't know how many of you know, but since moving to KL, Malaysia, I have been part of a show choir called The Young KL Singers (YKLS). I joined this group of singers when I first moved to Malaysia. It was actually one of the first things I did after moving. If I recall correctly, I even knew which choir I wanted to join before I moved to KL. I know it seems like I'm really committed to my singing (and hence, I must be an incredible performer) but the opposite is actually true.

"but after her lover!"

I'm okay - and I hadn't sung in a while until YKLS. In University, I was part of a 'no-audition required' accapella group for 1 year... and for only half the year... but... while I was in high school, I was a committed member of the Middle School and Upper School choirs at Havergal College. Music has always been something I've enjoyed. One of the biggest rushes I get (and which actually makes me so joyous that it can bring tears to my eyes at moments) is playing or singing in harmony with someone else. This is exactly why I was such an active member of the Jr. and Sr. Band and a member of the Jazz band during high school. Truth be told, I like choir because my voice could be improved by the sound of everyone else's' voices. hehehe.

So, once I knew I was moving to Malaysia, I decided I needed to start looking into things that made me happy because I knew the transition wouldn't be easy and that I'd want something to bring happiness into my life.

For the first few months, attending the YKLS rehearsals were a reprieve from the daily struggles of life (remember when I used to complain about everything in KL? Like crossing the road, and my land lord, and figuring out my cell phone plan). Things were hard and I was going through a major cultural adjustment. Singing with YKLS was one of the happiest things I did with my week! And, I was really lucky to get to sing with some incredible people with INCREDIBLE voices. The choir members of YKLS are young professionals who all work normal day jobs but enjoy singing for fun and secretly or not-so-secretly sing at night (just like me).

In this choir, I found myself singing with teachers, accountants, consultants, entrepreneurs, investors and it really made me realize that I was one of those young professionals now (I'm a real yuppie!) and the best part was that they were all Malaysian. It was a serious change from my work environment which was composed predominantly of foreigners, and it was a great change. These were people that introduced me to new foods at the mamak, told me which buses to take the Penang, and had cars to give me a ride to and from choir :) Most of all, these were the people that kept me up to date on Malaysian politics and kept me in touch with the pulse of the youth in Malaysia... this was something I was lacking at Mindvalley since not many people were from Malaysia themselves.

YKLS's first performance was a tribute concert to a Malaysian conductor and so the repertoire was completely in Malay. That was an interesting experience for me. I can't say that I was super comfortable or knew exactly what I was singing (actually I had no idea what I was singing) but it was okay. I was learning something new and it was fun!

Then, after I got back from my trip to Toronto, the pace of the choir changed completely. We started rehearsing 2, and then 3 times a week for our upcoming Show Choir Production which featured baroque music. There was an interesting switch in the choir because suddenly, I became the one comfortable singing the music while many people in the choir had never heard baroque music before. My education in music was thorough and I was lucky to have teachers that really felt the importance of teaching us music history and exposing us to different styles of music (and I can still recall the gregorian chants I sang in the hall at Havergal).

We owed this beautiful exploration of music to our wonderful conductor, Chi Hoe Mak. Chi Hoe is a Malaysian but was educated in the UK. It was his idea to do a performance to baroque music even though it was something the Malaysian audience was not familiar with. Chi Hoe is one of the best conductors I've ever had. Each rehearsal was a testament to his love of teaching. During our rehearsals he often veered away from just teaching us the bare music to teaching us about baroque history and giving us pep talks on how to express ourselves through music. Chi Hoe was always teaching us :)

He was also extremely encouraging. In times when we weren't sure if we were going to make it through the music, he believed in us and continuously motivated us with words of positive encouragement to do better.

Unfortunately, this was not always the case for all of the directors that we were privileged to have working with us. Half-way through production, I came to a realization that I had more cultural adjusting to do (because up until this point, I wasn't really working with Malaysians... I was working in an american style environment with foreigners). I had directors that were constantly pointing out our mistakes (sometimes in very inappropriate ways) and at the end of every rehearsal (where we would learn singing AND dance moves) we would have to sit down and take notes on everything we did incorrectly that rehearsal.

This was mind-boggling to me. How would I ever correct my mistakes if I didn't practice, and instead, just take notes on what I had done wrong? SURELY I was going to repeat the mistake until I physically went through the correct way of doing it. This is when I realized that there is a huge difference in the way that Asia teaches their students and a huge difference in the way that students learn in Asia... and I did not agree with this way of learning which pointed out mistakes and punished people, even when they were giving it their all. I mean, we're not a PROFESSIONAL choir - we're a community choir that sings for the joy of singing. Everyone just gotta calm down a little bit.

Every rehearsal, when I was asked to sit down and take out my notebook to write about everything I did incorrectly, I would write notes on what I would say in this very blog post about learning in an Asian environment. It was the only way I could get my frustration out without screaming it out to our directors..... And there was that one time that I did that too.... awkward.

Once I got past the fact that people were just used to learning this kind of way and that they didn't feel the same need I did to speak back to people who would put them down (as good natured as it was... they just wanted us to improve :)), I was able to function calmly in the choir again and finally put on (what ended up being) a beautiful performance.

The only thing that I would like to criticise about the production is that it's really sad that our entire performance had to be done to dance moves. I was told that the general Malaysian audience can't really appreciate music for music's sake yet. Chi Hoe did a wonderful job introducing this type of music into society and let's hope that Malaysian society makes it to the point where not everything needs visual appeal to be entertaining.

Overall, I'm really proud of the choir and all the work we put in! It was a wonderful performance and most of all, it was a lot of fun to get on stage and perform (5 times) and make a bunch of friends. It wasn't all too serious - there were alot of fun and games along the way with late nights at the mamak drinking ice milo :)

To our directors, Chi Hoe, Lex and Ian, thank you for such a wonderful experience. I will always remember that time I was in a Malaysian Show Choir!

And now for some pics: