Channel News Asia was coming from Singapore to Laguna to film our Goducate music students, so the day before the film crew arrived was the last chance to practise, practise, practise. What’s more, Channel News Asia was bringing two expert musicians to watch our students play, which increased the tensions for the students. They were at the location chosen for the next day’s welcome ceremony. All were busy, the junior recorder players, the winds, the strings, all the way to the orchestra. They were rehearsing, focusing, helping one another, looking for a place to practise. And, as part of the discipline process, they also had to jog —well, it’s good for the breathing too.
The programme, Once Upon A Village, will be aired in Singapore on Channel News Asia on Mar 12. The two experts, classical violinist Min Lee, who has played with well-known orchestras around the world, and Wang Ya Hui, director of the orchestra of Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, were in Laguna to assess how best their skills can be transferred to the people in the music programme in Laguna. Essentially it is by selecting candidates for training or work attachment.
A sequel is planned, for about a year’s time, to show the impact of the skills transfer on the Laguna programme.
