SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL CHORAL FESTIVAL 2026 / Review

 

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 

CHORAL FESTIVAL 2026

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (16 June)

Victoria Concert Hall (19 June)

Esplanade Concert Hall (20 June)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 July 2026 with the title "Singapore International Choral Festival a delightful showcase of talent from around the world".

The Singapore International Choral Festival, organised by One Choral Company and Rave Group, is now in its 10th edition. Led by artistic director Lim Ai Hooi, this year’s event attracted 73 choirs from all around the world, mostly from Southeast and East Asia, and as far-flung as Estonia, Czechia, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand.

Photo: Yeo Kai Wen

Its opening concert on 16 July at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall was a showcase of Singaporean singing and composing talent. Combined voices from Edward Becharas Choir from Catholic High School (Kane Teo, choirmaster) and Maha Bodhi School Choir (Lee Wanrong) lifted the spirits with Kelly Tang’s First Light and Liong Kit Yeng’s Little Red Dot, both light and enjoyable songs.

One NJC Choir (Dawn Yin) from National Junior College polished off Ko Matsushita’s Everyone Sang, before the festival’s resident chorus ONE Chamber Choir led by Lim Ai Hooi sang in the official languages. These included Juliette Lai’s arrangement of Burung Kakaktua, Ken Steven’s Gendang Asmara (Drum of Love), Goh Toh Chai’s Reminiscences of Hainan (idiomatically in Hainanese dialect) and further medleys in Mandarin and Tamil, with costumed dancers to boot.

Photo: Tan Zexun

Photo: Yeo Kai Wen

With Call Me (Not Maybe) arranged by Cherie Chai and Harold Arlen’s Over The Rainbow, the plea for world peace was clearly enjoyed by the international and cosmopolitan audience in attendance.

The concert on 19 July was a showcase for special guest choir Cantus from Trondheim, Norway led by founder-director Tove Ramlo-Ystad. Cantus had garnered worldwide fame for singing the opening songs of Disney’s animated movie Frozen (2013) and Frozen 2 (2019).

Its two-hour programme of unaccompanied music was mostly in Norwegian, with folksong arrangements celebrating lore and legends of the Sami people from the northernmost reaches of Scandinavia.

Photo: Yeo Kai Wen

Exhibiting a wide vocal range, the 27 women in delightfully colourful embroidered gowns enchanted with singing of haunting beauty. Pure evenness in unison passages contrasted with folk harmonies, including drone-like passages resounding with unspoken authenticity. More familiar were songs in English, like Kim Arnesen’s Even When He Is Silent and Knut Nystedt’s I Am My Brother’s Keeper.

After hearing Solveig’s Song from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt rendered with much poignancy and love, the famous orchestral version seemed almost superfluous. Eva Holm Foosnaes’ Solveig, a fantasy on its motifs and other Henrik Ibsen / Grieg inspirations was more than just a clever elaboration on original source material.

Photo: Tan Zexun

And who was not waiting for the “na na na heya na” chants (or joiks) from Frode Fjellheim and Christoph Beck’s Vuelie, which memorably opened Frozen? That and Trgve Broske’s Ratatoskr, about the playful squirrel of Norse mythology, were just some moments that made for a most charming show.

Photo: Yeo Kai Wen

The festival’s finale on 20 July saw seven top choirs from different ensemble categories vying for the Grand Prix. Unlike previous years, there was no Singaporean representation. However, the three choirs from Indonesia, and two each from China and Hong Kong were uniformly excellent in deportment and presentation.

Rhyme of River Children's Choir (China)

OCT Primary School Choir (China)

The young children from Rhyme of River Children’s Choir (China) and OCT Primary School Choir (China) stood out with their discipline and cuteness factor in a variety of repertoire. The Indonesian choirs, Yogyakarta Maizan Singers, Achievers Choir SMA Darma Yudha and PSM Universitas Indonesia Paragita, were colourfully and festively attired with singing of brightness and joy that matched their outfits.

Yogyakarta Maizan Singers (Indonesia)

Achievers Choir SMA Darma Yudha
(Indonesia)

PSM Universitas Indonesia Paragita

St Joseph's College Chamber Boys' Choir
(Hong Kong)

Young men in smart blazers from St Joseph’s College and Diocesan Boys’ School (both Hong Kong) made themselves heard in Cantonese, Haitian Creole, French and English. However, it was the latter in Get Your Happy Days On Medley arranged by Aaron Dale, led by Felix Shuen which infectiously stole the show and ultimately netting the Grand Prix awarded by a panel of 12 international judges. Next year’s SICF, the eleventh run, could not come sooner.

Diocesan Boys' School Choir

Watch this video of the Grand Prix Concert:

Additional photos from Grand Prix Concert 

(20 July 2026):

While the jury was deliberating,
Cantus (Norway) made a welcome
appearance with four songs.

The audience cheering on
their favourite winners.

And here is this year's deserving

Grand Prix winner,

Diocesan Boys' School Choir:

Conductor Felix Shuen receives the
Grand Prix on behalf of his ensemble,
Diocesan Boys' School Choir.

Photo: Aloysius Lim

Photo: Yeo Kai Wen

Photo: Aloysius Lim

Heartiest congratulations to
Diocesan Boys' School Choir.
Photo: Tan Zexun

All "Hong Kong Add Oil" messages

inserted by Pianomaniac.

GLORY TO HONG KONG!

SCO30 OPENING GALA / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

SCO30 OPENING GALA

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (18 July 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 July 2026 with the title "Singapore Chinese Orchestra 30th anniversary gala celebrates early Nanyang music".

The programme of Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s 30th anniversary opening gala concert, led by principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong, was kept secret from all who attended up to the moment it began. The works had been selected based on audience feedback, a sample of what they wanted to hear most.

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Surprising was the fact that most of the music was less than totally familiar or populist. Instead it was representative of repertoire SCO performed during its early years when led by conductors like Hu Bingxu and Xia Feiyun. The Overture from Shang Yi’s The Dagger Society Suite, arranged by Sim Boon Yew, opened the show. Resplendent suonas backed by percussion fronted this celebratory number from the 1989 folk-dance opera.

Ma Shenglong and Gu Guanren’s Fisherman’s Song of the Eastern Seas was a symphonic poem relating the toils, trials and tribulations of fisher-folk. Its conjoint sections depicted dawn with an evocative dizi solo, the outward journey with lyrical songlines, a proverbial storm to be weathered, before the emphatic triumph of a bountiful harvest.

Academy Award winner Tan Dun’s Yellow Earth followed with similarly programmatic content. The highly cinematic music opened dramatically with Raining From The Sky, lots of percussion, a plangent suona solo and vocalisations from the musicians. Gate Crashing the Bridal Chamber was suitably raucous, while Desiring Intimacy saw dizis and erhus expressing sensuousness in the highest registers. Coming back down to earth was Stone-Slab Waist Drum, with martial and ceremonial music dominated by percussion again.

Peng Xiuwen’s The Sixth Month: A Night in Pasir Ris from Twelve Months Suite opened the second half, in a scene of nocturnal tranquility interrupted by Malay and Indian dance rhythms, with Chan Mali Chan being alluded to. Whoever thought sleepy Pasir Ris during the 1980s to be this festive in an early example of Nanyang music?

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Lo Leung Fai’s Winter opened with snowy flurries represented by string prestidigitation, a perpetual motion that also depicted gently falling snowflakes. A big tune first heard on dizi was worked to a plethoric climax before a resumption of virtuoso fiddling for a brilliantly festive finish.

Former SCO composer-in-residence and Cultural Medallion recipient Law Wai Lun’s Admiral of the Seven Seas was a prime example of Nanyang music at its finest, with two movements closing the concert on buoyant spirits. The Voyage of explorer Zheng He (Cheng Ho) deftly depicted adventure on the high seas, with broad melodies ornamented by cries of seagulls. The Vow, recounting the marriage between a Malay sultan and Chinese a princess, good reason to bring out all the gamelan scales, a chorus of suonas and drumming at full pelt.

Attended by Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, on whose watch SCO turned professional from its humble beginnings as the People’s Association Chinese Orchestra, the playing was full-blooded and celebratory. The obligatory encore of Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Full Moon Blossoms) by Huang Yi Jun merely capped off the importance and significance of SCO’s three illustrious decades as “the people’s orchestra”.

RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: A RETURN TO BUKIT BARTOK BLOCK 217

Here is a rerun of the food court (Wan Hao Kopitiam) located in Bukit Batok Block 217, simply to try the other stalls. This eating place has a lot going for it. For one, it is always crowded, and the food is very good. On this occasion, we tried the Western food stall and the BBQ seafood stall, the latter mostly because of Janet's hum-ful lifestyle, and her thirst for lightly cooked and almost raw blood cockles. Jamus Lim can definitely identify with this. 

Here are more photos of our eventful lunchtime.  

Sirloin Steak with herb butter

The bloodier, the better!

BUKIT BARTOK BLOCK 217

Bukit Bartok Street 21

pianomania: RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: BUKIT BATOK BLOCK 217

(For goodness sake, can't you 

just open the Seventh Door?)

PRE-CONCERT EATS: HA-JUN KOREAN FOOD @ ESPLANADE MRT XCHANGE

Where do I have a quick meal before a concert at Esplanade? Makan Sutra Gluttons Bay offers al fresco dining but Esplanade MRT Xchange offers air-conditioned comfort. There used to be a food court which had good Penang food but that's gone for several few years, so I make do with decent Korean food at Ha-Jun Korean, a chain dining outlet that does swift business.

It does not really matter if there are no Koreans cooking the meals. In fact, the chefs and servers are mostly Indonesian, and you can sometimes hear Indonesian pop music blaring in the background, which is groovy in a certain way. The service is quick, and one barely needs to wait 5 minutes before your "number" is called, in Mandarin!

I invariably have a beef kimchi ramyeon which is hot and spicy, but I don't mind the sweat. My wife and I shared a beef bimimbap on one occasion, and were well-filled before a concert. Another very nice aspect of this place is it provides a free flow of hot brown rice tea, which I make sure to get at least two cups full. Prices are modest, and there's no dish above $10, while my humble ramyeon is $6.50, with a recent raise of 50 cents. Halal certified of course.

Your order number is announced 
in Mandarin, while you sip your tea.

HA-JUN KOREAN

90 Bras Basah Road, #B1-29 /29a

Esplanade MRT Xchange

Ha-Jun Korean (90 Bras Basah) Menu, Price – Delivery Near You | foodpanda