Today was very special. I had a morning of special needs choirs and instrumental groups. It was wonderful, and I am hard pushed to find the words to describe it.
Firstly an under 19 years school choir of children with moderate learning difficulties stood up and sang Santa Lucia, in Italian !! I was blown away, they had memorised it and they sang as well in tune as many a soloist/choir I have adjudicated or taught in my life ! The next school group was a choir of Downs Syndrome boys and girls of around 12-18 years old, who sang two Cantonese songs with as much fun and riotous actions as was possible to squeeze into the 10 minute time limit ! They sang, they clapped, and they whooped and stamped their feet in time to the rhythmical beat of the songs……pp flew out of the window along with p, mp and f ! They were in joyful yippee mode which was as infectious as it was decibel heavy !
This was followed by a 13 and under choir of severely handicapped children who just melted my heart. Many suffered from Dwarfism, others had difficult mobility issues, but oh my Lord they gave it their all and their second song was so full of the most complicated movements I gave them the Gold Award on the spot, for these actions as well as their singing.
It was a tour de force of happiness, gay abandon and utter unalloyed joy. This is what music is really about. Fiddle faddleing around with support, legato line and explosive consonants pales into insignificance when faced with the reality of music healing the depths of the soul.
I came away uplifted by so many aspects of the morning, however tired I am by this stage, this put my perspective back on track and I smiled all the way home in the cab. I think the driver thought either I was drunk in the middle of the day, or high on something elderly ladies should not know about ! I was high on my drug of choice injection which these children had given me, and all was well with the world.
I rushed out of the hall, grabbed a cab and was whisked back to collect Janet from the hotel and after a brief sojourn in McDonalds ( of all places, but no time for ought else !) we cabbed again and proceeded to the Open Vocal Finals Competition. As I would have expected of these polite and welcoming people, Janet was brought into the festival fold and invited to sit with the committee to enjoy the afternoon.
We heard four finals, and these included the Chinese classes, Gulp. Ben and I were expected to judge all the singing from these 16 singers from all the differing genres. Cantonese is non existent in our world, but we were given translations of each song along with an idea of style from our colleague Steven who is Hong Kong/American so could be trusted on the language front !
In the end and like most ‘finals’ the winner almost always stands out like a beautiful sore thumb, and we three did not disagree on any result. The Chinese Song was quite challenging for us Brits, but in the end, singing is singing, and out of tune or harsh toned singing crosses all barriers and it worked out well. In the prescribed categories 2 winners came from Singing in a Foreign Language classes and two from Traditional Chinese Song.
It wasn’t even a fix !
The sun was shining, the sky was still blue and it was pleasantly warm today. After all the adjudication was done a cab back to the hotel seemed the best, and easiest on the feet solution, the boys initially opted to come back with we ladies, then after some male brain consideration, changed their minds and said they would walk back….via a few little wine bistros and the odd pub watering hole I’ll be bound !
Boys will be boys !
Janet and I lolled on comfortable sofas and had tea and a cake at the hotel which was just what the doctor ordered, then I guided her to the Star Ferry Pier at Wan Chai and we crossed the Victoria harbour to Hong Kong mainland. The sun was setting as we sailed for the fifteen minute journey and served as a gloriously fitting end to my treasured day.
( Permission given for all photos !)
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