Two Big Dates for our Vocal Ensembleby Elizabeth George (Y13) The British International School Shanghai's Vocal Ensemble consisting of twelve people recently sang in Beijing and at the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. The choir sang a song by the famous Danish composer, Benny Andersen, in Chinese, a feat that is relatively unique. They sang with another band exposing the composer’s works in a performance called ‘The Other Andersen’. On Saturday the 16th of October, the team left Shanghai to fly to Beijing. The next day the choir started the dress rehearsals from 10:00 to 4:00. Despite minor mishaps, including the necessity of microphones while dancing with umbrellas, the choir was confident and excited before taking the stage by storm. The sheer energy apparent in the Vocal Ensemble was obvious to the crowd as they clapped and cheered. After returning to Shanghai late on Sunday night, on Monday the choir was at it again, singing at the World Expo. This did include a couple of frustrations as it was only five minutes before the show that the group was able to rehearse, that too without proper sound and props. In spite of these setbacks, the performance given shone with liveliness as the stadium attracted more people to the innovative music and dancing. |