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Attended a free concert at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, at the National University of Singapore recently. They call this event, "Let's make a musical friend". This conservatory is the first in Singapore to offer full time studies, leading up to Bachelors or Masters of music degrees. It is located next to the Lee Kong Chian history museum (where they are exhibiting the sperm whale). The conservatory has a very cool building. From the inside, it looks like this. The first part of the event was held in the conservatory concert hall. A beautiful hall! The whole idea of this event is not some high-brow classical music concert that would certainly put the kids to sleep. Rather, it was designed as a fun event, to showcase the classical instruments of an orchestra to the families and kids. For a start, here was the introduction to the woodwinds. Which instruments are these? Flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon. The instrumentalists on stage. All studying at the Yong Siew Toh. Next, introduction to the instruments of the marching band - BRASS! Loved the surprise surround sound and the way the students marched in. Just 5 instruments and the sound was gorgeous. Next, strings. I think all of us are familiar with the violin. But there is also the viola, cello and later on the double bass. In this picture, there were all holding up their bows. The emcee was comparing their bows to lightsabers. After the strings, came the percussion. Too many instruments to name, so the emcee didn't name them. The performance was pretty good. And finally, the entire orchestra came out on stage to perform, the theme from Harry Potter! Very nicely done. The acoustics in the concert hall were fantastic and the kids were rather well behaved! After the concert, we could attend what they call sectionals, or information sessions for the various instrument groups. We decided to check out the woodwinds. Here is one student playing a short phrase from Swan Lake, on the oboe. Overall, it was a wonderful afternoon spent. Kids had plenty of fun. They hold this event once a year, at about this time of the year (usually March holiday weekends). So go catch it if you are interested to expose your kids to classical music.

You hardly get this type of news coverage in our papers... Last week, we published the first part of Reverend Miak Siew