SINGAPORE – They came to the ChildAid 2023 auditions to dance, sing, act or play a musical instrument – or even do all four.
Some acts were so impressive, the creative team is now thinking hard about how to accommodate all of them in the year-end show.
ChildAid’s creative director Melissa Sim said: “I’m really excited and inspired by the quality of the auditionees. We’re tweaking the script to fit some acts because they’re so good and we simply have to have them in ChildAid 2023.”
ChildAid is an annual charity concert organised jointly by The Straits Times and The Business Times. The 2023 edition will be held at the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre on Dec 4.
It typically raises about $2 million a year with the help of sponsors and donors, including main sponsors such as banks UOB and Citi Singapore, as well as Mr Mohamed Abdul Jaleel, founder and chief executive of MES Group, a property and logistics solutions company.
The funds benefit The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (STSPMF) and The Business Times Budding Artists Fund (BTBAF). The STSPMF gives financially disadvantaged students a monthly allowance for school-related expenses, while the BTBAF helps young talent from low-income families to pursue the arts for free.
This year’s ChildAid concert, the 19th edition, will be a musical dinner theatre production set in 1930s pre-independent Singapore. Guests will be served food while they help the cast of characters solve the disappearance of a famous singer.
The auditions kicked off last Saturday at youth arts training centre 10 Square in Orchard Road and will continue into the week.
The first to arrive that day were seven-year-old twins Penelope and Zicheng Wee, who played two songs each on the guzheng and dizi respectively.
Their father Jerald Ben Wee, an inline skating instructor, said: “My wife and I want our kids to develop holistically. So apart from their subjects in school, they are also learning musical instruments so they can develop their brain in different ways.”
After the twins, Yee Hong Shyan, a preternaturally confident 12-year-old, played his own upbeat jazz-inflected composition titled Downtown on the piano.
He said: “I want to perform in ChildAid because it’s a good platform to share my passion for music, while also helping disadvantaged kids.”
Other auditionees included a group of seven female cellists aged between seven and 10, who played Saint-Saens’ renowned composition The Swan; 11-year-old Singapore-born Russian Andrei Slobodyanyuk showing exceptional flair for the violin; and 10-year-old Pragnya Rajagopalan narrating a postmodern story about Frosty The Snowman.
When the auditions conclude on Wednesday, some 70 acts shortlisted from 202 submissions would have performed before a selection panel comprising Sim, music director Eugene Yip, co-producer/director Ross Nasir and representatives from The Straits Times, The Business Times, STSPMF and BTBAF.
Yip said: “Almost all the children have at least a good level of proficiency given their age. There were six- and seven-year-olds holding their own on their instruments; a young electone player churning out his own sophisticated arrangements; and even a young piano maestro showing technique that many pianists take years to achieve. It’s such a humbling experience to see youth earnestly stepping forward for a good cause.”
- Helmi Yusof is with The Business Times and co-chairs the organising committee of ChildAid 2023.
