SINGAPORE - Singing Queen Of The Night from Mozart's The Magic Flute is hard enough but 13-year-old Lim Jing Rui impressed by whistling the piece for about three minutes at perfect pitch.
The secondary school student was among a number of performers under 19 years old who auditioned on Saturday (Aug 13) for the ChildAid concert, which will be held on Dec 13.
Pragnya Rajapolan, 9, charmed the judges by narrating a traditional fairy tale with a Singapore twist.
Titled Little Red Dot Riding Hood, her story had characters such as Singa the Lion and Sharity the Elephant.
From more than 530 submissions, about 90 talents including individual and group performers, were selected to audition on the weekend at 10 Square, an arts centre in Orchard Central shopping mall.
Mr Jeremiah Choy, founder of Orangedot Productions and artistic director of ChildAid 2022, said: "ChildAid is not only a platform to showcase talent and excellence for our children and youth to raise funds for the two worthy charities, it is also an opportunity for the performers to work on a large stage production, to work with professionals and to learn the right ethos and attitude as a performer."
Mr Choy is part of the judging panel.
ChildAid and the young virtuosos are eager to return in full force this year for the 18th iteration of the concert.
Over the last two years, the annual charity concert was held online and in a hybrid format due to pandemic regulations.
Mr Helmi Yusof, co-chairman of the ChildAid 2022 organising committee, said: "With the worst of the pandemic likely behind us, we expect our 2022 concert to be another big bash with some outstanding performers."
The concert will follow a storyline inspired by the ballet The Nutcracker, which also coincides with the festive theme of Christmas.
The ChildAid concert was created in 2005 and organised by The Straits Times (ST) and The Business Times (BT) in aid of the ST School Pocket Money Fund and the BT Budding Artists Fund.
The ST School Pocket Money Fund helps to fund the lunch and transport fees of children from low-income families, while the BT Budding Artists Fund supports artistically talented youth from less-privileged households.
The concert's main sponsors this year are UOB, Citi Singapore and Japanese restaurant Shinji.
Global Cultural Alliance is the executive producer for the show, with special events company Orangedot Productions as a creative partner.
ChildAid 2022 will be held at the University Cultural Centre at National University of Singapore with the theme "All Together Now".
Rehearsals will run from Sept 5 to 7 and Nov 21 to Dec 9.
More details on ticket sales will be announced later.
