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Home > Fellowship Plaza Apt. A202 |
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National Taiwan University Alumni Chorus
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National Taiwan University Alumni Chorus
As I typically do, I went to my office to prepare for Sunday’s sermon and to meditate on it, but around 2PM in the afternoon, there was a call.
From my senior apartment, the vice president of the resident council, Ruth called in an urgent voice. I was unable to understand because of the urgency of the call. So to make sure I knew who it was, I said “Who was the person calling?” and finally the person gave me their name and with a request.
The urgent request was that, the apartment manager had totally forgotten about the event that was to be held today and had excluded it in the announcements! Since the event was to be at 3PM in the afternoon, the event would be in difficulty. But the problem was the choir that would perform was already there and rehearsing. The request was for me to call all the Korean residents within the apartment complex and have them attend the event. I was already thinking ahead of how many of the elders there would have left, since some of them, their children would take them out for lunch, or some would leave through family matter.
Since I had received the request, I called two of the female elders who are members of the Elder’s Choir in a Korean church. Thankfully both of them had answers, and they said “We will obey.” Because of their positions within the church, they had answered like they would be within the church. They also added that they themselves would call the rest of the Korean community there, and that I didn’t have to place all the calls. How thankful was that!
As I had finished typing the sermon for Sunday, it was already 2:40 PM in the afternoon. Since I was slightly iffy about not joining, I took about 30 minutes to get back to my apartment around 3:30PM, and had arrived in the Fellowship Hall. Many of the Korean members were there already. After I had joined, few more Korean elders joined and there were about 9 of them. Even though Taiwan and China are of the same root, they are divided through political history. Despite this, many of the Chinese elders moving to United States goes over that barricade, and do not speak of such things. The National Taiwan University Alumni Chorus was a encouragement performance, about 45 Chinese residents had gathered. Most of them were under the Communist Regime. Despite being an urgent announcement, and despite being the majority of the population in the community, it was still a lot. But comparing to the 33 chorus members, it would have been better if more had gathered.
The reason why I write this is, my prejudice to the culture was wrong in many ways. Last month, they had visited. At that time, the announcement was already made, so I would’ve been able to attend the meeting if I wanted. I liked to listen to choirs sing together. But, in my thought of ignorance, I thought that the Chinese choir wouldn’t be much of greatness. I had thought that, since I heard many Korean Choirs or other nationally famous choirs, my expectations of Chinese Choir was low.
As my expectation would be low, I didn’t think much of it, but from the start, the first song had moved me greatly. It was called “Love Change Everything.” It was extremely elegant and confident in their singing. Since the song was in English and their accent was heavy in Chinese so it was hard to understand at times, but it was still amazing. There were 12 songs. Half in English, and other half in Chinese. More amazingly, there were familiar pieces like “The Battle of Jericho, Alleluia!” and “Let My People Go”. I was so happy and thankful that I had stood up from my spot to listen. So much fire and passion was in their chorus, that it was bad to listen to them sitting down. Honestly, nothing like this ever had happened to me in the past as much as I thought.
All of the members didn’t even look at the score, and had memorized everything!
Most of the choir members were in their 50~60s. The entire choir was 40 member, but today, only 21 women and 12 men had gathered and sang in their full might, paying attention to the conductor the whole time.
There was a 5 minute break between the concerts. I was so blessed by the chorus; I met with the conductor to pass my thanks. He was in his late 50s. he was good looking and gentle looking. I asked obviously, “Did you major in music?” since his conducting skill was amazing. (Even thought I, myself do not know much of music, just from the view of it looked amazing.) But his answer was a surprise. “No, I am an engineer. I had never done major in music, but one thing I am familiar in music is, because my mother was a music teacher, so I had many opportunities to get to music.” When I asked him if he was a Christian, he said that he wasn’t, and that he only did it because he enjoyed it. I also asked if many of the choir members were Christian, and appeared not many of them were. I was surprised and curious how a non-Christian group that sang such choirs would give a huge touching effect. Apparently they had gathered every Friday from last year to gather and practice.
During the song “Let My People Go” two soloists came and sang. The lady was a short one, (Soprano) and the gentleman who sang the Bass part was tall. I was curious how she was able to sing so clearly, and brightly like that. I was also blown away when I heard the best bassist ever. The only word to describe this feeling was, amazing!
After all the songs were done, I had clapped until my hand was hurting.
I wanted to thank the entire individual soloist, but I was only able to meet the soprano, and had a short conversation with her. Apparently she was the conductor’s wife. I asked if she had majored in vocal training, and apparently she had been trained sometime. Since there was a formal concert on the 12th of September and wished that I had attended it. So I asked if I can get the attendance ticket, and she said that she would get as many tickets she can get. I had done many of the “Thanks and Praise Night” and know that it is never a concert that is free. She introduced herself as Wendy and said that she would get as many tickets as I would find the people to attend with. After that I saw the pianist was also there nearby. I praised him for his excellence in performing the piano. I asked him if he had done the piano, and apparently he is actually a scientist.
After graduating from Berkeley, he is currently working in Stanford University. The conductor said that he has a doctorate’s degree in Engineering. So in overall, all the conductor, soloists and pianists do not have much training in music, but all of them are able to inspire and touch every one of us. The only thing that was regretful was that if they were to be Christian and had praised it would’ve been more awesome…
But as over my expectation, it was such a great concert. I asked the other Korean residents and they all agreed with me about how it was.
(July 27th 2015)
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The pair of Geese that left… 
National Taiwan University Alumni Chorus