A Cappella Development Camp
The singing of its aborigines is one of Taiwan’s most cherished assets. In the eastern region of Taiwan, a village which is mainly of Bei-Nan heritage has produced nine Golden Melody Awards winners in 10 years, including the earlier ballad godfather Kimbo, as well as vocalists including Samingad, Jen-Nien Chen, as well as the more contemporary Tien Kao, Hao-En, Jia-Jia and the Honey Voice. It proves the fact that the Taiwan aborigines inherit their great voices. In order to grant the aboriginal youth some opportunities to showcase their talent and learn diversified singing skills, Alliance worked with Junyi School for Innovative Learning and Vocal Asia, which has contributed to A Cappella for years. We are inviting the director (Jin-Yu Liu) of the first human voice choir, The Public Bath House Vocal Group, and the pop jazz director (Yuan-Lei Chu) of Taiwan Choral Music Center to come to Taidong to hold lecture sessions and performance emulations. We hope this can turn out to be the seeds which will develop A Cappella in Taidong, and end up making A Cappella synonymous with Taidong.
Hopefully, the new studio will train local music lovers, teachers and community workers. The 2-day curriculum included an introduction to A Cappella performing styles and skills taught by Ms. Liu and some sessions to lead teachers to appreciate performances by all famous A Cappella groups. Director Chu held classes for harmony skills, listening training, and in depth lectures about accurate listening, sound stability, and harmony. These have benefited teachers as a chorus leader as well as a member.
As for the real practice, the aboriginal youth were led to open their vocals to sing The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Vindo, and Song of Nan-Wang-Xi by Ms. Liu and Director Chu. The “seed teachers” have taken advantage of the opportunity to apply their learned skills and knowledge of A Cappella. All attendees gave passionate feedback and have been actively discussing the possibility to form an A Cappella group in Taidong. They all hope Alliance would invite more professional instructors to give music workshops. From the earlier shyness to the later confidence displayed during their performance, we have seen these Taidong kids achieve some great results.
We’d like to express our gratefulness to CEO Fong-Wen Chen who made this activity possible and director Mr. Jia-Chin Lai. We wish for an even more popular A Cappella in Taidong and more bonding between it and the local aborigines in the hope of creating more songs to be written and sung by Taidong civilians
Hopefully, the new studio will train local music lovers, teachers and community workers. The 2-day curriculum included an introduction to A Cappella performing styles and skills taught by Ms. Liu and some sessions to lead teachers to appreciate performances by all famous A Cappella groups. Director Chu held classes for harmony skills, listening training, and in depth lectures about accurate listening, sound stability, and harmony. These have benefited teachers as a chorus leader as well as a member.
As for the real practice, the aboriginal youth were led to open their vocals to sing The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Vindo, and Song of Nan-Wang-Xi by Ms. Liu and Director Chu. The “seed teachers” have taken advantage of the opportunity to apply their learned skills and knowledge of A Cappella. All attendees gave passionate feedback and have been actively discussing the possibility to form an A Cappella group in Taidong. They all hope Alliance would invite more professional instructors to give music workshops. From the earlier shyness to the later confidence displayed during their performance, we have seen these Taidong kids achieve some great results.
We’d like to express our gratefulness to CEO Fong-Wen Chen who made this activity possible and director Mr. Jia-Chin Lai. We wish for an even more popular A Cappella in Taidong and more bonding between it and the local aborigines in the hope of creating more songs to be written and sung by Taidong civilians
