Bersama is a vocal group in our school comprised of singers in high school. Over the summer before Grade 10, I got an email from a music teacher in our school, Mrs. Lindsey Stirrat, saying that I was down on her list to be apart of Bersama. The email said that Bersama will become the premier vocal ensemble in school next year, and that this group will be by invite only and will perform repertoire arranged by her and the students singing in it.
The Wavelengths concert was the first time that I sang in this newly made group, and we sang a song called “You will be found” from the new musical Dear Even Hansen, and a mildly festive song called “White Winter Hymnal” by the Fleet Foxes. White Winter Hymnal was originally meant to be acapella, but we eventually added a double bass and a Cajon to support it, and give the piece slightly more of a ‘concert’ feel to it. “You Will Be Found”, however, was accompanied by a whole house band, complete with a pianist, guitarist, bass guitarist and a drummer.
It was our first time performing as a group in a concert before and we were all excited to make it extra special and memorable both for us, as well as the audience who would be getting their first glimpses of the school’s premier vocal group. The performance went by with a minimum amount of negligible hitches, and I had so much fun performing with high school’s best singers.
The second time we performed was at a whole high school assembly, the ones that take place only a handful of times in the whole year. This time, however, the whole of Bersama didn’t perform, but our teacher, Mrs. Stirrat, picked only five people to sing a song called Rise. “Rise” was initially rehearsed by the IB Grade 11 singers during their music lessons with Mrs. Stirrat, but four days before the performance, one girl fell sick, and Mrs. Stirrat asked me to take over her part. I was more than happy to sing (as I always am), though maybe a bit nervous of that fact that I, a 10th grader, with close to zero practice of the complex harmonies at that time, would be singing with the 11th graders who have rehearsed this song many times.
However, I was able to nail my part in due time and was also given the opening and closing solo parts.
Below is the recording of our performance, and I am the one standing third from the right.
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