WHEN Janani Sridhar first appeared at the ChildAid 2014 rehearsal and trilled the opening lines of Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro, the entire cast of young performers stopped what they were doing and listened intently. Sridhar has a soprano voice so lovely and supple that even the young ones more accustomed to pop songs by the likes of Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande were dazzled. As the show's choreographer Zaini Tahir put it: "You may not understand a word of Italian and what she's singing about, but every phrase was filled with raw emotions. You couldn't help but be moved."

At 24, Sridhar is older than the usual ChildAid cut-off age of 19 for performers. But the 2014 show is a special one: it is the 10th anniversary of the annual charity concert organised by The Business Times and The Straits Times. And it is celebrating the occasion by bringing back some of its finest performers for one big hurrah.

Several of the 200-strong cast are older talents in their 20s who got their headstart in ChildAid. They include piano prodigy Abigail Sin, now pursuing a PhD at London's Royal Academy of Music; popstar Farisha Ishak, who beat hundreds of hopefuls to win the TV singing competition The Final 1; and YouTube sensation Clarence Liew. The cast also includes foreign performers such as violinist Asami Wada from Japan and pianist Kant Kosoltrakul from Thailand, who won the Steinway Concerto Competition in his country.