Dick Lee takes ChildAid in a new direction

Singapore

THE annual ChildAid charity concert returns for its 13th year with a musical specially directed by Singaporean singer-songwriter Dick Lee, featuring over 150 young performers.

The ChildAid concert is organised by The Business Times (BT) and The Straits Times (ST), with proceeds going to BT's Budding Artists Fund, as well as ST's School Pocket Money Fund. The funds respectively serve to help financially disadvantaged children by providing opportunities to hone their artistic talent as well as to provide pocket money for school.

This year's musical is titled An Amazing, Awesome Asian Adventure, and will follow four children on their journey through various Asian cities, in an attempt to hunt down the witch who stole the dreams of the children of Asia.

Singapore-born teenage singer Natalie Ong, who was one of the finalists for The X Factor Australia, will be playing the witch in the musical as a guest performer.

This is the first year that ChildAid has enlisted the help of Mr Lee's music and creative consultancy company Dick Lee Asia for the production of the charity concert.

"I've always wanted to inspire and encourage young children to do music and pursue arts, and I've done it in other ways, and I was always interested to do something with ChildAid, so working with them for the first time this year is a wonderful opportunity," said Mr Lee.

The concert this year has taken a different approach under Mr Lee's creative direction, and will be presented as a linked narrativeinstead of individual performances as in previous shows.

Gisele Chiam, one of the four leads for the musical, has been performing since she was three years old. "When my mum told me that I got the part of the main lead, I was really happy because I love performing; and I have been doing this for a few years now, and I love what I am doing, so I am really excited about this opportunity," the eight-year-old said.

The cast of the show, who are from the ages of five to 18, went on a tour of the Resorts World Theatre at Resorts World Sentosa on Monday, the venue for their show on Nov 24 and 25.

Tickets for the show will be available to the public in October.