ChildAid auditionees bring their ‘A’ game
More than 80 talented kids, shortlisted from 252 entries, vie for a spot in the annual concert organised by BT and ST
THEY came, they competed, they conquered hearts. Some 84 talented children from various backgrounds auditioned for a spot at the year-end annual charity concert ChildAid organised by The Business Times and The Straits Times, which is now in its 20th year.
Several auditionees had participated at previous ChildAid concerts. They had such an excellent time, they wanted to be part of it again.
Divyasree Ravichandraraja, for one, acted and sang in last year’s musical dinner, produced by How Drama. The 13-year-old said: “The experience was intense. The instructors pushed us to the limit, telling us, ‘You can do this, we know you can’. I came out of it realising I could be more that I thought. So I want to come back and find out what else I’m capable of.”
At the audition, she sang, danced and executed a perfect cartwheel mid-song. The selection panel marvelled at her moves – and how she has grown several centimetres taller since they last saw her.
Similarly, Lara Van Steen, also 13, had grown some 20 cm taller from when she was an emcee at ChildAid 2021. She said: “Since I took part in ChildAid, I’ve become more confident. I’ve acted in plays, musicals, TV commercials and even horror films.” For the audition, she performed an original comic monologue she had written herself.
Not all were returnees. Violinist Travis Wong, nine, recently topped the 31st Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in central Italy, beating participants more than three times older than him. After playing a Paganini piece with verve and flourish, he said: “I feel a lot of emotions when I play for the audience. It’s an unexplainable connection that I have with them... I want to bring that feeling to ChildAid, where I will be playing for a good cause.”
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After him, vision-impaired singer Nur Anisah Daaniys Sufian, 12, took to the stage to sing Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, bowling the selection panel over with her pitch-perfect rendition of the challenging song. The panel was also moved by the purity of her voice and emotions.
ChildAid raises money for the BT Budding Artists Fund and ST School Pocket Money Fund. The BT fund supports artistically talented youth from less-privileged households, and the ST one subsidises the lunch and transport costs of children from low-income families. Since 2005, ChildAid has raised over S$30 million for disadvantaged children.
This year’s ChildAid show is titled The Dream Emporium. It is set in the enchanting realm of the Consortium of Wishes, where children’s dreams are sorted and made real through song, dance and artificial intelligence (AI) interactivity. The show is led by co-creative directors Joshua Quek and Amni Musfirah, with guidance from former ChildAid creative director Jeremiah Choy.
Produced by NoonTalk Media, a leader in technologically sophisticated productions, it promises to be different from previous ChildAid concerts. “It will incorporate generative AI to make it more vivid and interactive as never before,” said Quek, a multimedia expert at NoonTalk.
The show will run at the Esplanade Theatre, one of the country’s largest performance venues, in late November. Tickets will be released in the coming months.
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