At the first China Children's Chorus Festival, a domestic music expert said with emotion: I didn't expect Jiangsu to kill a "dark horse". The "dark horse" referred to by this expert is the dandelion choir in Suzhou.
From August 8th to 1 1, the first China Children's Chorus Festival was held in Nanjing. This is a national music festival, sponsored by the people of China, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education. 32 top children's choirs from all over the country launched a fierce competition. Dandelion competed with Xiaoying Art Troupe and other choirs with a long history in China on the same stage, and finally "killed" the only choirs in Jiangsu Province, winning the silver cup of the chorus festival-"Little Lark" award in one fell swoop. At the same time, in the biennial "Five-Star Project Award" in Jiangsu Province, "Dandelion" won the laurel and was awarded the gold medal.
Experts believe that before winning the gold medals such as "Little Lark" and "Five-Star Project Award", "Suzhou Dandelion" was only a "young eagle" in the eyes of others in the domestic chorus, and it was unknown. In February 2005, in order to build a brand team, Canglang District established the Dandelion Art Troupe of Suzhou Canglang Children's Palace, and the Dandelion Choir is a "squad" of the Art Troupe. This "squad" has grown from the initial 20 or 30 people to more than 100 full members.
During the Nanjing Competition, Dandelion Choir joined many excellent children's choirs in China and forged a profound friendship. On August 1 1, Suzhou Dandelion Choir, which just won the "Little Lark" trophy from Nanjing, had no time to brush off the fatigue of the competition, and joined hands with the excellent teams of the first China Children's Chorus Festival such as CCTV Galaxy Youth TV Art Troupe to give a report performance at the Ming Kai Grand Theatre for children who love music in their hometown.
The road to specialization of amateur teams
Look at Dandelion's teachers, and it may not be hard to imagine how this young amateur choir went to the international stage:
Yang Hongnian, professor of Central Conservatory of Music, a famous conductor, educator and perennial art consultant in China; Li Chong, Chairman of Suzhou Chorus Association, is the artistic director; The conductor of the choir is Zhang Jiancheng, a direct disciple of Yang Hongnian and a master of Central Conservatory of Music. In addition to these well-known "masters", the choir also recruited many well-known music teachers in Suzhou, from song creation to daily training. Huang Wei, director of Canglang Children's Palace, said that in fact, the amateur choir "Dandelion" has taken a high-quality and professional road since its establishment.
"Kid, where is your throat? That's right, just press your second button ","The voice is going to take the elevator ","Yes, sink, sink again "... A complete song is so elegant and harmonious when performing, but repetitive and boring when training. "Dandelion" members, ranging from grade two to grade five. Before entering the choir, children's understanding of the vocal world is basically "a blank sheet of paper".
The specialized training of "Dandelion" begins with the teacher's careful division of labor. A song is divided into several parts, each part has at least two teachers. Only part of the pronunciation training, there are 8 full-time tutors. Voice, listening, listening practice ... in addition, there are full-time teachers of music, words, music and even music. In May this year, Yang Hongnian came to Canglang Children's Palace for a three-day training. This 70-year-old man who "opened the voice of nature" taught in a simple way in just three days, from the scientific vocal method of children's chorus to the scientific guidance method of music teachers, which was vividly called "four or two" by the teachers of children's chorus in our city. Li Chong is the chairman of the Chorus Association of our city. He is a busy man. But in Canglang Children's Palace, you can see his shadow almost every day. Zhang Jiancheng, who works in Changshu Institute of Technology, has appeared in the Children's Palace at 3: 00 p.m. every day since he became the choir conductor. Drive from Changshu to Suzhou every day, and then return to Changshu from Suzhou. Zhang Jiancheng knows exactly how many traffic lights there are on Suyuzhang Highway.
On the eve of the Japanese performance, special parents came to Bo Huang's office for several days. They came to "quarrel" with Huang Wei. Parents said: "Usually, children are trained, and we all take time off from work to pick them up. Today, we take time off to quarrel, and really hope to give our children a chance to exercise. "
For the parents of more than 65,438+000 primary school students in the choir, under the increasing pressure of going to school and going to society, the purpose of sending their children to learn to sing is not only to cultivate their artistic talent and aesthetic appreciation ability, but also to give them more opportunities to participate in social activities and exercise their fighting spirit and team spirit. To this end, many parents are proud of their children's participation in "Dandelion" training. Usually the children rehearse in the Children's Palace, and the parents wait outside the hall with dry food. Some children have a cold and fever. Parents should send their children to the training site and say, "Just sit and listen." Some students live in the suburbs, and it takes two hours to get to the Children's Palace by bus, but they insist on not missing a class.
When Dandelion was chosen as the name of the Art Troupe, Canglang Children's Palace had far-reaching plans. "Gather into a fire and scatter into stars." Today, "Dandelion" has created a number of high-level programs to train children to have a "boat ticket" to the society in addition to intense cultural study. When these little dandelions grow up, they will be artistic seeds scattered all over the sky.
Since last year, "Dandelion" has had friendly exchanges with international professional groups such as Japan, Denmark, Canada, Australia and the United States. In August 2005, under the matchmaking of Canglang District Government, Canglang Children's Palace held an exchange activity with Japanese Treasure Boys and Girls Choir. The children of Dandelion Choir and Treasure Boys and Girls Choir sang together and learned from each other. Canglang Children's Palace also signed a friendly exchange agreement with Treasure Children's Palace Choir. In March this year, the Japanese side issued an invitation letter inviting Dandelion to participate in the International Youth Chorus Festival on August 28th this year. Dandelion has set foot on Japanese soil twice. In children's young minds, "dandelion" is an open window.