The Wataboshi Music Festival is an annual charity event showcasing songs written by the handicapped.  It is also a song competition in which the best song selected will be performed in Japan at a similar, much larger concert.  The objective is to bring together the able-bodied and the handicapped through music.

This year’s Wataboshi Music Festival was held on 22 May at Kallang Theatre, attended by a full capacity crowd.  Connie (violin), Rosalind (violin), Nicholas (viola) and Carol Lim (‘cello), dressed in head-to-toe black (trendy these days for music chamber groups, I have noticed) accompanied singers for three of 10 songs: Nurjannah, Wind of Change and Make us a Part of You to a rousing reception from an appreciative audience.  Incidentally, Nurjannah won the first spot.

Prior to the concert, a CD of all the songs performed, was also recorded.  Shirley, who played the horn in the SYO, gamely (at very short notice) arranged the music for a string quartet. Rosalind (violin), Nicholas (viola), Carol (cello) and I (I can just about “scratch” adequately at the fiddle) rehearsed and recorded the music over a period of 5 hours.  It was a strange experience for us, well, me especially.  It was difficult, nay, impossible, to hear each other at first and our first rendition was...well, not the best ex-members of the SYO could offer.  However, skills honed over the years in SYO paid off and we made a more than passable recording in a relatively short time.