How Imam’s Effort as Student Choir Club’s Leads to Victory
“Bass Team, shut up. You are all too noisy,” Irene Vista snapped at the group of male bass team who were joking when they were practicing at that time. One time, Irene also firmly advised all the Choir, “if possible you should not consume fried foods and spicy foods. first until the competition is over, ” She added firmly, recalled Imam Akbar Pohan, one of the Choir. Tired, angry, exhausted, excited, and also: passionate enthusiasm said Imam. But for the sake of The 6th Singapore International Choral Festival 2019, all the choir of the Miracle Voices, Student Choir (PSM MV) of the Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) were compliant with Irene, their coach.
At that time, Imam was the one who was joking during the practice. Imam, who is come from North Sumatran, may be tired, and also exhausted, can not be avoided if the practice is happen for months. He also have to obey and follow the rules of the coach. Especially with regard to food, of course, make you want to do cat and mouse, secretly eat their favorite foods: fried foods and spicy foods. “Yes, at first it didn’t work, right, so there were some who used cheating days. Only after that the impact (on voice quality) was immediately apparent to us. If so, you can obey,” Imam said, digging up the memory during practice. But it seems more passion and enthusiasm than fatigue if you see his achievements later.
PSM MV UII sang several songs at the 6th Singapore International Choral Festival. Imam, as Communication Student of UII, class of 2017, it is one of the choir at bass position. Together with some of his colleagues, on PSM (UII’s Student Choir Club), performed a number of songs to compete at the 2019 Singapore International Choral Festival (SICF) on August, 1-4, 2019. Unmitigated, Imam and friends managed to won the Golden Award and Silver Award at SICF.
“When we heard that we won the Gold, it felt mixed up remembering all the things during almost six month training. Sometimes he is scolded, he must keep his food for a clean voice, and I even wonder we can get Gold too,” Imam said. “The problem is, we are the new comer in this competition and the standard is higher than the competitions that their Choir Club has participated in before.”
For Imam, the achievement of PSM MV UII was not achieved by just holding up. There is a sweat behind the incision to the Singapore. In addition there are also cold hands of Irene Vista, the coach who was credited with galvanizing them. Imam said, he must practice every day. Not only that, “Sunday night and Monday is time to street singing (busking), he-he-he,” said Imam. The Preparation is not easy, because participants who depart a lot and need a lot of money, “we have to busking to add money.” There is also Choir Club making paid promoting services on its Instagram account for fundraising. Not a day or two, all the preparations even reached five months, said Imam.
Then, what about lectures and other personal activities? “If it is a personal obstacle, it is most difficult for time to be tasked (making assignments). In Communication Science, it has a lot of group assignments so it must be clever for time management and sometimes there are some people who don’t understand my busy schedule. Yes this is the risk,” he said. Finally, he outsmarted when it was a group assignment, he would spend time, and try to contribute even though he could not attend. There were also some who cried out, “How busy is Choir Club, It just singing.” said the Imam imitating.
Continues to Lack Money, Busking, and Legend Songs (2)