Remembering an "Older Youth" Singing Team

Remembering an "Older Youth" Singing Team This year's Chinese National Day beauty pageant was the most enthusiastic and successful one in recent years. Whether it is the temperament of the beauties, their performances and...

> Remembering an "older youth" singing team, this year's Chinese National Day beauty pageant is the most enthusiastic and successful one in recent years. Whether it is the temperament, performance and talent of the beauties, or the performance of the professional dance team, they all give people a refreshing feeling. Among the many performances, the announcer called out a singing team of "older youths" with an average age of 76. Their songs floated melodiously in the theater, bringing people into the vast ocean, the hometown of the mesmerizing mermaid. When people thanked them with warm applause and cheers for their wonderful performance, some people couldn't help but ask how these silver-haired "older youths" developed such professional singing skills. All this needs to be started from the beginning. The Phoenix Chinese Senior Citizens Choir was established in 2000. It is an organization for the elderly to entertain themselves. A dozen people who love singing get together to sing some songs they liked when they were young, recall the past, and relax their feelings. Later, he often sang at birthday parties and various celebrations at the Senior Citizen Center, enriching the cultural life of the elderly, and more than 60 people participated. In recent years, their performance at the Spring Festival Gala at the beginning of each year has attracted the attention of the overseas Chinese community. Everyone hopes that they can come forward and make some contributions to the active overseas Chinese community. As a result, they began to make preparations in terms of uniform clothing. When the choir's artistic director Zeng Liqing went to Beijing for a trip, she selected and purchased clothing for the female chorus members at her own expense, and began to sing at overseas Chinese communities to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and celebrate the National Day, gradually building up their confidence. In February this year, Zhang Huafang, the chairman of the National Day Beauty Pageant, approached Zeng Liqing and invited the Senior Citizens' Association Choir to perform in the pageant. This is a great pressure for the Senior Citizens' Chorus. This will be the first time for many elderly people to take to the stage. Although some of them participated in amateur performances in their youth, it was decades ago. Everyone accepted this performance task with a spirit of participation. It is completely different from the usual performances, and there can be no slight mistakes in this performance. In order to facilitate practice, they organized a small choir performance team in the choir, invited Ms. Peng Jian, a Chinese teacher who is very accomplished in singing, to provide guidance and began more than three months of training. Since the teacher was only free on Friday night, they scheduled the rehearsal time for Friday night from 7 to 9 p.m. Many elderly people have changed their schedule for weekend reunions with their children. Sometimes their children ask the elderly to go home to help. They tell their children that I have something to do on Friday and must rush back to practice singing. As for inviting me to dinner, let’s leave it to another day. There are countless such examples. All in all, this team has a lot of self-discipline. In the evening, we chose to practice singing at the Memorial Building. Those who couldn't drive had to be picked up and dropped off. Wu Guofang, Deng Guanshou, and Zeng Liqing took on the task of picking up and dropping off each time. In order to unify the clothing, everyone went out to buy during the festival when prices were reduced. There are also many volunteers like our old team leader Hui Binghua and commanding Du Jiahua who serve everyone silently. Teacher Peng’s training also starts from the basics. From the pronunciation of each word to the synthesis of voices, from the way they walk to the expressions on their faces, everyone has gone through a whole new training. The hard work paid off. It took three months and hundreds of repeated singing exercises before I could sing at the level I am today. The elderly people truly experienced the true meaning of "one minute on stage, ten years of work off stage". When the chorus members heard people's sincere appreciation, they felt infinite comfort in their hearts. They are more hopeful about life and more confident in themselves. Singer Gu Yayu has proposed to perform with them, and they are preparing to move towards their next goal. I wish them to live younger and younger.