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The two women stared helplessly at the group of
giggling teenagers. At first they waited. The
laughing and joking wouldn’t stop. And yet,
somehow in the next two months, Randa Sabbah
and Tatiana Bondarovich have to put the 13 young choir
members, six boys and seven girls, through many inten-
sive practice sessions and get them ready to perform at
Festival of Choirs in Muscat, Oman – a music concert
which brings together school choirs in the Middle East.
“You have to practice, practice, practice,” said Sabbah,
the choir director and head of the IC music department.
All the students had auditioned and were chosen to be
part of the IC delegation.
But mastering a challenging repertoire of eight songs -
six of which were required by the festival committee and
two of the school’s choosing – was not an easy task. The
four-part compo-
sitions were split
into eight voices.
Learning each
voice alone
would be a major
challenge let
alone harmoniz-
ing together.
Not a free minute
could be spared.
Not a moment
during practice
could be lost. The
teachers
demanded full
attention during
lunch breaks,
after school
hours, and on
weekends. And
there was defi-
nitely no time for
teenage frolics.
“They all want to be soloists,” said Sabbah. “But work-
ing in a choir takes tuning to one another. It takes learn-
ing one line and listening to the other at the same time.”
Most of all it takes discipline. Eager students would just
jump in and sing at their whim. “We kept saying: listen
then repeat. But listen first,” said Sabbah.
Bondarovich especially stared at the students in frustra-
tion. They talked loudly. They fidgeted. They laughed.
They joked. They poked each other. A Belarus national
who grew up in a society which imposes much disci-
pline in its training of the arts, she found herself devis-
ing ways to get the students’ attention.
“I would do the clown and pull funny faces to get their atten-
tion,” she said. “We use whatever method it takes to get them
to work as a team. Teamwork is what choirs are all about.”
And then Sabbah would stand, raise her hand to conduct and
in dismay put it down again. Someone was talking.
One day it happened: the students’ voice rose in beauti-
ful harmony. Everyone knew their parts. The choir was
ready for the festival.
Nervous students and their equally nervous teachers
arrived in Muscat in February and joined 150 students
from seven different international schools from the Mid-
dle East. Together they formed a mass choir and per-
formed their much practiced compositions.
It was time for
the IC choir to
perform their
own song: “Ya
Aashikata al war-
di”, a Zaki Nassif
piece. Bondarovich
took her place at
the piano.
It had taken the
music depart-
ment hours of
work to get the
lyrics, score and
music down on
paper and work
it as choral piece.
It was a hit. Choir
directors at the
festival gathered
around Sabbah
and Bondarovich
wanting a copy of
the score.
The journey back was long. And as the students waited
around the Muscat airport waiting for the flight back to
Beirut, they suddenly erupted in singing. On and on they
went. In other transit airports and on the plane. Concerned
about disturbing others, the teachers tried to hush them.
“Leave them,” said one man quietly.
And they did. Upon touchdown, applause for the choir
went up in the plane.
The teachers smiled. “It feels good,” said Sabbah. “It
was all worth it.”
MUSCAT: HERE WE COME
!
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