By Neo Xin Yuan (21A01D), Snehal Sachde (21S07C), and Soh Jing Yee (21S03Q)

Catharsis.

As you click on the IVY notification, you may come across this word and take a pause. It’s not a word we use daily. You might not even have heard of it before. Maybe it just sounds vaguely cool but you have no idea what it really means. 

However, when you start listening to the first video, your tense shoulders—having gone through a long day of HBL—relax. You start to feel lighter. And you start to understand what catharsis means.

By Afeef Ikhwan (21A13B) and Max Chwa (21A01B) 

Love, are you there?

That’s the English translation of Amour T’es Là?, the name that Raffles Jazz has given to its annual concert this year. Scenes from 80s indie romance films come to mind when hearing the title; the performances that Jazz put up here definitely achieve that same atmosphere. And the pandemic situation we are currently facing did not in the least deter them from delivering their very best musicianship. The CCA is alive and kicking, albeit in a slightly different form this time around.

By Benjamin Liew (20A03A) and Ng Jing Ting (20A13A)
Photos courtesy of Celine Chung (20S06H) of Raffles Photographic Society

Last year’s instalment of Vocal Delights having proved no less than a resounding success, Raffles Chorale came through once again this year with their annual a cappella charity concert Volaré. Gracing the Performing Arts Centre (PAC) with their melodious voices on December 13, the 30-odd members displayed extraordinary musicianship and synergy as they shed the conservative image of a chorus and blew the audience away with their repertoire, which included top hits from pop singer Shawn Mendes, and Pentatonix. With all proceeds to Habitat for Humanity, their partner organisation for the fourth year running, the combined warmth of humanitarianism and wonderful music by Raffles Chorale truly brought to the audience the most wonderful time of the year.

By Valerie Tan (20A01E) and Emily Ni (20S03C)
Photographs courtesy of Raffles Photographic Society

Before walking into Albert Hong Hall on 7 December 2019, we’d just eaten a whole box of popcorn in the span of twenty minutes, and thought life couldn’t get any better than that.

Then Raffles Symphonic Band decided to prove us wrong.

It started when the members began strutting out with their instruments, lowering the hubbub of the supportive crowd to a murmur as they signalled the beginning of the concert. Sporting snazzy suits and ties (even colour-coded by section!), they looked positively grand, prepared to blow the audience away with their performances. As the lights dimmed, the emcees came out on stage to open the concert, and we settled in for what was about to be a night of pure entertainment.

By Sophia He (20S03H) and Valerie Tan (20A01E)
Photos courtesy of Raffles Photographic Society

The Oxford dictionary defines being homesick as “experiencing a longing for one’s home during a period of absence from it”. Raffles Players, in their year-end production of 2019, defines homesick as “a dysfunctional family stuck under one roof for 10 days due to a SARS quarantine”. In this adaptation of Alfian Sa’at’s 2006 play Homesick, Raffles Players brought together the complex weave of family and ancestry, kinship and brotherhood, identity and belonging, to deliver their audience two nights of contagious fun in our very own Theatre Studies and Drama Room (TSD). Continue reading “Homesick: On Longing and Belonging” →