Catholic High Music Awards

Catholic High Music Awards
"Catholic High Music Awards" 2008 Logo
Organiser:	iMedia Catholic High School, Singapore
Founder:	Mr Wang Jiunn
Producers:	Ms Chow Bick Yan Mr Fourier Ang Mr Chris Teng
Debuted:	2004
Date:	July 19th 2008
Venue:	Catholic High School, Singapore
Type:	School Concerts
Website:	[http://chmusicawards.blogspot.com Click Here]

Catholic High Music Awards (often abbreviated to CHMA, or CH Music Awards for short) is an annual school talent search competition held in Catholic High School (Singapore), which presents the school's musical talents a platform to showcase their abilities. This competition organised by the Catholic High School's iMedia Club, a Co-Curricular Activity (CCA), in collaboration with the school's music department. It is currently one of the large-scale school concerts in Singapore.

Originally a small-scale event held during one of the weekly school assemblies, it has evolved over the years into a professional, large-scale talent concert, where lots of effort goes into the sound, lighting, decor, even the promotional materials. The whole planning and execution process are almost entirely planned by members of iMedia Club, with guidance from their teachers-in-charge. There are various categories students can perform in, namely, Solo Vocalists, Group Vocals, Rock Bands, Instrumental Bands, Duets and Creative Expressions.

Creative Expressions, a new category unveiled in 2006, is for students who want to showcase their performing talents in unique ways. This includes beat-boxing, rapping, original composition, hosting etc.

Duet, a new category that was introduced in CHMA 2008, is a category where a student can perform a song with a student from another school, regardless of gender or level of education.

After several rounds of auditions, usually two, the judges would select the best students to be the finalists, who will be performing on finale night itself.

Finalists will be able to get to experience a professional recording session and publicity poster shoot in the CHS iMedia studio. External bands are often invited to perform during the concert, which aims to entertain the audience as well as exposing students to local talents on the professional level.

CHMA is an event where students can not only fully exploit their potential, but most importantly, forge close bonds with their schoolmates through this annual musical fiesta.

As of 2008, tickets for CHMA are sold at SGD$10 each (USD$7.50).

CHMA Events and Years

CHMA 2008

Finalists and Performance Line-Up:

Solo Vocals:
Lee Yang
Timothy Mah
Qi Hang (Award Winner)

Group Vocals:
Wen Xuan and Daniel
Qi Ren and Kai Jie
Si Jian, Wen Huan, Chaoqun (Award Winner)

Instrumentals:
Hoe Jun Wei - Flute (Merit Winner, Overall Winner)

Instrumental Bands:
Brown Note (Merit Award Winner)

Rock Bands:
Victor And The Vicious Vipers
Hosereel
FLOP!
Sine P (Award Winer)

Creative Expressions:
Ernest Tan - Beatboxing (Award Winner)
Recnad (Opening Dance Item)

Duet:
Sherman Mak Fei Weng & Ho Zi Wei(Award Winner, Most improvement award)

Guest Bands :
Fatwee! - BURN/Smoke On The Water
Juz-B (Acapella Item)

The Most Improving Award was newly created to recognized students who had put in a significant amount of effort over a long period and had shown great improvement. For example, Sherman Mak Fei Weng(award winner of '08) had started singing since secondary one and he was rejected from the competitions at the auditions during year 2006. He participated again in 2007 but was eliminated before he could sing during the main event. However, he persevered and took part again this year and emerged as the category champion. His spirit touched many at the event and it was reported that many shed tears during the prize presentation.In addition,there were many controversies surrounding the winner of band category, Sine P. Such were the usage of the explicit languages of their band name (P*nis- when spelt backwards) , as well as one of its members claiming that the challenge trophy had been lost on the day itself.Moreover, Sine P's victory came as a shocking surprise as many had thought that its mediocre performance would have been inferior as compared to favorites,Victor and The Vicious Vipers. Till this day,many still seem shrouded in a cloud of mystery regarding the whereabouts of the trophy as well as Sine P's victory.

CHMA 2008 was held on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 and featured rock bands, a dance item, beatboxing and singing. The show venue setup - the Catholic High School Hall - comprised of professional lighting, photography, video equipment and sound system, which formed an atmosphere for CHMA 2008. CHMA 2008 has been held with great overall success, with many in the Audience citing that they will return for the next upcoming CHMA in 2009.

CHMA in the past

The initial idea of Catholic High Music Awards was a Talent-time Concert organised by the Student's Council Board, which, due to the major role that iMedia has played in this concert, the project was acquired from the Council in 2003. Since then, it has evolved to become the iMedia club's annual major project, in which preparations usually starts around February.
In 2003, the club realised during one of the Talent-time rehearsals that the school hall at night, combined with appropriate lightings, will be able to generate a superb rock concert experience. In addition, Mr Wang Jiunn, the CCA Teacher-in-Charge and concert producer then, felt that the concert should be attended by those who are genuinely interested, and that students should not be forced to attend it.
Previously, the concert was held during a Wednesday assembly, in which attendance was mandatory for every Catholic High student. Furthermore, as the club evaluated that the current school sound and lighting systems are inadequate to produce an impressive performance for the audience, it was decided to steer the project into a new direction.
Hence, the show was completely revamped which followed a name change to what is currently known as "Catholic High Music Awards", which was the brainchild of its founder Sir Wang Jiunn, who was a teacher of Catholic High school. The rationale for "Music Awards" is for its more classic and timeless appeal, in contrast to the current and much overused "idol" named shows and competitions.
CHMA has since been a platform for students of Catholic High to explore and showcase their musical talents. Several finalists have since gained attention and enjoyed moderate success in other noticeable talent competitions, such as Tan Zhi Yi [Solo Vocal finalist in 2004 and winner in 2005) in One Million Star 超級星光大道, and Paul Twohill (Vocalist of Rock Band, Ecnerret, winner in 2004 and finalist in 2005) in Singapore Idol Season 2.
In its six-year run, CHMA has been held in the Catholic High school hall every year and hires professional lighting and audio equipment for its finale concert. For its debut public concert, tickets were sold at SG$4 each, with all proceeds going towards the funding for the production of the finale concert. To date, tickets for the annual finale concert is often, if not close to, sold out, with the highest sale of over 800 tickets in 2005 and 2006.
A logo was also designed for the event in 2004, and it has remained the official logo of CHMA till present. Designed by Mr Wang, the logo consists of three components that make up the 4 letters, "C", "H", "M", "A", when joined together. Although variations of the logo has been designed for each year, the basic structure remains the same. This logo has been universally recognised by students of Catholic High School.
The first open-to-public CH Music Awards in 2004 was a resounding success, with over 600 people turning up for the show. Mark Tan, part of the Catholic High School alumni, was invited to come back to host, where he proved to be so popular with his wacky jokes and lively personality that he was asked to host for subsequent years of CHMA. Feedback generated was very positive and Catholic High Music Awards has been one of the top school events to look forward to since then.

CHMA 2009 and in the future

CHMA will continue to be held annually in Catholic High School in the coming years, with new ideas and themes for the concert.

It was rumored that CHMA 2009 might be planned to be held at the Esplanade with a mysterious guest-of-honor gracing the event. The mysterious guest-of-honor was said to be a very influential figure in the local political scene. Steven Lim 哥哥 would also grace the event, Steven Lim was an Old Boy of Catholic High School and had always been trying very hard to fight for his dreams of being an entertainer, he had changed from a crazy fool to the current sincere image in www.stevenlim.net.

Regarding iMedia

General Background

1999-2006
1st Teacher-in-Charge: Sir Wang Jiunn

2007-Present
Current Teacher-in-Charge: Chris Teng

History

iMedia, founded in 2003 by Sir Wang Jiunn, was previously known as the AVA Club. The club started digital video editing using iMacs in 2000. In 2003, a decision was made to change the name and logo to iMedia, as the CCA is doing more than just Audio-Visual Aid duties and it was expanding its video production activities. The club has since broaden its activities to audio post-production with the construction of the iMedia Recording Studio (completed in March 2005), which is equipped with industry-level recording equipment. Currently, the iMedia Club utilises two [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G5 Apple Power Mac G5s] and Final Cut Studio in iMedia Recording Studio for video editing, as well as audio recording and post-production.

The club is also responsible for taking care of the school's iMac Lab, where students regularly uses it for video production purposes. Also, the club is also mainly in-charge in Audio-Video duties around the school as well as video and audio media production for the school.

External links

* [http://www.catholichigh.moe.edu.sg/ Catholic High School Website]
* [http://chmusicawards.blogspot.com Catholic High Music Awards (CHMA)]
* [http://imediachs.blogspot.com Catholic High iMedia CCA]
* [http://yzone.omy.sg/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=550&Itemid=57 OMY.SG: CHMA 2008 feature]