! to Datin Pengetua and the choir entourage to Germany for the excellent performance. We also would like to congratulate the school's choir group for being the Champion in Selangor State and the Fourth in National 2011 Choir Competitions. PIBG is indeed proud of all of you.
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For your information, the following is the news which has been published in BERNAMA and The Star online yesterday, 14 Mac 2012:
FRANKFURT: A Malaysian school choir, currently visiting Germany, has enthralled audiences.
The choir of four boys and 10 girls performed at the Musik-und Singschule of Heidelberg and Gymnasium (Germany's version of a grammar school) in Neckargemund.
The visit of the SMK Seafield choir of Subang Jaya, Selangor, comes as an opportunity to promote the people-to-people contact and create lasting friendship that helps foster personal ties.
Speaking at a dinner hosted by Malaysia's Senior Trade Commissioner in Germany, Mohd Sabri Abd Rahman, the school's principal, Zaleha Abu Hasan, said that she and her colleagues had brought the choir to expose its young members to Germany.
"We encourage our school children to see and experience things in other parts of the world. Such exposure will help them in pursuing their niche areas," she told Bernama in an interview.
The school choir is paying a return visit to Germany in response to a similar visit to Malaysia by a choir group representing the Musik-und Singschule of Heidelberg.
The message of the choir "Menyanyi Berpadu" (Bonding Through Singing) has gone down well with the Germans.
The Malaysian school choir group, except for some basic logistics support from the Goethe Institute and the German Ministry of Family, Youth and Women, and assistance provided by Malaysia's corporate sector, organised the entire trip on its own, with parents of the choir members raising the money for the trip.
The choir's performance was witnessed by
Dr Joachim Gerner, the Heidelberg mayor for family, social affairs and culture, and Malaysian consul general in Frankfurt John Samuel, both of whom were reportedly pleased with it.
Reflecting upon her visit, Zaleha said that the "people in Germany have been warm and sincere."
"They were impressed by the show, the costumes, singing, and so on," she said.
She narrated about an incident when an elderly German couple, who had lived in Malaysia for seven years, made it a point to come to the choir's performance in Heidelberg after reading about it in a local newspaper.
Zaleha and her staff, who expressed "deep gratitude" to Sabri and his wife, a school teacher, saw "great potential" for Malaysian choir groups to perform overseas and also contribute to promoting Malaysia's relations with the countries they visit.
"Groups like ours can generate tremendous goodwill abroad but we also need assistance to send our groups abroad.
"We are also interested in giving performances before a German audience in Malaysia, provided we get help from the German mission there," she said. BERNAMA
