Enjoying three nights of Musica Aficionados

Three guest artists, 23 performances and about 300 students were involved in the musical night called “Musica Aficionados Musical around the World”. The musical nights were held from 21 to 23 November 2018 at Sungai Long Campus.

The three consecutive night performances were a final project for students taking Art and Cultural Performance, Leadership and Team Building, and Oral Communication subjects. The event aimed to allow other students to sit back and relax from their busy student life as examination approaches.

The shows put up popular soundtracks from Disney and other popular musical movies including “The Greatest Showman” and “Mamma Mia” into a series of beautiful choreographies, singing, as well as musical theatre. To add spice to the event, each night saw a guest artist performing, namely Yise Loo, Alycia Ang, and Alex Poppinrex dance group.

Performers singing hit songs from “Mamma Mia”

Guest artist Yise Loo, who is also a UTAR alumna, soothes the hall with her beautiful voice

A musical theatre that brought the audiences around the globe with traditional songs and dances from different parts of the world

Uplifting performance through “The Greatest Showman” soundtracks

Taking a break from musical performances with choral speaking titled “Malaysian Food”

Alycia Ang’s performance enthuses the crowd on the second night

“Just Another Love Story” musical theatre was an exceptional romantic comedy show about a couple from two different family backgrounds falling in love at UTAR

(Picture on the left) Faculty of Creative Industries lecturer Maxwell Sim Yik Seng (second from left) presenting a token of appreciation to Alex Poppinrex dance group who emitted tremendous energy with their pumped up hip-hop and popping dance routine

Lass dance with suit and walking stick to celebrate “Charlie Chaplin”

One of the Disney adaptation performances “Beauty and the Beast”

Toys come to “life” in Toy Story musical theatre

The title “Musica Aficionados”, which simply means fans or devotee of music, was reflected by the numbers of beautiful and well-prepared performances on each night.

DSSC lecturer Nurulain binti Mohamad Salihuddin applauded the students’ performances, “Most of them do not have any background in performing and they only had about four weeks to come out with the ideas and routines and to rehearse. They gave their best and I think it was very well done as much effort was put into preparing the costumes, props and the choreography even though they had no experience in managing the stage. I hope this project has helped the students to boost their confidence as well as communication skills in working together as a team.”

Besides learning dance moves and performing, the students were also exposed to management and communication skills. “Just for this (one) night alone, I had to handle 120 students. Fortunately, I managed to pull it through, but of course, with the help of my teammates. Throughout this whole period, I came across different kinds of people with different working styles and attitudes,” said Stage Manager of the first session Shaun Lim Chen Jien. The three nights were managed by three sub-teams that coordinated together to fulfil the needs of each session.

“With the numbers of people involved in this performance, it was nearly impossible to rehearse to perfection. We had to put our hearts and minds together during the practice. There were many things to sort out such as the PA system and the lightings,” said “Just Another Love Story” main cast Jonathan Lim Yee Suan who also led the musical theatre. The performance was also perfected with different individual performances that were put together to complete the show. “Honestly, the only thing I am looking forward to is public recognition; to know that people really loved and enjoyed our performance is what we wish for,” Lim added.

A part of the surplus collected from the Musica Aficionados will be donated to UTAR Hospital project.