With a simple but strong
reason, Elaine joined the choir out of her passion for singing in
1984. Elaine is always proud to be a goodnewsinger and would
never forget the happy moments taking pictures in Room 00 (MCS)
after choir practices. "I still have these photos with me
and I'll occasionally show it off to my friends who came to
visit," said Elaine. All of a sudden, her mind was flooded
with GNS, GNs, Gns, gnszzzzz......,"I hanged out mostly with
Agnes Lee, Marie-lee Masis, Fay Cyn and lately, jo. We used to go
to Marie's place playing with her gigantic pet rabbit, which I
thought was a puppy until I saw its big erecting ears. We liked
to shop at Kowloon City and...ha ha... this is really
unbelievable when I think of it now.... we just walked all our
way back to Tsim Sha Tsui from there, not because we were broke
from shopping but we had so much to talk about that we didn't
want to part. Going to Metropolitan Museum with Fay Cyn,
sleep-over party at Fay Cyn's place with almost 20 of us
squeezing on the rug in her living room, chit-chatting with jo at
Nam Ah Restaurant....All these memories are still living in my
mind. Gosh, those were the days..."
I think smart guys like you can tell that tears were shimmering in Elaine's eyes when she recalled all these. Agnes, Marie and Fay Cyn, do you feel something stuck in your throat now after reading Elaine's lines? I mean the feeling you have when you try very hard to hold back your tears. If you do, give Elaine a call and plan for the next "Kowloon City-TST" walkathon.
Elaine loves reading and listening to jazz music. Some of the authors she likes are Carl Jung and Paulo Coelho. For jazz singers, she likes Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. Of course, she loves choir songs too. Her favourites are Play before Lord, The Lord's Prayer (Folk Rap version), And the Father will dance and Wood hath hope.
To the new members, Elaine said,"My days in choir might be mad, a bit silly and wild. Nevertheless, those are one of the best days in my life and the biggest reward for that, besides finding God, is I've also found some friends for life. I really recommend anyone, especially Maryknollers, to be a goodnewsinger because you'll find that life in GNS is interestingly different from the one with school friends."
Introduced by: Just herself after seeing a poster at Maryknoll. (info current as of 08/06/1999)
Elinda is one of
the very active members in the choir. On the first day she joined
the choir, she decided that our song books needed some re-work.
So, a few years, a group of members got together, typed and
printed and bound and ......now what? The choir has some very
neat and tidy and organized song books!! She said when she sees
people enjoying choir rehearsals and mass singings, every bit of
hard work is worth it.
Favorite songs: City of God, Though the mountains may fall, Sing to the mountains, Companions on the journey, How can I keep from singing? and Service.
She encourages everyone to listen to the special "trick" Marky plays during the middle of the second verse in Every Valley (that's her and Vivian Lam's suggestion), and to imagine how all of us would look like in 30 years. (Well, if we don't change the pictures, we will look just the same on Cyberspace). (info current as of 4/15/1998)
Hats off to Elinda for wooing members in Hong Kong to submit their info for this page!
Sharing one same
background as some of our former and current members, Emilie is a
student of Maryknoll Convent School. She joined us in February
1997 and she likes the songs Mary's Song, Before the
sun burned bright, Let heaven rejoice, Hail Mary and Gentle
woman. Her first day of joining us for Sunday morning
mass pumped up her adrenalin to a high level, mainly driven by
the very high-pitched songs such as Sing a new song we
sang that day. Even though Emilie is to sing Alto in her school
choir, with her determination and perseverance, Emilie is managed
to sing soprano now. To all GNS members: Emilie is
demonstrating to us a real life example for "practice makes
perfect". Shall we see her as our role model? Let's learn
from each other, improve ourselves and improve our singing
quality. (info current as of 8/12/1998)
Somewhere in the
fall of 1980, Ah Yuk made the serendipitous entrance into the
"third floor" with Patrick Lui and started his singing
career for the next 9 years. He left HK in 1989 but like most, if
not all of us, his heart is still with the choir. He has a bunch
of memorable experiences:
Our farewell concert is hard to forget (especially because somebody cried at my speech). It's also hard to forget how sweaty we got. Then the sleep over at fat-cyn's with the whole choir packing into her living room was quite a blast.
And don't forget our television debut of the Easter Vigil where Jo broke her guitar string and I had to run out to get a replacement and had the guitar fixed in front of the camera.
Tucker's Cinderella (better known as Seenda-wella) story during our trip from Toronto to New York was quite unforgettable."
Most Favorite Songs: Sing to the Mountains, Be not afraid, All the ends of the Earth
Guitars used: Ibanez (acoustic), Yamaha (classical)
Favorite pick: The black triangular one made by Gibson
Favorite string: Jo's (Whatever in her guitar box is probably good)
Flute used: Armstrong student model (C-flute)
Other instruments: piccolo, jaw harp, penny whistle, ukulele, the organ pedals as bass
Publication: the manual of instrumental arrangements used by the choir
Eugene had always dreamed to be an E.C. (you know, the Chinese words that means doctor?). Do you think he has achieved it? Click here for an inspiring, touching episode of what happened to Ah Yuk all these years.... I Believe I Can Fly....... (info current as of 4/15/1998)
Leaving us in
August 1979, Felix was our chairperson from 1978-79. Besides
singing, Felix contributed a lot to our choir with his musical
talents by playing different kinds of instruments for us. Thanks
to Lester Huang, Felix picked up his guitar skills by watching
Lester playing the instrument and playing along with him.
His unforgettable moments in the choir were animated by his very best friends Steve Choy, Lester Huang, Portia Chung, Nancy Lau, Irene Lau and Fr. Naylor. These include singing and playing at Holy Thursday/Good Friday Hungry at Pastoral Centre, Maryknoll Convent School and singing Christmas carols at his parents' flat in 1978, which was not only a warm but paradoxically, a thrilling experience -- With a "die-hard" mentality, Felix and other GNS members all crowded into the elevator on the way down while they felt that one of the cables was broken by their weight. Felix, did this experience bring you a closer bond to the choir members for all you guys went through hand-in-hand this life/death situation?
Currently, Felix is working in USA as Director of Liturgy & Music at St. Michael Parish, Findly, OH. He is the published composer of Liturgical Music with GIA Inc. To know more about Felix, you are always welcome to go to http://www.giamusic.com/ (point your browser to composer) or email him at FGK_Music@yahoo.com.
Felix's favourite songs are: All I ask of you and Spirit of God.
His favourite guitar strings and picks: D'Addario strings and Jim Dunlop picks. (info current as of 8/12/1998)
Introduced by: Lester Huang.
Although
Frances' most favourite song Lord's Prayer (Rock
version) is not one of our choices for christmas
carols, Frances always likes to go back to the time when we went
Christmas carolling together. (info current as of 4/15/1998)
Still
singing with the choir, Genevieve is impressed by our annual
retreat of 1997 at Maryknoll Father's House. Her favourite songs
are He and Our Father (new song by
Carey Landry). (info current as of 4/15/1998)
Introduced by: Marky
Gina says she is
still single and available, and living in Vancouver, Canada. She
does not remember any dates. Amnesia or what!? So, we have
decided that Gina joined the choir in the early 1980's and left
sometime in the early 1990's, close enough? Her very favorite
song is : "That Glory to God song with
the great Alleluia ending" (info current as of 4/15/1998)
Introduced by: Virginia Sun
While you guys may wonder when and where we started our carolling tradition, Gregory can always give us the answer. Why? Our first carolling started in the year 1972, when Gregory joined us, and what's more, it took place at Gregory's house. Although Gregory left us in 1979, he never forgets the good old days he spent with buddies Lester Huang, Hanson Wong and Barbara Lee. (info current as of 6/03/1998)
