The children of the mountains can sing – behind the scenes of the opening olympic song choir

The children of the mountains can sing – behind the scenes of the opening olympic song choir

At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the a cappella Greek Olympic song sounded, the audience was quiet, and 44 mountain girls from Fuping, Hebei Province, touched everyone with their natural singing.

In September 2021, Liu Kai, principal of the Xiazhuang School District Central School in Nanzhuang Town, Fuping County, received a call from the director of the opening ceremony, asking a group of shanliwa who even spoke Mandarin to complete a Greek song chorus.

Since October, the Ma Lanhua Children's Choir has begun training in Hebei. Language teachers, choral teachers, and vocal music teachers came from Beijing and Baoding. With their help, the children gradually became familiar with the songs and basic chorus methods. Wang Jinshan, a vocal teacher at the Baoding College of Music and Dance, said: "It all starts from little by little, how to speak, how to breathe, how to pronounce each vowel, and then how to sing. ”

On January 3, the children of the Ma Lanhua Children's Choir came to Beijing, and the youngest member, Han Shuxin, was only five years old. "I like Wu Dajing, and now I'm finally in the city where he's fighting," said Gu Zhanhao, a 10-year-old member.

However, everyone, including the team leader Liu Kai, was on the "roller coaster": the children who had always walked to school were dizzy on the bus; the children lived alone for the first time; faced with a tight rehearsal schedule and endless winter vacation homework..... But the children are not afraid of tiredness and suffering, "it is they who give the teachers confidence," Liu Kai said.

Ma Mengnan, a choral conductor at the School of Music and Dance of Baoding University, said: "The children have become confident, let them sing, and they can sing with their mouths open. Deng Xiaolan, the founder of the original Malan Small Band, said: "Music is everyone's friend, and the children's songs come from the heart, which is the most primitive simplicity, peace and friendship." ”

When the lights come on and the children are singing, they connect with the world.