指挥的话

文/陈健中 翻译/蔡美玉 CoCo

这是我们第三届的“博爱音乐会”，温哥华中山各中学校友会歌咏团已经走过了多年的艰辛历程，我为此感到骄傲。今年对于我们歌咏团是特别的一年，不论是在我们歌咏团的成长，还是我们所演唱的曲目。我们感到特别快乐的是有很多新成员的加入，让歌咏团增添了许多年轻的声音。
作为第三代移民，我看到了许多华侨社团遇到的困难，主要是年轻一代的不积极参与，尽管他们有大量资源可以利用。中中歌咏团是鼓励年轻人和老年人之间的融合，并互相学习。因为这个目的，音乐会对于大家来说是一个很好的机会，可以带上家人，和义工听众聚在一起，分享唱歌带来的快乐。
我很荣幸看见我们每一年的音乐会在观众的好评中不断成长，这和中中的许多家庭的支持和校友们的慷慨解囊分不开的。当年我是由中中前会长陈富民先生邀请我加入歌咏团并担任指挥。歌咏团自成立以来，得到了很多乡亲校友的大力帮助，对此我非常感激。在过去的日子，我们与歌咏团一起成长，不断进步。我们的一些年轻成员正在大学音乐领域学习，我真诚地希望他们将来学有所成，沿着父辈的脚步，为歌咏团带来更美好的未来。
我想借此机会衷心感谢中中校友会的会长，感谢歌咏团的成员和他们的家庭，感谢大力支持我们的赞助商和志愿者们，感谢何剑文同学捐赠的钢琴，没有他们这场音乐会不能顺利举行。也感谢留加同学会的积极协助，更希望他们成为歌咏团的一份子。在此，我更要感谢我的妻子和儿子的鼎力支持和鼓励。
此刻，我诚邀您们的参与，和我们歌咏团的团员一起开启这场音乐之旅。

Conductor’s Letter

In this our third BoAi concert, I am pleased to continue the proud tradition of excellence that our Choir of Zhongshan Secondary School Alumni Association has upheld for many years. This has been an extraordinary year for our choir, both in terms of our growth as a group, and our repertoire of songs. It is with particular joy that I welcome new members, including many younger voices, to our team.
As a third-generation immigrant, I have seen the struggles of some organizations in diversifying their membership, specifically the younger generation who are unwilling to participate despite the many resources at their disposal. The mission at ZhongZhong is to encourage collaboration between the young and the old, so that we may all learn from one another. To this purpose, the concert is a great opportunity to bring families together, whether through singing, volunteering, or listening, in the shared joy of music.
I have had the fortune of watching each of our concerts grow in both scale and reception, and it is owing to the generous contributions of time and effort of many families at ZhongZhong that we have come this far. I joined the choir as the conductor at the invitation of Chen Fumin, the previous director of ZhongZhong. Since its inception, our choir has received the assistance of many people, for which I am ever grateful. With each passing year, we grow together as a team, and we constantly seek to improve. Some of our younger members are studying music at university now, and I hope that they will return to continue the footsteps of the older generation in bringing our choir to new heights.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the director of ZhongZhong, Simon He for donating the piano, my choir members and their families, our sponsors, and the volunteers, without whom this concert would not have been possible. Furthermore, I want to thank ZSSAC for their help, and hope that they will be a part of our choir. I would also like to thank my wife and son for their unfailing encouragement and support.
At this time, I invite you to join us as we celebrate the many accomplishments of our talented members in this journey of music.

Sincerely,
Robert Chen