News

Estonian Pavilion Took Part in the Event Singing Together

30.08.2010

It was in July that the staff of the Estonian pavilion at the EXPO learned from the future Estonian consul Andre Lipand that an event called Singing Together would be held on 20 August, the day when we celebrate the restoration of Estonia’s independence. The event would involve tens of thousands of Estonians at a hundred different locations in Estonia and all over the world. The participants would be singing together and following one conductor over a digital link.  The staff of the Estonian pavilion decided to participate in this worldwide singing event and also invited all Estonians who live nearby to sing in their choir.

Many questions had to be answered after the decision to participate had been made: how to ensure that the quality of audio and video link between Estonia and China is sufficiently high? How to learn the relatively complicated repertoire of the event? How to gather the singers in the Estonian pavilion in the middle of the night (due to the time difference, the event took place between 1.30 a.m. and 2.30 a.m.)?

Most of the technological issues were solved thanks to the professional attitude and creativity of the pavilion’s Technical Director Tarmo Haud and his team. In order to encourage the singers to come to the pavilion, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and celebrate the birthdays of the August-born members of the pavilion staff on the same night.

The birthday celebration was organised in a way that corresponded with the spirit of the national holiday: the guests were invited to attend a black tie event, complete with a hand shaking ceremony (with the birthday girls filling in for the President of the Republic and his wife) and numerous speeches, paparazzi, beautiful costumes, and the official announcement of arriving guests. To make matters more interesting, the party was infiltrated by some curious Chinese gatecrashers. The evening’s entertainment was provided by the pavilion’s own newly formed instrumental and vocal group “Three tenths”.

At midnight it was time for the singers to gather in the open area of the pavilion where the concert would take place to rehearse the songs for the last time and test the connection with Estonia. The choir consisted of more than twenty people, including the pavilion staff, Estonians who live in and near Shanghai, as well as their partners from other countries. The Chinese guides of the Estonian pavilion also boldly participated in the singing event.

The choir did well, despite the fact that compared to the sound, the video that was digitally transmitted from Estonia lagged considerably and the singers had to follow their own sense of rhythm and intuition, rather than the conductor. Since the event was a success, all of the participants were in an appropriately festive mood and celebrated the national holiday by dancing the Estonian folk dance Kaerajaan.