October 11th, 2008 was a special and memorable day because SHCC was officially established.

During the creation of SHCC, we received many valuable suggestions and words of experience and were blessed with the selfless dedication of our team of volunteers. I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.

The curtains opened on SHCC with the auditions, which gave the teachers the opportunity of getting to evaluate the children and to assess their experience levels. We wanted the children and their parents to relax and enjoy the process. Space permitting, we wanted every single child to be a member of SHCC because every one of them is wonderful and precious in our eyes.

Given that there are so many children's choirs around, many of you may wonder if SHCC is different. These are my thoughts and I welcome your feedback:

First let me explain how the name "SHCC" came about. The Chinese character for "thought" is the combination of two characters representing "heart" and "note". Our thoughts are really notes from our hearts. We meet, we express our ideals, sing beautiful melodies, and touch everyone.

Our concept:
SHCC is
everyone's
to benefit the public
serious
creative
lively
beautiful
in harmony with nature.

Everyone's SHCC
With SHCC, we light a torch to be passed on from generation to generation. As it takes years for a tree to bear fruit, it takes many years of persistence to educate a person. It is in this spirit that we will continue our effort in growing SHCC, making it a heritage that belongs to everyone in our society and not just a private few. SHCC belongs to all of us and we will work together to make SHCC a shining star in the Shanghai sky.

SHCC will benefit the public
SHCC is a group consisting of the children, their parents and volunteers, who are loving and caring and want to share with others. In addition to hosting activities benefiting our community, we plan to share our experience with music-loving children everywhere through our website, and to eventually help the Hope Schools organize their own children's choirs and train their teachers, so that those who need help can also receive support from us.

SHCC is serious
With a great deal of sincerity and seriousness, we pooled together abundant social resources and created SHCC. Therefore, SHCC will forever be responsible to the children, their parents, and all the good friends who supported us. Our SHCC volunteers' philosophy is: "Be a good example for the children and create a high quality environment so that the children can grow and be creative." If we work together toward our common goal and cultivate SHCC with love, our choir will win admiration and have a positive effect that extends to all corners of our society.

SHCC is creative
Creativity is the source of all progress. Though SHCC may seem to be just another children's choir amongst the many, we will present a quality and style that is new and unique. Not only are our teaching materials rich and interesting, our teachers are outstanding and our teaching method imaginative and inspiring. We will make learning fun while maximizing our children's intellectual development.

SHCC is lively
Children's innocence is precious and childhood is short. SHCC hopes to give our children happy, fun and precious childhood memories. It is our hope that the time at SHCC will provide our children moments of relief from the pressure of homework and help their physical and mental development.

SHCC is beautiful
A beautiful heart exudes sounds that touch the hearts others. Children enjoy singing. Immersed in beautiful music, they bring into their lives what is true, good, and beautiful, and their lives will blossom like flowers.

SHCC is in harmony with nature
SHCC aspires to preserve our children's innocence and naturalness without imposing a lot of rules. We want every child to discover his or her own strength and use it to achieve excellence, to not only be proud of his or her own achievement but also inspire and help others. The beauty of a choir is in its supreme harmony. Through developing children's natural harmonious sounds from their hearts, we hope that they will learn the beauty of harmony in interacting with people.

How does SHCC's concept turn into reality? It calls for the combined effort by the children, the teachers, the volunteers, and especially the parents. The education and growth of our children is not only an enterprise but also an aspiration that requires ideals, love and endless determination. With our hearts in one place, SHCC will be a tight-knit happy family.

With the generous support and dedication of so many singing hearts SHCC is sure to become a great success and inspiration to all!

2008-10-11