The Treblemakers, Northwestern’s East Asian-interest a capella group, put the “sing” in Singapore when they toured the city over Spring Break.
“We decided on Singapore because of how multicultural it was as a country, and how representative it was of the people in our group,” Weinberg junior Leah Tan said.
The group tours every two years; their last trip took them to California in 2023. This year’s trip was partially funded by the NU community, with over $13,000 raised on the group’s GoFundMe page.
In Singapore, the Treblemakers put on a “family and friends show” at The American Club and Harvard Club of Singapore. Their setlist included songs of various Asian languages — such as Korean, Chinese and Tagalog — and featured hits from artists like JJ Lin, Conan Gray and Fujii Kaze.
Singapore resident Derrick Yu (Kellogg ‘19) attended the group’s show at The American Club, taking his 6-year-old daughter with him. He said he thought his daughter, who has expressed interest in singing, would enjoy the show.
“I thought it was very inspiring,” Yu said. “For me, and for my daughter, as she saw different kinds of people singing songs of all different languages.”
Yu said that he and his daughter particularly enjoyed the Treblemakers’ rendition of “APT.” by Rosé and Bruno Mars, as the audience was invited to sing along.
The group also performed with choral groups of high schools in the city, including Stamford American International School and Singapore American School.
Medill sophomore and former Daily staffer Rachel Yoon said that despite the group’s hectic tour schedule, with eight performances in one week, working with high schoolers rejuvenated them.
“I think that gave us more energy in the moment to keep going,” Yoon said.
The Treblemakers also had a workshop with the National University of Singapore’s a capella group, Resonance. Each group performed for each other, and then, they learnt and sang a song together.
Communication sophomore Maya Palacios said it was cool to see how international groups rehearse and arrange music.
“I think it inspired a lot of us to want to improve or see how we can explore new arranging styles,” Palacios said.
She added that Resonance’s arrangements were easy to learn for the a capella group’s members, but still sounded professional.
Yoon said the group’s performance abilities impressed her.
“Having that kind of stage presence, I really felt how impactful that was to an audience,” Yoon said.
Tan said she learnt new vocal percussion and mixing techniques that the Treblemakers could implement in their performances.
She added that the workshop was a rewarding collaborative experience.
“Even across the world, there are so many things that we share in common, that we can all really embrace,” Tan said.
In their down time, the Treblemakers explored Singapore, going to tourist destinations like the Singapore Zoo and Gardens By the Bay.
Tan said that the trip was an enjoyable bonding experience for the group.
“At the end of the day, we’re all just a big family,” Tan said. “So being able to explore a completely new country with each other was so much fun.”
Email: navyasingh2028@u.northwestern.edu
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