Nicole Wong Chong

Nicole made her debut as an opera soloist as Amor in the most recent production by the Lydians 'Orpheus and Euridice' by C.W. Gluck. She joined the choir as one of the ‘little ones’ who played child monks in Turandot, the Lydians twentieth anniversary opera production.

As long as she can remember, Nicole has been singing – with the choir at St. Francis Church, Belmont, with the Love Movement, and as a solo entertainer at events. In the fantasies of her childhood dreams she saw herself on Broadway, ‘but I never knew I could have the chance of training my voice until I joined Lydians and Auntie Pat began to teach me how to sing’.

And how she has thrived under Pat’s tutelage! Nicole and Garnet Allen won the mixed duet class in Port of Spain at the past two Music Festivals and she sees Amor as her chance to prove she can do more solo work with the choir.

Now a Business Management undergraduate at ROYTEC, this young lady declares that, although she is really enjoying the course, this is just a first degree. Ultimately she would like to be in Public Relations or Mass Communications as ‘I love people; I love being with people, talking to them’.

And how does she fit choir practice and voice training into a young person’s social life and a demanding study programme? ‘ I put singing first. Everything else in my life has to fit around that’.