By 6:30 pm, the doors of GKMI Ekklesia were open and the audience was beginning to take their seats. Behind the scenes, the choir had already completed its final preparations. The singers were in uniform, the microphones had been checked, the house keyboard was ready, and the nine umbrellas needed for Three Little Maids were in place.

At the rear of the church, the choir waited in two lines.

Above them, in the upstairs choir loft, Dominic Murphy was ready with his bagpipes.

At 7:00 pm, the first notes of Do You Hear the People Sing? sounded through the church. Dominic played from the loft as the choir entered from the rear and made its way onto the stage. He continued until every singer was in position before the bagpipes came to an end. It was an unusual opening for a choir concert, and it immediately established the title and character of the evening.

Once the choir had settled, Principal Conductor Brendan O’Donnell welcomed the audience.

His opening remarks were as much about the people behind the concert as the performance itself. He acknowledged the church elders and Pak Clement Margono for welcoming the choir to GKMI Ekklesia, recognised the IT team — Novie, Yuli and Nona Abigael — and thanked Elysabeth and Dominic for their contributions to the evening.

Then he turned to the singers.

A choir, he said, exists because people are willing to come together. Every week, members make time to rehearse, learn from one another and support one another. That regular work is easy to miss from the audience, but it is what makes a concert like this possible.

With that, the first song began.

The first half was deliberately varied.

Be Still My Soul opened the choral programme, followed by the lively 76 Trombones. Then came one of the evening’s most visual transitions.

At the end of 76 Trombones, Dominic provided a brief triangle accent. The women then left the stage, leaving the audience to wonder what was happening, while the men retrieved nine umbrellas. The women returned and immediately launched into Three Little Maids, with the umbrellas becoming part of the choreography.

It was a small piece of theatre within the concert — planned carefully in rehearsal, but designed to look spontaneous from the audience.

The programme then settled into a different mood with Vincent and Nun’s Chorus, before moving into Aryati, featuring Yus Martini and Ryoko Muragishi, and Pie Jesu, featuring Ichsan and Ryoko.

How Great Thou Art followed, then The Prayer, featuring Ichsan and Evelyne. The first half continued with Bersatu dan Maju, featuring Yosz Zulfikar, and Never Enough, featuring Ester.

The result was not a single musical style but a programme that allowed the choir to move between different sounds, languages, traditions and performers.

The 20-minute intermission gave both audience and choir a chance to step out of the main hall, collect snack boxes and take a break.

Then came another bagpipe entrance.

During the audience recall, Dominic played from the rear as the choir returned to the stage for Sweet Molly Malone. This time, however, the bagpipes stopped and the choir continued the melody, with the words displayed on the main screen for the audience.

The second half was built around participation.

Danny Boy followed as a sing-along with piano accompaniment. Audience members could follow the lyrics on the screen and sing with the choir.

For The Wild Rover, Dominic sang completely unaccompanied. There was no piano underneath him — just his voice, with the lyrics displayed for those in the audience who wanted to join in.

The programme then returned to Indonesian repertoire with Walangkekek, featuring Elysabeth, followed by Rasa Sayange, featuring Wendy and Marselina. Once again, the audience was invited to sing.

By then, the title Do You Hear the People Sing? was no longer simply the name of the concert. People in the room were actually singing together.

The evening also made space for the choir’s community purpose.

After the musical programme had brought everyone together, Brendan presented a donation to the pastor. The handover was photographed, and Elysabeth then invited anyone wishing to contribute further to use the donation box.

Earlier in the evening, Brendan had described this part of the choir’s identity directly: the concert was not only about performing, but about using music as a way to give something back to the community.

There was also time for something lighter. Brendan drew eight lucky-draw numbers, with Elysabeth announcing the winners and presenting their prizes. The moment brought people from the audience forward and created another point of contact between those on stage and those who had come to watch.

The final number was Amazing Grace.

Dominic opened the song on bagpipes. The choir and audience then continued together with piano accompaniment. As the song reached its end, Dominic took over again for the final eight bars on bagpipes.

After the final note, Brendan gave the closing remarks while the choir remained together on stage. Then came the final full-choir photograph — one more moment when everyone gathered in the same formation before the evening came to an end.

For the audience, the concert lasted a little over an hour and a half. For the choir, it represented the work of many Tuesday evenings spent rehearsing, learning music, practising transitions and preparing the details that make a live performance possible.

At GKMI Ekklesia on 19 September, those rehearsals became a shared evening: nine umbrellas on stage, familiar songs on the screen, Irish and Indonesian music, solo voices, a church full of singing — and bagpipes appearing at the beginning, returning after the interval and sounding again for the final eight bars.

Do You Hear the People Sing?

On this night, the answer came from the room itself.