NY JC band concert
Saturday 5/2/2005
Yes, that's right, today is a big day for the NY JC band members in particular. I wasn't feeling pre-concert jitters though, it was just like any other ordinary day for me except that I was going to perform later that day.
Went to HS in the morning first to pass two tickets to Eve and to observe their band practice. They happened to have already bought their tuners, each member having one each. Good that Miss Wong encouraged each of them to buy a tuner as it would help in improving their sound. The HS band played Fate of the Gods for almost the entire band prac, during which, the band conductor stopped them on numerous ocassions to correct their errors. At about 11am after having 'breakfast' with my Juniors, I was given a 'farewell ceremony' by Ridzwan, Ben, Shamin, Perseus and Jonathan.
Arrived in NY JC slightly after 11:45am, I was slightly late! They were already loading their instruments so I immediately put down my bag and helped load the last Tuba. The bus arrived soon after and we were on our way to SCH. We reached SCH at about 2pm and we all assisted in moving the instruments up to backstage. Mr Chiang arrived shortly and for the next 3 hours, we rehersed all the songs, only certain parts of every song though.
At about 6pm, we were given a 1 hour break. So much better as compared to the HS combined concert last year where we were only given 15 mins to eat and another 15 mins to wash up. During this hour break, I happened to meet up with An Chun, Jonathan and Daniel who were already waiting outside. So I chatted with them while having my dinner. After which, I changed into the all black concert outfit and went out to greet more people. Saw Eve, Aishah and Xiaoming waiting outside as well.
Soon after, the concert started. Happened to see Ridzwan, Shamin, Mr Lee, Miss Chang, and Ben in the stands. Started off with Nimrod followed by Multitude. Played quite ok for both the songs except that the band wasn't that settled yet. Noticed that the Tuba section were going sharp as well, a bad sign as the other instruments would follow and the entire band would sound sharp to a trained ear. Next on the list was Song of Lir and Phantom of the Opera before we had a 15 minute intermission, during which I met up with my HS friends. Many told me that the Phantom of the opera scared them because the lights all went off and back on again. There was screaming(yes, a band member was made to do that) during this short, few seconds, interval. This woke them up from their 'dreams' I believe.
The second half of the concert started off with the percussion ensemble, which according to many of my friends, was lame but funny. It was more like a band concert and stage performance all fused together. Quite brilliant, but definitely a little overexaggerated. They could have cut more of the crap and played more music instead. Anyway that aside, the next piece was a solo vocal performance by Mr Mark Lim, accompanying him was the band on the song 'someone to watch over me'. The killer piece was next, A Movement for Rosa followed by Animation Medley (my favourite song) and Pirates of the Caribbean.
We played Festive celebrations as our encore piece where two 'da tou wa wa' snatched the baton from Mr Chiang and he had no choice but to conduct using the bamboo fan. After our concert, we took a picture of the whole band before packing up.
Too bad Mr Nizam couldn't make it for my concert, but that's alright. He has a busy schedule. I was surprised to find out that Mr Nizam knew my band conductor as well, since both are in MWO. Found out that Ramu came to HS band before to assist under Mr Tan, HS band's former conductor in 2001-2002. Couldn't really remeber as that happened long ago.
Overall, it was a success! Cheers!
Yes, that's right, today is a big day for the NY JC band members in particular. I wasn't feeling pre-concert jitters though, it was just like any other ordinary day for me except that I was going to perform later that day.
Went to HS in the morning first to pass two tickets to Eve and to observe their band practice. They happened to have already bought their tuners, each member having one each. Good that Miss Wong encouraged each of them to buy a tuner as it would help in improving their sound. The HS band played Fate of the Gods for almost the entire band prac, during which, the band conductor stopped them on numerous ocassions to correct their errors. At about 11am after having 'breakfast' with my Juniors, I was given a 'farewell ceremony' by Ridzwan, Ben, Shamin, Perseus and Jonathan.
Arrived in NY JC slightly after 11:45am, I was slightly late! They were already loading their instruments so I immediately put down my bag and helped load the last Tuba. The bus arrived soon after and we were on our way to SCH. We reached SCH at about 2pm and we all assisted in moving the instruments up to backstage. Mr Chiang arrived shortly and for the next 3 hours, we rehersed all the songs, only certain parts of every song though.
At about 6pm, we were given a 1 hour break. So much better as compared to the HS combined concert last year where we were only given 15 mins to eat and another 15 mins to wash up. During this hour break, I happened to meet up with An Chun, Jonathan and Daniel who were already waiting outside. So I chatted with them while having my dinner. After which, I changed into the all black concert outfit and went out to greet more people. Saw Eve, Aishah and Xiaoming waiting outside as well.
Soon after, the concert started. Happened to see Ridzwan, Shamin, Mr Lee, Miss Chang, and Ben in the stands. Started off with Nimrod followed by Multitude. Played quite ok for both the songs except that the band wasn't that settled yet. Noticed that the Tuba section were going sharp as well, a bad sign as the other instruments would follow and the entire band would sound sharp to a trained ear. Next on the list was Song of Lir and Phantom of the Opera before we had a 15 minute intermission, during which I met up with my HS friends. Many told me that the Phantom of the opera scared them because the lights all went off and back on again. There was screaming(yes, a band member was made to do that) during this short, few seconds, interval. This woke them up from their 'dreams' I believe.
The second half of the concert started off with the percussion ensemble, which according to many of my friends, was lame but funny. It was more like a band concert and stage performance all fused together. Quite brilliant, but definitely a little overexaggerated. They could have cut more of the crap and played more music instead. Anyway that aside, the next piece was a solo vocal performance by Mr Mark Lim, accompanying him was the band on the song 'someone to watch over me'. The killer piece was next, A Movement for Rosa followed by Animation Medley (my favourite song) and Pirates of the Caribbean.
We played Festive celebrations as our encore piece where two 'da tou wa wa' snatched the baton from Mr Chiang and he had no choice but to conduct using the bamboo fan. After our concert, we took a picture of the whole band before packing up.
Too bad Mr Nizam couldn't make it for my concert, but that's alright. He has a busy schedule. I was surprised to find out that Mr Nizam knew my band conductor as well, since both are in MWO. Found out that Ramu came to HS band before to assist under Mr Tan, HS band's former conductor in 2001-2002. Couldn't really remeber as that happened long ago.
Overall, it was a success! Cheers!
posted by Kenan at 8:05 AM
1 Comments:
Ramu assisted the percussion from what I heard... lol
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