Soaring

Rehearsals on concert day - via Huishan

So the concert is over and I miss band practice already.

I miss the way Derek points his middle finger at the score whenever he messes up his notes.

I miss sharing files with Yongkiat.

I miss having Erina stare blankly back at me for making lame jokes.

I miss hearing Huishan mis-pronounce the past tense for "think". (I still think very funny le)

I miss Si Seng taking me for sectionals.


Si Seng's trusty metronome cum tuner

Having invited quite a few of my friends to the concert , they had this to say:

Good friend, Stone(excerpt from blog):
It gave me much gratification to watch (and hear) a bunch of talented souls performing suavely and professionally on stage.

J:
Good seats my foot! (He was three rows from the stage)

JH:
I liked soaring over the ridges.

SL:
Thanks for always turning up for band practice so fresh and chirpy.


Tuba sect in Tuba (guys) room

OK. So the last person is not exactly a friend who turned up at the concert but my SL (middle in picture). He's forever giving weird poses.

In retrospect, Intempo 2007 was one of the most gratifying concerts I performed in. It was the first time I felt perfectly happy to be coming for band practice after band practice. I guess that explains my "chirpy-ness". It was the second time that I was almost moved to tears while playing for a song(Poema)- the first being Da Capo(Hymn to the infinite sky) also with NUSWS. It's also the first time I performed in a concert with my very own blazer, thanks partly to a CFA subsidy.


Mr Tan at work.

But all these would not have been possible without a dedicated exco and our wonderful conductor, Mr Leonard Tan. Many will have to agree that he really is a musician that we all can look up to. Add to that equation the fact that he's also a tubist and you have the perfect role model for tubists like myself. I also think that he is one of the most passionate conductors I've been under.

The scary part is, I almost didn't join the band at all.In fact, I felt, at first, that giving such a large chunk of my time in uni away was going to prove disastrous for my grades. For now, my grades are still OK. For bringing me in, I have only one person to thank and ironically this person is not from the Tuba section.



So thank you , Xinhui , for encouraging me to join and not quitting yourself when the going got rough.

A big thank you NUSWS for all the wonderful memories and I pray that for us, the magic is only beginning.