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Circle Line Performance
Rehearsal
NYJCSB was invited by the Land Transport Authorities (LTA) to perform at the opening ceremony of the Circle Line (Bishan Station) on the 27th May 2009. The Guest-of-Honour for the event is Mr. Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence.
The Band had prepared several pieces for the event ranging from the oldies like A Lot Of Words (千言万语) by Teresa Teng to familiar tunes like Semoga Bahagia for the performance.
To ensure that there will be no hiccups on the actual day, NYJCSB along with our teachers-in-charge (Mr. James Chia, Mr. Gerald Tay, Miss Pauline Peh) and our conductor (Mr. Brando Tan) went for a rehearsal at Bishan MRT Station on Monday, 25th May 2009.
Despite having the rehearsal after school (we assembled in the Music Room at 1700), many of us still looked quite active and excited!
Percussionists in the lift!
Being one of the first few to step inside the station, how could we not take a photo for keepsake purposes?
Proceeding to platform area
Setting up…
On the actual day, we will be playing a fanfare for the arrival of Mr. Teo Chee Hean at the entrance of the Bishan MRT, hence we rehearsed there too! (Sorry, no photos because I couldn’t take while I was playing.)
The rehearsal started at around 1900hrs at Bishan MRT Station and ended at 2030hrs.
So, it was home sweet home for us.
Actual Performance
On the 27th May 2009, members of the NYJCSB came to school bright and early to prepare for the performance at Bishan MRT later. At 0745hrs, the Band with Mr. Chia and Mr. Tay (Miss Peh had lessons so she couldn’t be there to support us) set off towards our destination.
On the bus, Mr. Chia gave us some instructions and cheers were heard when he mentioned about refreshments. We were informed that refreshments were reserved for us to enjoy after the performance :D.
When we reached, there wasn’t any major problem as we were all quite sure where to proceed to and what will be happening next.
(From here, Mr. Gerald Tay became the cameraman :D )
So after we set up our stands, we proceeded to one corner of the station for warm-ups by our conductor.
Then we proceeded up to the entrance of the station for the Guest-of-Honour to arrive.
Meanwhile, we played through the fanfare and took photos. Our principal, Mr. Quek came to give his support as well.
One MP came to talk to some of us.
And our conductor and teacher!
When Mr. Teo arrived, the Band started playing the fanfare on the cue of Mr. Brando Tan.
Then we proceeded back down to the station (Ticketing Office) to wait for the later part of the performance. Meanwhile, the Minister was giving his speech.
After waiting for approximately 20 minutes, we proceeded down to the platform area and set up the stage for our performance while the Ministers and LTA staff boarded the train to other stations (not to visit, just to go one round the five stations of the Circle Line).
We played some of our pieces while we wait for the train to make one round, and we received applause from our audience.
When the train arrived back at Bishan, we played Instant Concert, a quick and lively piece filled with familiar tunes to welcome the passengers.
Then, we left the stage and went backstage while a video about Circle Line was being showed.
After the video, it was time for us to play again! We played several other pieces and it was the end of the performance when Mr. Teo and other staff went back.
We left the stage and left our instruments up at the ticketing office and it was refreshments time! The refreshments tasted great and also due to the fact that we were starving, many rushed for the food and ate it like we had never taste such food before.
Guess who? :D
After a briefing, we board the bus back to school.
This is the Band’s first performance after SYF 2009 without majority of our J2s and I believed that many will agree that it was well done and indeed a good experience to perform at such events.
The Band would like to thank the J2s for helping out at the Circle Line Performance. (We’ll miss you all! )
Amelia Chua
0921
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