The AYG performance was held on the 2nd of July 2009. That afternoon, we had to rehearse for the performance in school before moving off to swissotel the stamford. Though the rehearsal was not productive, the performance was a blast! After a late lunch and early dinner, we had our last rehearsal on stage, when it was our turn to perform, we really enjoyed ourselves and played our best. The athletes and volunteers were very supportive even though they had a long day at the Games. After the performance, evfeveryone was hyped up as we had a wonderful audience and we played really well. The volunteer even gave us a standing ovation! Overall, it was a great opportunity to play for the athletes of the first Asian Youth Games as well as a good chance to interact with the other bands' members and the athletes from different continents of Asia.
Reflection on AYG vilage performance from Benjamin
We performed at the athletes village on the 2nd of July. Our only purpose there was to entertain the sportsmen and women. We left for swissotel in the evening and had our dinner in the a spacious ballroom where many other school were as well. I ate very little as we had an extremely heavy lunch in the afternoon and the food wasn't very nice. After eating, we headed ball to the ballroom where we would be performing for the athletes. Together with a few other guys, we went to set up the stage for the schools performing. The performance received quite a good reception from the athletes who were from different parts of Asia. We were the second last school to perform and we played "The Wizard of Oz" and "Asian Selection". Justin managed to amuse the crowd with his tuba solo in "The Wizard of Oz". After that, the crowd was going wild and that spurred us onto playing asian selection even better. The AThletes were clearly entertained as a few of them started dancing to the music. We had set the mood in the ballroom before Victoria Secondary took over from us with their own rock pieces. Overall, it was very fun and very successful as we had managed to entertain our audience with music.
Reflection on Special Olympics from Aik Shan
The Special Olympics was held by the commitees of various schools for the mentally-handicapped. Even though it is so, the children from the schools behaved well as if they were from normal schools. I almost can't believe my eyes when they told us that they were mentally-handicapped. We headed out for Yishun stadium in the afternoon and had our dinner there at the Stadium, not long after we started playing the marching pieces to accompany the marching contingents. When our president S.R Nathan had arrived, we prepared a fanfare just for his arrival but disappointingly, when the emcee announced that he had came, he was no where to be seen by the band but nevertheless, we played on. Starting off the event, we had to play the march-in piece for the contingents to escort the performers and children onto the field then we had wonderful "Mozart" piece from the violinist from one of the students. Many other performances lined up i.e. children dancing with hoops and Harley Davidson Riders! It was a blast but it all ended with a tiring 15 minutes of "Pride, Discipline and Honour". After the whole event, we went back happy with many goodie bags which had caps, shirts and bottles. Personally, i had realised that the mentally-handicapped community of Singapore and other countries are great people and should not be discriminated, instead we should think that we are fortunate to be healthy and strong.
Reflection on the National Day Celebration @ YCK stadium from Thomas
On 2nd of August 2009, our band, celebrates our nation birthday together with our school’s uniform group member, and residents of Yio Chu Kang, at Yio Chu Kang sport stadium. We reported in school in the afternoon before setting off to the stadium. We were all very excited and we were very hyper when the MC is doing the cheers. We were also been known as ‘The Screaming Band’ by the MC. During the performance, we play for the whole parade and although there was some minor mistake, I still know that we have all tried our best to make this one of our best performance. Before we head back to school, we were distributed goodie bag, which include Soft toy, food and national flag. Personally, I really enjoyed this performance as it is my first time able to play music along with my uniform group friends.
Reflection on Esplanade Limelight from Jess
Limelight was a great and fun learning experience for me. I am also given this opportunity to improve my playing skills. Limelight has allowed me to feel what it is like to perform in front of a lot of people. Through limelight, I can bond with my section and band mates.
