Yesterday's Forte III was a blast!!

Yes it was!! I had a great time performing and during the 2 hour performance, it was one hell of a night!! The concert hall was almost full house and even the circle seats werent spared either.

I came to Victoria Concert hall at around 6pm and when i reached there, the main band was already doing last minute rehersals.  Then at around 7pm, it was the alumni band's turn to do the rehersals. All went well until the time came for the guests to arrive.

I had dinner just before the performance and the food sucked. Anyway, the performance was a blast! Every band member did great and even the Boys' Brigade bag pipes company did extremely well! I was amazed that they have improved in playing the traditional scottish bag pipes. It was part of a "feature" score, where, this score was supposed to have bag pipes accompaniment and we the band and the bag pipes are supposed to play together. It went incredibly well! The score arranged by this composer did really great and it sounded fantastic and unique at the same time. How often do you see the band playing with a company of bag pipers? It was such a terrific experience and a pleasant surprise too for the audiences because they didnt expect both to play at the same time and also they played incredibly and accurately.

The first half of the show, they played many contrasting pieces. A grand piece for the opening and then followed by a slow and melodious tunes of Shenendoah and lively pieces like Gladiators and Highland echoes and many more. Gladiators was one of my favourites!

After the first half of the show, the Junior band was next and they played 2 pieces, one of which was Phantom of the Opera. Despite being juniors, i must say, im very impressed! I have never seen soo much potential in the sec 1 in music playing than any other batch in my years of secondary school. Surely, im confident that the future band members of Northland Secondary School shall have a new unique identity and talent with the advent of this young and enthusiastic batch of sec 1.

Next up was the alumni band members! We played 3 pieces conducted by our former conductor, who we all alumni band members sorely missed, Mr Tan Beng Wee. We played Where the River Flows, Hello Dolly, and Beatles Forever. The audience really loved at our selection of pieces and had high praises for us for being able to play really well and still commited to the band despite having left the school years ago. They were simply awed at our musical skills that we have developed over the years.

After that, it was the main band again, playing Tijuana, Pirates of the Carribbean, and Shrek! Every piece of music were played wonderfully and my all time favourite movie and soundtrack, Pirates of the Carribbean. When they played i was at a loss for words. Pirates was one of the more difficult pieces to play and they played incredibly well! listening to the original soundtrack and the arranged version of the score, the band's performance, safe to say was on par with the soundtrack. It was simply astounding!

The last piece, Shrek, was a compilation of old and new music, like YMCA, Who Let Dogs Out, Saturday Night Fever and many more. When the main band played, there was a surprise for the audience. The sec 1 band member went up on stage to dance! They dance really well to the tunes, shouting YMCA and doing those really cool dance moves. The audience went wild!! They shouted for support and whistled in enthusiasm. Everybody was really on the edge of the seats to see them dance. It was really a great night.

Then it was over, i went back with all my friends who came to watched the performance, thanking them for supporting us. Im really glad to have come to the performance, as a Band Major, to watch my band grow and develop thier own unique identity. Surely the present Majors have done thier job. Im sooo proud of them!!