Ritornello 26 (Joel’s POV)

Since everyone has been contributing to this blog, let me add my own entry here. It has been 14 years since my last blog post. That’s older than a Sec 2 kid.

Now… Where shall I start? Since you guys wanted to know what the committee was up to for the concert, maybe I will start from there. 

20th March, Friday

Friday night, I was busy rushing the program booklet. Because you know, diamonds are made under pressure. Also, it was mainly due to my own procrastination. I was up editing and putting the program booklet together till Saturday morning. About 7am. 

21st March, Saturday (Wendy’s Birthday)

On Saturday, the plan was for me to pick up dress shoes and print out the VIP tags, Program Booklet QR codes, and stickers. I ended up sleeping only 2 hours because Benedict (Bass Clarinetist 2012) called me. Even though I told him I was going to sleep at 7am. He called me to ask me to meet him earlier. And so I got some feedback regarding the Program Booklet from the comm and did some adjustments before heading to the print shop. 

On the way to the print shop, I realized. I should probably stay over at Yan Ying’s (Saxophonist 2009) place so we could attempt to report to school at 7am together. So I told Ben the plan, and thus, we had an impromptu Band Camp. At the print shop, the aunty said that if I wanted them to cut the tags, I would have to pay her extra. So, in my efforts to save a few bucks, I told her “不用。 我自己剪。” 

I didn't realize the shop was closed because of Hari Raya.

After printing everything, we had to go pick up Ben’s dress shoes. So we headed to Zara at Somerset. While trying on shoes, I saw someone who I thought looked familiar. Ben and I whispered, “Ben. Benjamin. Benjamin Chia!” Towards the end, we were definitely shouting more than we realized. It was indeed Benjamin, a flautist who was 1 year our senior. He is known for shouting “Encore!” For our own concert years ago. What a small world. We asked if he was gonna be there for the concert, and he was there indeed. I even got a bar of chocolate from him. I wonder if it was because he saw us the day before that he decided to get something small for Benedict and I.

Benjamin.

We met up with Yan Ying and her husband and had dinner together. We even bumped into Zixin (Trumpeter 2011) while waiting to be served dinner. She wished us luck for the concert as she wasn’t able to attend the concert.

At the end of dinner, Ming Xiang (Yan Ying’s Husband) so graciously drove me home to pick up my cutting board and clothes so we could do our “Band Camp” things. We spent the night opening a box of Pokémon cards and cutting the signs for the following day. At 1am, we dozed off. Ben tried exiting Yan Ying’s gate, and there is a very funny video of his attempt. (Ask Yan Ying if you want to see it.)

"Band Camp"

Shag bro.

22nd March, Sunday (Concert Day)

I woke up around 6:20am to Yan Ying’s morning call. I immediately sat up and tried to gather my focus and energy to overcome the inertia to start the day. We have been preparing for so many weeks for this day after all. After a quick wash-up, we headed over to pick Yu Qing up before heading to AMKSS. God bless Yu Qing for making a warm mug of triple-shot coffee for us. It really helped me out, going on less than 8 hours of sleep in 3 days.

Once we arrived in AMKSS, I immediately headed up to help out. It was so nice seeing everyone helping out in their own little way. Even the seniors who are in their 30’s were lifting the heavy percussion together. In the end, it was quite a quick process, as with picking up the instrument again, it was muscle memory. We were definitely trained well when we were much younger. Everyone boarded the bus, and we headed to SCH. I took Yan Ying’s car, but looking back, taking the bus would’ve probably completed the experience more fully. 

Travelling down the CTE in the morning with my bandmates brought back many memories. Of our last SYF, where I had to stay over at Jun Ping’s (Flautist 2011), as our reporting time to the bandroom was 7am as well. One of the buses ended up being late to SCH, and we were penalized because of it. What a memory to relive. 

Arriving at SCH, we saw some familiar faces, Shi Zheng (Horn Player 2009) and Shi Peng (Horn Player 2015), exiting their vehicle. Honestly, it was such a nice and warm feeling seeing your friends on the day of the concert. Maybe it's the feeling of knowing that this was what all the hard work was building up towards. 

I entered the hall and saw the whole section except for a couple of latecomers. (Don't worry, no call-outs here.) The first thing Sharlene did was to take out her laptop for some last-minute assignment chionging. Like senior, like junior. Of course, we had to take some selfies to commemorate the moment. I think some of the girls also asked if my hair would be too flat, as I was wearing a cap. I brushed it off, and of course, that would come back to bite me.

Last minute hug buddha leg.

Everyone watching Sharlene do her homework.

My duties for the earlier part of the day were to hand out the passes and make sure that everyone knew where to get them. I also had to put up the Room Signs, VIP Tags, and Program Booklet QR code. So while everyone was on stage, warming up and doing sound check, I was hopping on and off the stage doing all that. I also took the opportunity to take some videos of the sound check. 

Where Yuric and I were when y'all were doing sound check.

Sound Check

Honestly, when the conductors said they wanted to just play through a little, I was quite skeptical. Given my experience, I knew Brando would run through every single piece. He has been like this as long as I've known him. So I tried to conserve my energy as well as try to remind the section that there was still a concert after the sound check. 

I guess an interesting perspective would be when I had to go off stage for the Les Mis trumpet solo. It took a while for me to make my way up to the box as the backstage staff took a while to open the door lock. I did not understand why he couldn't have gone up with me to open it. It took me going up and down the stairs 5 times before the door was finally open. So I tried out the solo in the box. But it didn't seem to be the effect that Shi Zheng was looking for. So we experimented with different setups; facing the band, facing the audience, and we finally landed on me actually being backstage. With the stage door slightly ajar. 

From Liang Yun's POV

Throughout the time, I have never once played my solo perfectly. And Geraldine remarked that she was praying for me to play it perfectly, but secretly hoping I would mess up a little so it would be memorable. And guess what? I ended up having a little hiccup in the middle of the actual solo. Haha. Memorable indeed.

Lunch

Midway through the sound check, I got Douglas to order the birthday cake for the March babies. (They're all in their 30's now) By this time, my stomach was grumbling, and I really needed lunch. And so we headed down to the holding room to have lunch. As per tradition, we had to eat together. So we collected our bentos (Fried rice, hot and sour fish, chicken, egg, vegetables and a stray wanton). Thank you, Committee, for ordering! (Pats own back) While we were eating our bentos, the Sec 4s had McDonald's, and Chloe was really jealous of them. So we asked Chloe to ask the teachers for a portion. She was shy. And probably scared. She ended up with leftover fries. I think she was happy? Are you Chloe?

Douglas and I had to monitor everyone's eating pace to decide when to bring out the cake. Because we knew if we left it till when everyone was finished with their meal, no one would have space for the cake. While setting up the candles, Douglas and I realized the driver wasn't careful with the delivery, and our cake ended up being smooshed to the side. We had to use the knife to slowly transfer it back within the confines of the tray. 

Douglas walked in with the cake, and we started the birthday song, and other band members joined in as well. We used to celebrate birthdays for our section mates so regularly, but it became a less common occurrence as we grew older and led our own lives. So it was nice to be able to celebrate their birthdays for them again. Even if it was just with a wonky birthday cake. It's the company that matters.

It's crazy that it's been 17 birthdays since I've known them. 23 for Geraldine. 

After lunch, I walked around the backstage area and chilled with some other alumni. I saw Eric (Saxophonist 2012) being stressed over his part. It was quite a sight. To be transported back to when the band was everything important in our lives. Kinda glad we were so simply stressed back then. 

My friend is stressed.

In the holding room, I saw the flutes curling their hair with a mini curler. And seeing how flat my hair was, I decided to ask them for help. Yun Ya (Flautist 2014) helped me out, and somehow, I had 3 different people's POV of this instance recorded and uploaded onto Instastories. What a spectacle. Yun Ya tried her best, and I ended up wetting my hair a little to give it a little bit of volume.

Thanks, Yun Ya!

AAWO Trumpet and Jaycee.

Pretty soon, it was time for us to be up on stage, and up we went. 

Concert

It felt weird to be on stage again with AMKSS alumni and Brando Tan. Even though we've already had a sound check and countless rehearsals. The feeling of sitting on stage with an audience is such a different feeling. I don't think I was nervous. Just appreciative of the fact that we get to do this again. All thanks to the energy, effort, time, and passion of AMKSS alumni who poured their hearts into this project. I was grateful. Denver stood up, got us to play the tuning note, and we were officially started. 

We seem to have a selfie expert.

I don't think I will go through every single piece. But the two big ones for me were With Heart and Voice and Les Misérables. 

WHAV was my Secondary 2 SYF choice piece. And I remember how hard we worked on the piece. At that point, I was playing 2nd with Yang Yue (Trumpeter 2010), Yan Qian (Trumpeter 2010), and Germaine (Trumpeter 2009) were playing 1st, while See Suan (Trumpeter 2010), Geraldine (Trumpeter 2012), and Zi Xin were playing 3rd. The 2nd part was actually quite tough as we had some parts that were independent of the 1st and 3rd parts. And we were not very strong. I almost didn't play for SYF that year because they thought I wasn't working hard enough. There was a lot of tension between Yang Yue and I. I remember an incident where she shot bubble tea pearls at me, and I got really mad. I did not go to band and went straight home. I had to carry the 2nd part, yet not get any recognition for it. Looking back, it was honestly quite petty of me. We were a section after all. Somehow, we got past the tension and misunderstandings and did pretty well for SYF that year. Clinching a Gold award despite being overtime. So being able to play WHAV again under Brando's baton was such a heartwarming thing. And clearly he thought so as well. Evident from his emotional state after putting down his baton after the last note of WHAV.

Wendy and I thought he was out of breath, as we could hear his heavy breathing in the speakers. But when his voice shook and broke, I knew. I felt my own heartstrings being tugged at, and my eyes got a little teary. This was a special moment. Through my years of knowing Mr. Brando Tan, emotional was not a word I would associate with this man. But on that afternoon, we saw a different side to this man. Who could blame him? Band music really is magic.

Backstage during intermission, we would come to learn that Geraldine was the only one who did not know that Brando Tan was emotional, and we would tease her for it. We still love you, Geraldine.

After the intermission, there was a little challenge present in the form of the offstage solo for Les Misérables. It was a simple solo. Not technical at all. Just gotta produce a nice tone and play the notes. But somehow, I could never get it perfect. As mentioned above, I messed up on just one note. The Eb. I think what threw me off was that during the rehearsal, I was alone backstage. But during the actual piece, the Secondary 4s were there too, waiting to go in. All eyes on me. Haha. I guess after all those years, I never could deal with the anxiety. A memorable moment nonetheless. I asked if it was obvious and told Geraldine I did it for her.

Directly after Les Misérables, there was gift-giving to show our appreciation for different parties. There was a small delay and panic in this segment as we were told the gift-giving was to happen after Queen Medley. So all of us were caught off guard and had to rush to the back of the stage to gather our gifts. I was assigned to give the gifts to the Teacher in Charge, but ended up presenting them to Jaycee, our Secondary 4 trumpet junior. I guess the teachers had stage shyness. 

One of the encore pieces was the AMKSS School Song. It was honestly a weird feeling for me to experience. As we sang the words and played the notes, I was lowkey proud of us as an alumni group and remorseful that I never felt this pride before the concert. Seeing some of the alumni standing up proudly throughout was also very eye-opening. I saw some others sitting back down midway, awkwardly. Hopefully, in the future, we can take pride in celebrating where we came from. We might not be the ACs or Sts of elite Singaporean education. But we have put in the sweat, blood, and tears to be proud of being from AMKSSSB. No matter how cringe it might sound. (Is this the 3am idealistic Joel peeping out now?)

Post Concert

After all the playing was done, we gathered for a huge group photo. I'm really looking forward to seeing that photo. We had to quickly evacuate the stage and bring down the percussion and heavier instruments after the photo shoot. I also had to remove the tags and pack my stuff, so I broke off from the section and only saw them again in the foyer. So glad we managed to find everyone for a group photo. And I even managed to take some smaller group photos. I wish I had more time to talk to everyone, but we had to clear the space by a certain time. (Douglas is currently planning a section chalet so we can all catch up with all the time in the world. Please reply to the vote.) 

22 batches of AMKSS Trumpeters.

With my seniors, juniors, and batchmate when I was in school.

My oldest friend. 23 years of friendship.

I thought Benedict was heading back to school, so I actually left the mutes and folders in his car. I had to convince him to drop me off at AMKSS, or the main band would have no mutes left. We actually lost a bunch of mutes during the 2007 bandroom renovation. So we can't let that repeat itself. 

Once I arrived in AMKSS, I dropped off the mutes in the section cupboard and saw Phoebe (Trumpeter 2019) carrying stuff. So proud of her. She did not even play, yet she came back to school to help pack up. That's band spirit. Chloe, Tian Wei, Wendy, and Derek went back to help out as well, so we had a mini Trumpet section dinner after. We invited Jaycee. But were rejected by him because he really wanted to go home. I know how it feels.

It took a while for us to decide what to have for dinner, and we ended up joining the Horn alumni for an upper brass dinner. Douglas came to find us for tea, and Sharlene had FOMO, so we ended up at McDonald's for ice cream. McDonald's as a post-concert treat brings back a lot of nostalgia. I remember back when we would end our own concerts, we would hang out at McDonald's as though we didn't have school the next day.

Anyway, from there the kiddos split from Tian Wei, Wendy, Douglas, and I as we went to look for the flutes because we were going to the afterparty at Yan Ying's. I'm just gonna drop a short clip of what happened there and not emphasize. 

Shag bro II.

Lecture in progress.

Come to the next afterparty!

Ending Notes

Even though this is a really long post, if you have read up to this point, thank you for your time! I'm just treating this as a little outlet to pen down my thoughts and try to remember the days as much as possible. For myself, as well as anyone from the future reading this. 

I was looking through the older blog posts. And even though I found the way I typed a little cringe, I'm still glad I wrote them. Because now I have a portal into the past to relive the memories again. Anyway, I'm grateful to have this thing that is bigger than me, and that grows bigger each passing year. Thank you for being part of the trumpet section! Congrats on a great concert, and see you at the next section gathering!