Middle Schools Band Festival ‘09
Yesterday, some of us school band members participated in the Middle Schools Band Festival ‘09 at The International School of Kuala Lumpur. It was my last time, along with the other Form Fives 
The last time the band members of Sri KL participated in this was back in 2007. There’s a post on it right here. Didn’t attend last year’s because nobody in our school received the sheet music. You can’t go for the band festival without sheet music, ya know…
Just so you know, this Band Festival thingo is basically like a free workshop. We are divided into the junior and advanced group. While the advanced group practice in some classrooms under an instructor, the junior group will remain in the auditorium and they will practice there. We switch locations after our break(s). After hours of practice, we perform! 
This year we have a new addition though. Besides just being a band festival, a choir group performed too. (It’s nothing compared to our school’s “Choir” club okay! The pros have four lines – Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone. And how about Sri KL’s “Choir” club? Aiyah, as Calvin puts it: “I wouldn’t even call it a choir”, which is pretty much true because they’re all girls and they all seem to be altos ONLY. Where’s the darn variety?)
So anyway, I’m in the advanced/blue group, along with Siew Yee [trumpet], Heng Hau [trumpet], and Calvin [clarinet]. I was in the trombone section, and it so happened that I was the only one with a bass trombone. Oh, how I used to find the “uncommon” instruments so amusing…such as the bass clarinet and baritone sax. Didn’t spot any tall bassoons or coiling sousaphones this year.
A few flautists and a staff euphoniumist played Henry Mancini’s Baby Elephant Walk as an opening for the ceremony. Ivan, my trombone senior who is now studying in college, helped me to record a few of the performances. He didn’t manage to record the opening and the choir one, although I must point out that the choir group were so cool that when they left the stage row by row, they continued singing ’til even when they were already outside the auditorium. It’s a “Wahliaoeh!” factor. The junior group played Tribal Dance, Train Heading West and March of the Ladybugs. The advanced group played Barnum and Bailey’s Favourite, Portrait of a Clown, and Celebration For Winds and Percussions. Here are the videos:
Tribal Dance
Train Heading West
March of the Ladybugs
Percussions Ensemble! (mix of juniors and advanced)
Barnum and Bailey’s Favourite
Portrait of a Clown
Celebration for the Winds and Percussions
Iva, if you’re reading this, I envy you because you got to play The Incredibles back in ‘06 
Photo time! (Note: Photos were taken by Steffi, Heng Hau, and probably others too)
Jonathan strikes a “lan si” face
Heng Hau took this photo because he was camera-battling with Xi Ning
Going through some briefing
It’s the video man! He was talking to us and Heng Hau bravely snapped a photo of him, just like that.
Sri KL’s junior group
Trumpets
Top row: Yi Xin, [forgot her name], [forgot her name too], and Hoe Quan
Clarinets
Middle row: Yu Xin, Celine and Amber
Horns
Xi Ning in the middle
Tenor saxophones
Ryan in the middle
Flutes
Si Min, also in the middle
Trombones
Nagulan in the middle, Chia Seng on his left and Ming Ying all the way in the bottom-right corner
Junior band
Advanced band
That is I, playing le bass trombone
Heng Hau [trumpet] in ze middle
Calvin [clarinet] in ze middle
Siew Yee [trumpet] in ze wrong colour (purple, although it isn’t shown clearly here)
She’s also our band president for ‘09!
Jonathan [percussion], 2nd from the right
Here, you can also spot Harry Potter
(Seriously, when I spotted that dude, HP came to my mind right away)
That was our lunch. You’re looking at McD’s that’s worth more than RM100! 
Calvin again
Calvin said that I look like a goth here…
That’s what you get when there’s not enough light.
Le Clarinettis – Calvin, Celine, Yu Xin and Steffi
Steffi was wearing red because she didn’t want to play and claimed that “the red group is for experts”
Turns out that the red-shirted people are the instructors.
“Xi Ning looks like she’s waiting for her order” - Steffi
Steffi and I
Camera-battle again!
H²’s brother, James, who is turning 20 this year
And like I said [in a few posts back], he never “leaves” the band
He’s also a brilliant painter, really
H² and Mr Chong (Sri KL’s band instructor)
Accidental sepet-ness
Yi Xin is a trumpeter and she doubles as a camera-shy trumpet holder
The yellow-coloured choir group! See, there’s plenty of guys here in this choir!
Sri KL’s leh? Not even one.
“TAKEN” says it all
This lady, Ms Lou Davey, was our conductor for the day. Dressed up in Chinese clothing.
Ya not supposed ta paff ya cheeks!
Taking a photo of a photo
You know that you’ve gotta to use the flash when you’re in a bumpy bus ride
Ivan the ex-band president, the one who recorded the vidoes, and also a full-time poser 
Candid!
Ryan: Calvin, how did you get there so fast?!
Calvin: Why, through osmosis, of course!
Encik Mirai in the background and Cik Umi in the foreground
(she proved to me that she can speak German!)
Ming Ying, my trombone buddy, a.k.a. sadist
(My left arm? Don’t ask)
hey nice. do post the other videos.
Ala special request la. Specially make a post with all the pictures with me and everyone in it. XD
aihhh this looks so darn cool! can someone tell me why i didn’t join band when i was in high school T____T
Maybe it was because of the funny band uniform? Or being labeled as a “nerd”? (Haha, most of us aren’t even a quarter of a true nerd, really) Of course, everything would have been better if the band’s quality was as good as the other schools’
As we all know, Sri KL isn’t really the best in every aspect HAHA
hey..
doing this? http://news.deviantart.com/article/70631/ ??
percussions ensemble is my pick. simple enough for me to follow
… I like bits of train heading west and others.
BTW, who writes the sheet music for this occasion (should I call that person(s) the composer?). In that ensemble the blue dude in the middle kept rising one of his hands — for synchronization?
Hahaha, I know I got lucky because The Incredibles’ soundtrack holds true to it’s name.
But believe it or not, I’ve always wanted to play Celebration for Wind and Percussion – I still have the sheet music for clarinet 1, 2, and 3 from the old days, heh.
Man, I really miss the band. And it looks like you guys had so much fun.
I know there was a down time, but I really wish I could hang out with all you guys and everything would be the same as before.
Also I kind of miss Mr Chong’s sepetness every Wednesday.
Oh well.
Maybe, if you guys don’t mind, I could come over for a visit one of the other Wednesdays?
Lovely post, as always.
You rock, and you should know that I envy you. Heh.
Sojourner,
Actually, I did consider participating. It’s either the DA branded or fashion. The prize is really attractive too 8O..I could definitely work on it during my free periods
The sheet music wasn’t specially written just for the occasion. My guess is: the people in charge picked the songs. Some songs were repeated, though, like March of the Ladybugs. I played that when I was in the junior category, back in ‘06 (That was when I still played the saxophone)
I think that the blue dude raised his hands to show some signal, so that the other percussionists know when it’s time to play certain rhythms..or something like that
—
Iva,
Ahah, looks like you’ve played what I wanted and I’ve played what you wanted. The Incredibles must’ve been a fun piece, eh?
Celebration for W&P sounded great live. Our band couldn’t really duplicate a sound that’s as good, sadly
Of course we wouldn’t mind
You definitely should come back and visit us on one of the Wednesdays (co-co hasn’t started yet, though). Otherwise, the pre-Sports Day period would do just fine 
Thanks! You rock so much harder, Iva
yeah true lol. it’s not that bad though i’m a nerd too! haha. i actually asked mr lim if i could join last year and he said i’m too old .________. i guess that’s why xD
@Olivia: Last year, you were the green house captain la, deii. Sure damn busy one.
steffi i asked him BEFORE i got elected as green hse captain xD.