Year 7 Concert Band performs at the “happiest place on Earth”
Written by Ethan Lo
On Monday, October 14th, the Year 7 Concert Band of RCHK performed several musical pieces at Disneyland Hong Kong, after nearly a year of grueling practice.
70 students, aged between ten to twelve, worked hard to accomplish their goals under the instruction of their music teacher, David Niermeier. Students had the opportunity to make progress in the instruments they chose. Weekly lessons involved practice of relevant orchestra pieces.
Not everyone makes the cut however. In order to qualify for Concert Band, students had to complete the lessons until lesson six, then complete four personally chosen pieces in lessons six to ten. If they succeeded, they were given the chance to join the Band of 40 students, which turned into the Band of 70 afterwards. The band is then renamed the Concert Band.
After eleven months of hard work, the results paid off with a final performance in front of a large public audience at Disneyland.
The students and teachers arrived on the day early in the morning in a state of nerves and excitement. “Before leaving for Disney I was a bit anxious because of having the week of holidays right before the performance,” said Niermeier. “The timing didn't give us a chance to get back into playing before our performance, and I thought we might be a bit rough.”
The students arrived after a delay and quickly rushed to tune their instruments and squeeze in a short practice backstage as it started to drizzle. Meanwhile, parents and intrigued visitors at the park gathered outside in anticipation.
After fifteen minutes of intense warm-up, a crowd of students dressed in smart white shirts and black trousers walked on stage. The show commenced once Mr Niermeier held up his hands to signal the performance had begun.
The first piece, Mr. B, started off a little awkwardly as students slowly began to warm up. However, it was soon given life in a cheerful and powerful manner. The rest of the pieces went smoothly as planned and students appeared to play confidently.
“I felt very excited because I could skip school and go play in Disneyland. I feel like we did pretty good at the start but then we didn’t really improve too much in Year 7 and we just stayed the same. I felt like we did pretty good, there were some mistakes but the audience did not really notice,” stated Haley Liu, a trumpet player in the Concert Band.
Despite the band’s successes, not all members felt that the Concert Band reached their full potential that day.
“I think that we could have practiced more on the harder pieces, to ensure that we perform as best as we could have,” explained Sandy Chan, a bass clarinet player.
Aside from the minor setbacks, the performance was a success overall. “I am proud of the band. We did not play in tune, but we really haven't had the time to work on it in depth,” said Mr Niermeier, who proudly stated he was impressed with the band’s progression throughout the past year.
At the end of the performance, every student was beaming as they put down their instruments to rest and received a standing ovation.
After all the hard work the band had put in over the months and at Disney, they were rewarded and granted access to enjoy the rest of the day at “the happiest place on Earth.”