SAF Central Band concert
it’s over!
and 4 years ago, i thought i had played my very last concert with SAF Central Band, involving Dr Hardy Mertens that time as guest conductor. that was really memorable, and i played my heart out on the bass clarinet under his baton (hand, i mean. he doesn’t use a baton) that night, knowing that i won’t sit with them as a musician again unless i sign on that cursed dotted line.
this time, i played as a guest player from Mus’art Wind Orchestra, in a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between SAF Bands, Mus’art Wind Orchestra and Dr Hardy Mertens. an exciting concert involving 2 upcoming composers/conductors doing their masters in music! under their ‘hands’ we played 3 pieces for each of them; an original arrangement of an existing piece, an original composition and one of Hardy Mertens’ piece. earlier on, they came to Mus’art and also had a session with us. and i had the opportunity to conduct one of their original compositions! and i learnt stuff about the piece from the composer himself. hee. anyway, this time they had a real professional band under their hands for their assessment! rare opportunity man!
Giuliano Moser was first, doing his arrangement of Piece Heroique, his composition The Snow Queen, and then Winanga-Li by Hardy Mertens. then Franco Pufilito (i hope i got it right) came up with his arrangement of Fugue II, his composition Naos, and then Prayer by Hardy Mertens. it was quite an exciting concert given that we played in a new auditorium (Republic Polytechnic Cultural Centre) and, probably the first time in central band history, we played to a half empty hall! must’ve been the location; woodlands wasn’t exactly an accessible place.
once again i was seated with them, playing with them. but i feel completely different, because my batch people weren’t there anymore, and i basically didn’t have a lot of people to talk to. not that i used to have a lot of topics with them, but at least we could’ve talked about happenings in camp! but ok, some of my old friends there still remember me and we still had some friendly exchanges. and staff cheng kim is still as caring to us as ever. haha. many many new people, many old people still around. interesting feeling!
anyway, i’m glad the concert’s over, as my entire embouchure was giving way because of excessive playing/practising. yes, believe it or not, i played too much. i think it’s the switching between Bb and bass clarinet that did the harm. but ok, i still managed to get a good tone out of both, and i’m rather satisfied with that!
the most interesting highlight of the concert came during Prayer. in my entire 11 years of playing in concerts, i have never had a fire alarm go off in the middle of a piece. not even in rehearsals! but today, it happened during a short interval in the rehearsal, and also in the actual performance itself! we were at the end of figure 26 in Prayer when suddenly the fire alarm rang. in the middle of a concert, for goodness sake. and we knew that irritating voice would boom over the speakers, telling us to remain calm while they assess the situation. and sure enough, the irritating voice came on, but luckily for Franco (he was conducting Prayer), the voice came on just as he cut off the end of figure 26! in the end, after some commotion and the silencing of the fire alarm, we started again from figure 27. our bass clarinet soli!!! anyway, it’s still the funniest thing i’ve ever encountered during a concert. it shall be one of my grandfather stories next time ;P
poor Franco. but i guess for him it was still quite a success! no major mistakes for Prayer, and also his pieces.
proud to say that i had a fruitful week! but i really missed sweetie a lot and i hope this 1 1/2 weeks can pass by very quickly so that i can see her again! but of course, i hope that she’s enjoying her exchange program in China 
i’ll stay strong! NC prize giving day coming up next 
