Anyone who thinks going to Jakarta with 12 students for a
weekend of singing sounds easy needs to give it a try!
Between two rather long days of travel at
either end, we were singing for hours, learning repertoire to perform in a
concert in just 2 and a half days. And
by hours, I mean 6 hours, 6 and half hours or 3 and half hours of rehearsals
per day. There was no let-up – no time
to give in to tiredness! Up, ready, fed
and watered daily by 8am, we piled into the bus with KTJ, headed for the
school, (anything between 30 minutes and 1.5 hours away depending on traffic),
and only arrived back at the hotel around 8pm.
The first thrill was free rein with spending money at
chocolate shops at KLIA. The next thrill
was the suites at the hotel and the contest of who got which room. Then there was the trip to the Pondok Indah
Mall, where the ice rink in the atrium was still out from Christmas. After checking out Pizza Express and finding
it as good as home, there was time to skate - and back at the hotel, there was time
to swim before the welcome dinner. So
much for Day 1.
Day 2 was packed. All
day we were at school, having a crash course in SATB repertoire pieces. Our Choral Director was superb – how he
maintained his energy and enthusiasm having flown in from the UK the evening before
and gone straight into a full day of choral directing without 14 hours of sleep
to adjust to the time difference I shall never know!
At no point during the weekend did it look as though we
would not be good enough to perform. We
learnt 5 new pieces from scratch and all the big choral movements from Carmina
Burana – all in 2 and a half days. It demonstrates
just what can be achieved at these FOBISIA events, and the students learn so
much about concert preparation and performance skills. Our repertoire included an African styled
piece (Banawa by Mike Brewer), pop (e.g. Blackbird by John Lennon and Happy by
Pharrell Williams), and modern choral music (excerpts from Carmina Burana by Carl
Orff).
Everyone came back feeling a tremendous sense of achievement
and progress, but had also had a huge amount of fun on the way. The concert was amazing, the experiences they
had on this trip will remain with them long, long into the future, and we
should be very proud of them for behaving so well. Not one student complained about being bored
or tired, and everyone just did as was expected and learnt their music and did
their best. Congratulations to you all,
Music FOBISIANS.
Click here to view photos.
Julie Anderson
Head of Music