In past two months, students of Nanyang Junior College Symphonic Band have been preparing well for the band’s biannual concert “Aureus Experentia XVIII” on Sunday.
Other than the concert music, they have also been working hard on the skit element, which will be presented by its members, featuring themes and pieces from the Disney and Star Wars franchises.
“One of the biggest obstacles we had was to balance between the skit preparations and concert pieces. It all turned out well as we had passionate teams in charge of the different areas and back-to-back practices that made it work,” Chan Le Maan, Vice President (Admin), reflected.
According to Vice President (Music), Michelle Lai, it has always been an NYSB tradition to add a skit into their concerts.
“We believe that adding different elements and applications of music into our repertoire enriches our audiences’ experiences, making the concert more memorable and fun for them.”
In a selection of repertoire was contributed by the band members, as well as their resident conductor Mr Brando Tan, audiences will hear band classics “First Suite in Eb” and “American Elegy”.
“In NYSB, we have a culture of letting the band make most of our own decisions; and that includes conjuring up our own repertoire, that will ensure that we love what we perform. The pieces and sound effects that will be played during the skit were meticulously planned and chosen by members of the skit committee, so be sure to watch out for those during our show!” Vice President (Music), Javier Chan added.
The band will also be conducted by Singapore composer Benjamin Yeo, whose two works will be performed in the concert.
“I’m definitely very excited and refreshing at the same time, and it made relook at the music again and asked myself why I wrote the materials in a certain manner,” Benjamin said.
When working on the Benjamin’s pieces “Legend of the Ancient Hero” and “Takeda Lullaby”, the students took a great interest in hearing his ideas and interpretations when he wrote his music, which seemed to help a lot in expressing the piece through their playing.
“We were very excited when our conductor brought up the idea of Mr Benjamin Yeo conducting his own pieces for our concert, and having him down for our band practice to work on the pieces was an eye opener. It was definitely a very enriching experience!” said Lee Yu Jing, the band’s president.
Aureus Experentia XVIII
13 May, Sunday
Singapore Conference Hall, 2pm
Tickets: $15
DM @nyjcband on Instagram for tickets
A contributing editor at TBP.