April 21st/11
Performance day today! So we get to the festivl, and concert band goes first, and they sounded quite good actually. Symphonic Band was next....Satiric actually went very well! Irish tune had some tuning problems but overall very emotional. My solo went really good in Shepherds and we were FLYING in the Ascension. The adjudicator told us he would keep this performance in his heart for ever. A guy also firstly made note to the amazing french horn section! woohoo. I videod Alyssa playing Kookaboura on cello, I'm very proud of her! Jazz Band went well. Boogie Stop was terrible on my behalf. I can usually solo if I just find high Bb and I can usually noodle, but guess who didn't find Bb.... Vocal Jazz was pretty funny, we all laughed at the end. We fell apart in Sing Sing Sing, but oh well. The festival was a sham. It seriously felt more like a talent show, and that opposd to earning something, we were given a 'pat on the back' and a 'thanks for coming to our country'. I hung out with Madison all day, we were pretty angsty. The introvert in me came out, and being around all these people almost made me sick. Kelby didn't wear proper shoes (ugh!) These women beside us sat down, got back up, and because the rows were so narrow, it was awkward and I dropped my camera and dented it, and it didn't work for a bit, but I fixed it now, no worries. Calgary Academy was here. What the ****, they can't even dance, seriously. When they performed at the end, I said "You came all the way to China FOR THAT?". We did a concert finale thing at the end. OMG the asian bands are amazing. They sounded proffesional even though they were Junior High-High school students who had only rehearsed for a month. It was so unorganized it was ridiculous. I feel just ugh about it. At lunch we got to take a tour around a school with chinese school. I walked off. I spoke some chinese (Hi, I'm Canadian), they appreciated the canadian gifts but I'm sure they were laughing at me. I visited with 2 students, Jane and Sumer who wre very nice and we asked alot of questions. Schools are MUCH different. The MC was a D-bag and was stoopid. Ughhhhhh. The food was sketchy.There were people behind glass windows wearing masks and full body suits, dishing food into trays. I felt like I was at a prison caf. I actually could barely stomach anything, and Madison and I were hungry all day. We were all given participation awards at the end of the night, and Wilson and I accepted the Bishop Carroll Jazz Band Award. At the end, a woman came up to me and said "You know, you really souldn't stick your tongue out when you're on stage!" I know I do it when I play bass, but I can't even tell when I'm doing it. ughhhhh peopl! Oh well, Tom made me smile when he fell in the pile of mud. I want to drink tea and breath and I want some GOD DAMN NOODLES! Apparently they don't have noodles in China or they don't ever serve it to us! Oh well, what a doy.
Back in Calgary when we were preparing for the festival, we were rehersaing so much, and practicing like crazy on our own, so to get there and have adjudicators that could only remark on our performance as opposed to the music we actually played. So it was a little frustrating when we all felt like the festival was sham. However, I give them slight props, since this was the first time they had an international music festival in Beijing. I mean, some people regretted all the effort we put in before China, however I feel that our performance we did that day was the best we had ever played as a group, and I was very appreciative of the fact that we got to even play at an internatioal level. I pretty much spent the day just frustrated regardles but I'll get over that. Our selections of songs we played were Satiric Dances by Dello Joio, Irish Tune of County Derry/Shepherds Hey by Percy Grainger and the Ascension by Robert W. Smith. Madison and Kelby are my fellow french horn mates, though on occasions Madison and I have our moments with Kelby. Our tour was pretty cool, they're school schedules are much more intense in China than in Canada. They usually work from 7-5:30. The bathroom in the school made the scariest noise I had ever heard, and I actually couldn't go into the bathroom without screaming and running back out the safety. By this point in time, I barely ate anything in Beijing, everything was so greasy and smothered in sauce. Oh well. It was a very long day at the festival and everyone was feeling angsty. But we wouldn't let a day like that ruin the trip now would we?
-Happy Blogger
Episode 2 - A Bucket of Beeps
11 years ago