b Sunday, July 08, 2007 a
Soooo I guess I'll start from Thursday afternoon. I started having a toothache out of nowhere so I went to the dentist. Dentist said I should pull them out NOW but I was like WAIT NO I HAVE A CONCERT ON SATURDAY! Soooo....he was gonna do it on Tuesday. However SOMEBODY in my workplace (no names of course) refused to let me do it Tuesday for some stupid reason so now I have to go on Thursday, and even though it's one week of MC, she wants me to GO BACK to camp on the following Monday to endorse it. Wtf? It's an SAF issued MC. You shouldn't have to endorse it because...I don't know. It's silly, but if she says to do it, I have to. Grrrr.
Friday I was on leave. In the morning, had to head down to Singapore Indoor Stadium (henceforth SIS) to help configure the seats. There's not a whole lot of space considering there's 80 of us to fit in plus stands plus instruments. 13 meters long, 8 meters deep if I recall. Somehow we managed. Went home and then had to go back two hours later for rehearsal. Let's just say it was not planned very well and lots of time was wasted. Didn't finish until around 2230 (we were supposed to finish at 2145). Went home only to have to...
Report back the following morning at 1000. Rehearsed (once again, badly planned) until 12, break until 1, rehearsed until 6, break until 7. Show started at 730 but there were a LOT of speeches and awards given out before it reached the concert section of the show.
The concert portion went quite well. The Golden Lions really outdid themselves, as did the brass band, kotekitai, dance group, and choir. SNCO did very well too! For those of you that didn't get the message, this message came down today from Samuel: "We'd like to thank all for the fantastic performance last night! A lot of our pioneers were moved to tears when we played the two gakkai pieces. That's what music is all about, to touch people's hearts. Thank you!"
The program was as such:
1.) March past with SNCO playing Hong Zi Ge and Guang Bu Zhi Ge (groups took so long to march past! Heard people cried when we played though)
2.) Golden Lions wushu+lion dance with Chinese music (loud!)
3.) Flower duet with Soka Choir and dance group (what's it called again???)
4.) Sound of Music with SNCO and Junior Choir (awww so cute!)
5.) Wang Fei Hong with RCO and Golden Lions (quite cool! Cymbal was late quite often...)
6.) Brass band and kotekitai playing a piece called 070707 (I think...very very good!)
7.) Nella Fantasia with SNCO and Soka choir (basically a reprise of what we did for the president)
8.) Kitaro's Matsuri with SNCO+RCO and Golden Lions (didn't watch the wushu...heard it was really good. Piece was a crowd pleaser as well hehehe)
9.) YWD mass movement (basically lots of YWD doing the same thing)
10.) YMD/Gym corps mass movement (Whirlpool! They ran in circles and did coordination stuff)
11.) Finale singing 2 of GD's original songs
Chaos ensued after the concert. Here're photos!
Dear SNCO members (that read this),
Last night was really a night to remember. Standing up there conducting the Gakkai songs with all my heart, I felt like I had actually managed to achieve something in the past 2 years I've been back in Singapore and contributing to SSA and kosenrufu. I really wish that I could stay on to watch SNCO grow, but a new mission/adventure calls to me back in New York. I will still come back at least once a year over the next few years, so hopefully you all will grow during those years.
I have to admit that standing in front of everyone and conducting isn't always the easiest thing in the world, but I can't imagine anyone else in the world giving me this kind of opportunity to let me make mistakes up on the podium and just laugh at/with me and just carry on the rehearsal as if nothing happened (events such as "what's a tuba" stick in my mind horribly).
I sincerely hope that I will be able to play/conduct with you all again as a full-time member in the future. I've learned so much from all of you and I can only offer my very best wishes to you, members of SNCO, and thank you for all the wonderful memories and experiences we've shared together.
Yours sincerely,
Guang Yi
Former assistant conductor and Music IC
Edit: Thanks a lot Fong Yee and Wei Li!
The angels whisper softly
11:50 PM