Our talented College Stage Band, Senior Combo and Big Band completed their first outing this year, performing two Fridays in a row at the Uxbridge lunchtime concert. Many of our parents and their friends attended, with a good number of audiences from the local retirement villages.
The Fridays at Twelve lunchtime series provides a platform for our chamber musicians to refine their competitive repertoire in preparation for the Chamber Contest district round which begins this weekend, followed by the Tauranga Jazz Festival in June and then the KBB competition in August.
Our College musicians have put in hundreds of hours combined in selecting their repertoire, and practicing individually and as a group since end of last year. For some of our students, their performance at Uxbridge theatre was their first Chamber group experience while many other seasoned College musicians has been participating in these festivals for the last three to four years.
This year, our College Chamber Music concert begun with the Junior Piano Trio, Harold Wang on the Violin, Waner Xu on the Cello, and Leo Zhou on the Piano, playing two movements from Frank Bridges Miniatures. The Elliot Flute Trio, with Elisa Wu on the Flute, Brendon Tsoi on the Cello, and Alex Bian on the Piano, then took the stage with their rendition of Trio in G minor for Flute, Cello and Piano by Weber.
The Trio Chicago, with Alex Martin on Clarinet, Eva Wu on Cello, and Charles Sang on the Piano, followed up with Fantasy for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op.26 by Muczynski, before the Syrinx, with Jackson McCarthy on Flute, Archie Lamont Bowden on Violin, and Edison Zhou on Piano, performed. To top it off, one of our top pianist Charles Sang closed the show with a piece from Chopin’s Ballade.
Our College’s performance at Uxbridge this time brought together talents from different schools. This supports and provides more opportunities for the great number of pianists at our College to expand their musicianship by working with equally talented students from other schools.
We wish our Chamber musicians all the best for the Chamber Contest – Auckland District Rounds this week and next.
