CHSCO Mission Accomplished

This year..I can finally be at peace, because CHSCO has finally clinched

GOLD WITH HONOURS!

so I may now retire from my Assistant Section Leader (ASL) posts in peace, of course after choosing the next SL to take over the group. This year's SYF result was really by God's Grace which showered on CHSCO, otherwise we wouldn't even stand a chance against other superb chinese orchestras from Hwa Chong and Evergreen.

but before I go into the details...it's first of all time to announce the answer to the previous challenge. Here is the answer for the previous challenge (please increase your speaker volume):

This is Home - switchfoot

well, not really a well known song isn't it? that was the piano rift for switchfoot's this is home. Now for the next challenge(please boost your bass at 80hz):

SONG REC TEST8.mp3 -

I'll give you a clue, it is by the same band as the previous song.

As usual:

1. Listen
2. Guess the Song name and Artist
3. Find out the answer on my next Posts

okay...basically here is an account on what happened after we perform after SYF:

As we walked out of the Conference Hall, we got increasingly worried for our Gold with Honours award. We had messed up the ending part of our set piece, 蝉歌。 Our only hope was left on our choice piece, 梦蝶, which could have been better if I had followed the conductor’s hand closely。

Our goal this year was to clinched the Gold with Honours award, to prove that we, Musicians of Catholic High Secondary Chinese Orchestra (CHSCO), is worthy of the Gold with Honours award, and that our previous Gold with Honours award was not by chance, but by our hard work and determination.

We all walked out of the hall and we were greeted by 龙老师‘s teary eyes. She told us that whatever the results may be, so long as we have done our best, she will be satisfied. As usual, we made our way down to the lobby with our instruments, putting them back into our bags and cases and divided them to heavy instruments which were to be placed in the lorry, and light instruments which will be carried on the bus. After putting my instrument in the loading bay, I hurried back indoors hoping that I have not missed out any chance of entering the conference hall. To my dismay, I learned that we had no access to the conference hall until every school have finished performing.

We waited impatiently outside the concert hall, eagerly waiting for the ushers to grant us access to the concert hall. Some of us went to the toilet in hope that they would hear “Catholic High School Chinese Orchestra Gold with Honours!!” through the PA system and rejoice in the toilet like how it was done during our last SYF.

I strolled down the stairs to the vending machine and bought myself a drink hoping that it would allow me to cool down, but it did not. My mind raced rapidly, thinking of how I should face my seniors when I have failed to mould my juniors into CHSCO members of Gold with Honours standard, thinking about a speech I have to make after the SYF to spur my juniors on, thinking of how my efforts of waking up early in the morning for morning practice would have just gone down the drain if we had not clinched the Gold with Honours award for our SYF.

I dragged myself back to the entrance of the conference hall, this time, I saw that our orchestra was lined up, looking ready to barge into the conference hall.

“This shouldn’t take too long” I mumbled to myself.

I slipped my way through the crowd and joined the queue, beside my CCA mate Guo Chang. We were acting childish, playing ‘scissors, paper, stone’ when he asked everyone to join in for a game of “Heart Attack”, while waiting for the other schools to enter the conference hall.

Soon, it was our turn to take another step into the concert hall, this time not on stage, but to the seats all the way at the back where I had a great view of every seat on stage. At this juncture, I had finally understood what my conductor mean when he said that even a movement of an eyeball can be seen offstage by the audience. Indeed, even a person who sits right at the back of the hall will be able to spot this if he or she is sharp.

The air in the hall was rather arid as first, all the schools that had performed on that day (22 April 2009), were eagerly waiting for the results, expecting it to be released soon. This year, things were different; the judges could have had a hard time deciding who to give the awards for they took what seemed like forever to make the final judgement.

While waiting, some students had their hand phones out, frantically pressing the number pats, some who decided to be silly, started clapping their hands, attempting to trick others to clap. However, had failed and was even jeered by most of the students in the hall.

I decided to ignore the silly jokes, took out my earphones, and listened to music while taking a short nap. Somehow, the tense environment slowly disappeared when I lay there.

Finally, the door opened, and five gentlemen (I reckoned) walked through the grey doors as everyone appalled to welcome them, they were the panel of judges of this year’s SYF. The MC later walked in and introduced them individually, of which one of them was the composer of蝉歌; another was a conductor from CCAB I think.

Now, the moment the CHSCO, No. 55 of the SYF competition, have been longing for this past 2 years has arrived, The Results. The MC started reading the results starting from Chinese Orchestra No. 49. When the MC announced that Evergreen Chinese Orchestra had the Gold with Honours award, Evergreen screamed loudly, till my ear drums almost burst. At this instant, most of us were getting anxious. Now that 1 Gold with Honours award has been taken away by Evergreen, will we be able to clinch the Gold with Honours award? Will be get Gold instead since Hwa Chong was bound to get Gold with Honours?

Then, it was No.55, Catholic High School. The air-condition suddenly felt colder, as all of us gripped on to our seats as we watched the MC bring her microphone up and opened her mouth.

“No.55 公教中学, Catholic High School,” she paused, “荣誉。。” and the rest was lost in our cheering, our entire Chinese Orchestra jumped out of their seats and punched the air. It was as if it was a miracle, as if all of this was probably just a dream while I am still sleeping in the conference hall, but the pinch on my hand was enough to prove that this was reality. We had accomplished our mission; we have retained the Gold with Honours.

After all the results had been released, we started singing our school song and cheering as we marched out of the conference hall, like soldiers back from a victory war. We shouted and yelled until some of us lost our voices. Some were just too exhausted to cheer as they had used up all their energy during the announcement of the result.

This year’s bus ride back to school was probably the quietest as compared to the previous SYF where we were so noisy that the bus driver reprimanded us. Guess we were all tired after 2 years of energy-draining and stressful days in our practices, and deserve some rest.

From here, I have finally seen how my hard work as a ASL in my tan bo group have paid off, though it was mainly the effort of my juniors and peers which has allows our Chinese Orchestra to once again attain the Gold with Honours.

As I retire as an ASL in CHSCO, I pray that CHSCO will continue to strive on to retain the Gold with Honours standard our seniors and peers have set, and that they will learn to accept any result they get during the SYF Central Judging, be it good or bad. May the Love Of God shine through every member of CHSCO