TPJC Wind Orchestra and Guitar Ensemble Concert: The Review

Written by audience.
(Writer refused name to be published)
Pictures courtesy of TPJC Film and Photography Society.

[TPJCian magazine is unable to contact the writer regarding the short descriptions for the pictures. If you know what songs they are performing as seen on the pictures, do write a comment above.]

The TPJC Wind Orchestra and Guitar Ensemble had successfully presented their combined concert, Le Musique 2008, at the Victoria Concert Hall(VCH) on 31st May 2008. The VCH was indeed an elegant place to hold the event. Ms Irene Ng, Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, graced the event as the Guest-of-Honour for the night.

For the first half of the concert, the Guitar Ensemble presented us with 10 beautiful pieces. However, all the pieces were very short, and it was quite disturbing to view the emcees walking in and out of the stage after every few minutes. The Guitar Ensemble had invited several guest performers such as from St. Anthony’ Canossian Secondary, Methodist Girls’ Secondary and Anglo-Chinese Junior College to add value to the musical experience.

There were a lot of movements during the performance especially after the first five pieces that the guitar seniors had played. Both the seniors and juniors of the ensemble performed the 6th piece, A Royal March. The next song, El Bimbo, was played only by the senior section leaders of the TPJC Guitar Ensemble. Finally, the last three songs were a combined performance by the Guitar Ensemble from TPJC and all the guest performers.

















The third piece, “Recuerdos De La Alhambra” composed by Francisco Tarrega and Masataka Sano, stood out most as it wass one of the most famous classical guitar pieces and the TPJC Guitar Ensemble had brought a lot of emotions and depth to Tarrega and Sano’s masterpiece.

The second half of the concert was more captivating as it was filled with many surprises. The TPJC Wind Orchestra (Winds) started off with a loud ‘POP’ from the party poppers. There was a repertoire of 6 songs performed by the TPJC Winds and they were very well selected. One example of a very meaningful piece was the “An American Elegy” composed by Frank Ticheli, which was composed in memory of those who lost their lives at Columbine High School in 1999 and in honour of the survivors. However, contrary to that of the Guitar Ensemble, the pieces that the Winds chose were quite long-winded.

The “Do Enka Express” composed by Satoshi Yagisawa was a very interesting choice. Modern enka came into being in the post-war years of the Showa period. This piece had brought the audiences into the traditional Japanese culture and it was the only piece in the concert that had light effects accompanying the music.

















There were also some good solos in the Winds performance to showcase the amazing talents present in the orchestra to the. One of them who really shined was alto saxophonist, Marcus Yap, who played the piece “Do Enka Express”. His solos were spectacular and he played with much passion.

The concert finale ended with more fun and surprises. The encore was performed by the Winds with two pieces, one of which was Quien Sera. The couple dance put up by the four Winds members during Quien Sera spiced up the atmosphere of the whole concert and captivated the audiences. Overall, the Winds performance was remarkable and they certainly had touched many audiences’ hearts.