2(feb)/10/2022
Today is the Wavelengths (the name of our school’s annual music concert) performance. After long pauses in live performances due to COVID-19, we can finally perform. This is extremely exciting for most people since we haven’t performed live in a year or two. It is great to be able to put what we’ve been working on on the stage.
We had to consider the ethics of proceeding with this performance amidst the COVID-19 situation. We could only have 124 people in the live audience, and we were constantly reminded to socially distance. We could not take off our masks until the final performance. Regulations were followed. We were all glad that this performance could happen, and we didn’t want to ruin it in anyway. Following the regulations and rules was an ethical decision to ensure the performance wouldn’t be dangerous for anyone.
The few days before 2/10 have been very busy. We (percussion ensemble) came in on weekends to practice both our orchestra piece and our percussion piece. We worked very collaboratively both for helping to set up instruments in the auditorium and practicing for the pieces. We also stayed till late at night the day before the performance, going through rehearsals and listening to feedback.
On the performance day, we also practiced beforehand. It had only been a week or so since I got back from my trip to home, so I have not practiced Mira in a long time. I was pretty out of practice and I messed up in quite a few rehearsals. This scared me and so I practiced both at home and with my fellow xylophone player to perfect my part on the glockenspiel. The glockenspiel has a very sharp/bright sound so it is very important for me to not make any mistakes as it cannot be masked by anything else. This was a challenge for me considering how out of practice I was. But I worked hard and counted bars over and over again when I miscounted, and tried to focus on the piece with 150% of my concentration.
In the end, I did very well for the final performance! It’s exciting that we did very well, and the sense of achievement was great. Our teacher was not there to conduct as he believed we could do great on our own, and we did. If I am not wrong, I believe I did not make any mistakes in the final performance, so my hard work did pay off. I hope we can do more performances in the future.
(LO2, challenge) (LO5, collaboration) (LO7, ethics)
Performance day. I am the person furthest to the left playing the glockenspiel.