LO1: Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth

As we rehearsed more of the rep I came to realise that slow, chordal, colla voce pieces are a good fit for me when it comes to remaining flexible, improvising, while maintaining a steady pulse. Therefore, I made sure to focus more on the fast, rhythmic pieces by practicing with the soundtrack to get a better feel of how the music moves with the ultimate aim of being able to accompany the singers nicely and contribute to the ensemble as a whole. I believe it has also been more challenging to work with the music due to the fact that with my previous experience with AIDA, I was not only placed in a pit band that was being conducted by a teacher, but this collaborative setting also allowed me to communicate with other student musicians where we could help each other out. Since this time round it was just the piano present at these rehearsals, let alone without much conducting, I had to figure more things out independently, which has in turn enabled me to become more aware musically.

Although I wasn’t able to be part of the final run since I was moving back to Singapore, it was a great experience to be able to collaborate with new people because not only did it challenge me to remain aware and flexible, but it was fun to enliven music with this cast and crew – it opened my eyes to another dimension of musicals and I hope to take on this experience with me in future opportunities.