GSIS 10 Year Anniversary Yearbook: Memories | Page 75

2013 “Long Time Ago” “Rock-n-Roll Snowman” Choir Band won the Gold Medal in Band Festival 2016 “Swingin’ with the Santas” “Christmas Concertette” “Winter Wonderland” “Dance of the Harlequins” “Rock, Paper, Scissors” 7/8th Band Orchestra 5 6 9 Choir 7 8 10 The lower secondary concerts have always been a time of pride in which the band, choir, and orchestra students were able to perform their pieces to their peer s and parents. Now that students have performed 10 years’ worth of concerts, more people are flocking to the auditorium to watch the performances. This is due to the large amount of work and the reputation that each music group has built. The current lower secondary music students look forward to future concerts in hopes of learning new techniques and performing with their friends. As the music groups become more well-known through their concerts and their KAIAC rankings, more of the school community is beginning to show up to the concerts. Brian Lee stated, “The audience is getting more interested in our concerts and more people are coming.” Upon thinking back to his middle school years, Peter Lee realized that “the audience was more into the concert and more people came.” Although the students prepare and perform in the concerts, the teachers play the critical role of establishing the band, choir, and orchestra. Peter explained, “Some teachers left and new teachers came, so the style of music changed. The relationship between student and teachers is really close, they’re almost like friends.” The teachers play a big role in and out of the concerts, but they’re not the only ones who do the teaching. Many lower secondary students have role models that they watch and learn from. When Brian Lee was asked who his role model is, he answered, “I think Matthias [Buesing] in 9th grade because I have seen him around a lot when we were doing orchestra and then he’s been really positive on the things we were doing and always cheered up my classmates.” Instead of a specific person, Peter stated, “High school is a role model …they show us how to behave during concerts and sometimes come to help during class if they have time.” The previous ten years’ worth of concerts make up a good experience for the current upper and lower secondary students, but now every student is looking forward to the future. Brian shared, “I look forward to hopefully combining band, choir, and orchestra when we do concerts.” A collaboration of music groups would definitely be something that the entire GSIS community would be interested in. Peter mentioned, “I’m looking forward to more exciting songs and different styles of music!” 1. Yerine Choi and Jamie Suh play the flute while looking at the conductor, Ms Lyons. It is important for the musicians to look at the conductor while playing because it helps stay on tempo. 2. Joel Kim plays the violin while Jun Taek Oh plays the cello and Ms. Jimin Lee conducts the orchestra. The orchestra played two songs, “Christmas Concertette” and “Dance of the Harlequins”. 3. Luke Won and Sung Un Woo take turns playing the drums. Even though the drums are one of the most over-looked instruments in a musical group as they are often position in the back of the stage due to their ability to project sound, it is responsible in providing the rhythmic foundation for the band. 4. Mark Park practices his script during the final rehearsal before the concert. He represented the orchestra by introducing the songs to the audience before their performance began. 5. Haeun Lee, Maria Williams, Vaughn Schneider, Sana Desai, Aidan Anderson, Tatiana Laroche and Youngwon Ju sing “Swinging with the Santas”. The students were instructed to maintain eye contact with the conductor, Ms Cindy Choi. 6. Kailey Park plays the cello during the final rehearsal before the show began. The students were instructed to concentrate and play hard even during rehearsals in order to reduce chances of making mistakes during the concert. 7. Woo Bin Cha plays the saxophone along with the band. Playing the saxophone required careful training in order to produce rich and clear sounds during the concert. 8. Hyojae Jeon blows into his flute. When playing the flute, it is important to have the correct posture in order to keep the flute still to produce the best sounds. 9. Kona Brumsickle and Seung Jun Lee tune their violins before their rehearsal. The upper and lower secondary orchestra had been asked to have a combined performance due to a limited number of songs. This was because for many lower secondary students it was their first time performing and it was also only the first quarter, so their song list was still small. 10. Peter Lee plays the French horn as Derrick Han and Nathan Park play the trombone. The trombone is one of the deepest symphonic instruments and one of the most powerful instruments. 75 GSIS Yearbook-LSS_Part 2.indd 75 4/17/16 6:03 PM