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One Mass of a Band

By Anonymous
Tayah Lee
On Thursday, 10 September, at 7:45am, the fifty-five high school concert band students gathered in front of two bright buses on Upper Field with their luggage and instrument cases in hand, ready to begin their journey.
"I'm so excited!" squealed Hannah Graves (12), just as she had done for the past several days.
Graves's energy and enthusiasm made sure the students and chaperones were awake, but each already had his or her own excitement built up for the long awaited Massed Band Festival in Bangkok, Thailand.
         Although one month is a short period of time for preparation, the band had been dedicated to practicing and rehearsing the festival music every day during class and on students' own time as well. Melodies and rhythms from the five pieces—“Flourish for Wind Band,” “Country Gardens,” “Dusk, Voodoo,” and “Postcards from Singapore”—could be heard emanating from the band room in the morning and after school.
"I think that our hours of work and dedication beforehand really payed off because we went [to the festival] with a really strong foundation," says Jarrod Chang (11). "We could easily follow the directions that the conductor gave us, so it really helped us with the transition to the massed band."
         The journey to the festival in Thailand consisted of many adventures and events on a four-hour bus ride to Hat Yai, followed by a two-hour flight to Bangkok. Split up onto the two buses, students slept, listened to music, took pictures, and played games. Other students presented the group with riddles.
 "I was totally confused by Jarrod's riddles, but they turned out to be very, very, very stupid," complained Sunny Kim (12), as most mind-boggling problems were revealed to be shockingly simple.
         Upon finally reaching Bangkok, the group piled onto a double-decker bus and drove straight to dinner: an all-you-can-eat buffet surrounded by a view of the city skyline in the Baiyoke Tower. The meal was followed by enjoying the view from not only the tower's peak on an outdoor, slow-rotating platform, but also through a glass elevator that traveled to the base.
         The next day and a half totaled to nine hours of playing time during rehearsal sessions with the massed band on the campus of The International School of Bangkok (ISB). The colossal band consisted of 215 students from six different international schools, including seven tuba players, twenty-six percussionists, thirty-five alto saxophonists, fifty flutists, and twenty-eight trumpeters.
          Dr. Erin Bodner, the guest conductor, took these students from different schools, backgrounds, and talents, and transformed them into one band with one sound to perform a grand concert.
As the high school band director, Ms. Laura Danneker said, "There was significant improvement over the course of a day and a half of rehearsals. The first few practices were very rough; but gradually the sounds became more unified, and everyone worked better together."
           Freshman percussionist, Nicholas Khor, said the following about the trip, "It was an amazing experience to be able to bond with students from other schools and play music together."
 As the Dalat high school band students made their way back to their home-island, they brought with them more skills, new experiences, and a greater appreciation for each other.
To bring closure to the great trip, Graves reflected, "Guys, I'm so happy. This was so fun."

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