Turi Orchestral Weekend.

The Junior Orchestra traveled to St Andrews School, Turi during the last weekend of October. After a fairly long bus ride, the pupils helped pitch their tents and settled in for a quick sound check. Since they were playing together for the first time with 174 other children from different schools, the initial sound was not great. However, after many intense and grueling practise sessions over the two day period (including some fun breaks jumping on the trampoline and sliding down a small hill), the group began to sound like a well oiled music machine.

The final performance was fantastic! All the pupils played beautifully and the audience was really impressed that such young musicians could play an ensemble of instruments in unison so well!

Below are some comments from some of the participants on their experience at the event:

"The Turi trip was fun and exciting. I made some new friends from Hillcrest and Banda. Overall, it was the best time in my orchestral life. Next time I hope we stay in dorms or a hotel, and not camping tents. I feel I have grown a lot as a musician and can play my cello better now." Yula Reed 6B

"The trip was really fun. The journey was long but really fun. I made new friends. The big orchestra sounded very nice but loud. The piece “Finale’ from Beethoven’s symphony was especially nice and fun to play. I played the saxophone and it was really nice playing with other saxophones. I feel I am a better musician now. I really liked staying in tents." Anaamayan 6B

"I really liked Turi. It was fun, but tiring. Really cold! The journey was really long. The final performance after practiticing so much was amazing. I played the clarinet."

Siddhanth 6K

"I had a fantastic, musical weekend at Saint Andrews Turi School. I made many friends from different schools and also got to know my school friends better. Camping made my whole trip adventurous, pitching the tent was a mission but we accomplished it as a team. "Everyday is a learning process". Most of all I had an amazing time performing with different children, different instruments and as a whole orchestra. From practicing as single instrumentalists and coming together as a whole orchestra was magical. Above all I would like to thank all the support and help provided by the teachers (Miss Majuma and Mr Thomson) and the bus driver (Mr Stanley)." Dhara Shah 8S