Our Annual School Concert Once again, our school has successfully held our annual concert last

weekend. This event has always been a big hit among students, thus this years response was overwhelming. Obviously, I attended the concert as well alongside my group of friends as the price of the ticket is extremely affordable. It was sold at Rm6 for students of our school while publicly, it was sold at Rm20. Since the annual concert was held at Dewan Sri Pinang auditorium, the thoughtful organisers took into consideration students without transport. Hence, the school chartered a few buses to take the students to the concert venue. Other students and I boarded the chartered buses at about 5.30pm. Everyone was extra chirpy and with all the excitement in the bus, the journey felt extremely short. We reached at about 6pm. As we entered the hall, we could see that preparations were made months before the concert as the decorations and banners were exquisite. We also saw bouquets of flowers at the entrance of the auditorium. From afar, we could hear our harmonica band practising outside to ensure a perfect performance. They have indeed practised really hard for this concert and so have the performers of the Chinese Orchestra. They all attended a full dress rehearsal a day before the concert which shows their respectable commitment. All the performers also put on a bit of make-up to make themselves presentable. Upon entering the hall, there were vigilant prefects on duty who ushered the students and general audience to their seats. It was all done very systematically as there were sign cards pasted on specific rows of seats allotted for VIPs, patrons, reporters and invited guests from other school thus the concert audience know where they were supposed to be seated. While waiting for the concert to begin, we flipped through the programme booklets given to us by the prefects at the entrance. Then the audience was reminded to either switch off or put their mobile phones in silent mode. We were also told that cameras with flashlights were prohibited. The long awaited moment arrived when the Chairman of the School Board of Directors was invited to hit the gong to officially open the concert. The first performance was by the school choir club. They performed several popular songs which entertained the audience as their voices were extremely angelic. Next was a drama of love and care by the schools drama club which managed to induce some of the audience to shed some tears. In came the Chinese cultural dancers and with their grace plus vibrant costumes, they spiced up

the whole evening. After the dances, we all cheered loudly as the emcee welcomed the Heng Ee High School Symphony Band. The audience was enthralled by the captivating musical pieces presented. Not wanting to lose out, the Jazz Band under the baton of a student conductor played two lively tunes as well. Lastly, the concert reached its peak when the Chinese orchestra rendered a few classical pieces with their traditional musical instruments such as erhu and guzhen. The audience was greatly impressed with the overall performance thus the concert ended with rounds of applause from the audience. We could hear shouts of encore until the performers took a curtain call at the end of the concert. All in all, the concert was a success as there were no technical glitches and everything went smoothly as planned. At about 10.30pm, the crowd dispersed in an orderly manner because prefects on duty were stationed strategically to control the crowd. As we walking out, I saw students on duty cleaning up the auditorium and felt pride in me, knowing my school is a responsible one. In my opinion, the concert was absolutely worth my time and money. I truly enjoyed myself and surely the audience felt the same.