By Anna Cheang (17S07D), Secretary
“Life is like a piano. White keys are happy moments and the black ones are sad moments. Both keys are played together to give us the sweet music called Life.”
– Suzy Kassem
When you hear the words “Piano Ensemble”, what are the first adjectives that come to mind? Antisocial? Classical? Boring? If that’s what you’ve been thinking, you’re way off the mark. Piano Ensemble is actually all about collaboration; working together with your CCA mates, your batch mates and most importantly, your performing partners (especially when you have 13 of them).
Individually, you may not be particularly proficient at the piano but that’s totally alright. After all, the defining factor behind a successful performance is always whether or not you and your partners sound good together. Throughout the two years spent in Piano Ensemble, you’ll have numerous chances to perform in duets, quartets with your batch mates and grow as friends and musicians together.
To begin with, we hold a concert in April every year where we showcase a wide range of pieces according to a specific theme. In 2016, for instance, the concert was titled “10.o.clock” in conjunction with our tenth anniversary. The month of July is also another busy one for our CCA since our members take part in Vivace, the pianistic equivalent of the SYF. Of course, we do not just perform for ourselves or for competitions, but to bring joy to those who are listening to us. Throughout 2016, we volunteered at Lions Home for the Elderly and performed simple Chinese/Hokkien songs for them weekly. More recently, we have been preparing for a January performance at the paediatric department of NUH, where we will be performing various songs that we have learnt and arranged.
If you’re not a fan of classical music, fear not, you won’t always have to perform these pieces. From soundtracks of movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean” to musical medleys like “Phantom of the Opera”, our members have the freedom to arrange and perform pieces of their interest, regardless of its genre. Through this, not only will you become a better performer, your musicality will also be trained as you experiment with various music applications and create your own beautiful melodies.
CCA sessions will be held every Tuesday from 3:30pm to 5:30 pm. While they will consist mainly of general meetings and coaching, don’t worry, there’ll be lots of laughter and mass-snacking too.
While prior experience of playing the piano is required of our members, it is definitely more crucial to be willing to learn and improve yourself. You will face many exciting and new experiences if you join our Piano Ensemble family so we really hope you’ll take this first step and journey together with us!
