Church Easter Ensemble

A: The aim of this experience is to provide a wonderful performance for the Chinese ministry. Because Easter is such an important holiday for the church, it is important for all of the players to put their full effort into playing.

C: The players had to effectively communicate and meet up beforehand to be able to practice the material to be played. This includes the choir. The players also had to subtly be able to communicate with each other during the experience and watch each other carefully so to be able to match each others' movements and create a seamless effect, even if on stage, they're actually messing up.

T: This event was planned two months in advance, and we began practicing together for every other Saturday since then. Before and after each practice session, the students would also interact with each other and get to know each other better. This helped with our synergy.

I: A lot of investigation was put in individually to study our pieces. I would often practice the hard parts of my music the day before we would practice. During the final day, I also had to investigate when we would play in the midst of the program, since we were only going to play for part of it. This would clarify how much time we would have before we performed and allowed us to prepare our nerves better.

V: I found a lot of value in the experience overall. It has helped me as a violin player, especially in terms of helping me learn how to communicate and lead and resolve issues on the spot. In a small ensemble, even though we have a conductor, they are mostly out of view, thus, the players must be able to match each others' pace by listening to each other. I think this was great practice.

E: I felt very engaged during this experience, since I had to actively participate and contribute to our ensemble. Since our parts were mostly transcribed from the piano part, we had to communicate and decide together our bowstrokes. A lot of practice was put into delivering the right feelings and emotions at the right time, too.

LO5: By collaborating together, the mini-ensemble and the choir was able to put on a beautiful performance, for the most part, for the Chinese ministry. Sometimes, I had to lead my stand partner, and other times, I let him take the lead. I also always had to keep our first chair's playing in mind, while also listening to the piano for the cadence and the choir for our general energy. By being able to listen to each other while also lead each other simultaneously, we were able to effectively put on a wonderful performance.