went Rhythm XVIII.. really enjoyed it. First part of concert was normal, beautiful band sound, great lower winds and brass and OK soloists, think Mr Ng should know that 4 concertos in a row will bore most audiences.. Anyway, the 2nd part was fantastic. Maybe cos I went up to circle to sit. The sound was great, as in powerful and wonderful. One of the best band sounds I've heard. Passion of Christ was a great piece, especially the 3rd movt, very sad that I didn't get to see the score, wonder what the score writes when you have 10 sec where you can play any notes any styles you like. It sounded fabulous, wonder why they didn't win the Thai competition. Really good, much better than our happy ending. If I listen hard enough, I could be moved to tears..

Then was the encore. DHSSB encores always never ending one. 1st encore, Memory, conducted by Yao Cong, who's now the assistant conductor (wonder what's that), played by that China sax guy. Stunned the whole hall with his jazzy tone.. Marvelled by him even though it's not the first time I'm hearing him play that piece. Think he would have sounded even better on sop or tenor sax. 2nd encore was the autogear Stand By Me, standard encore piece, can memorise the whole score already, but it was really nice with swaying string basses and percs, maybe I should do that for my concert too, though it will look spastic with 1 string bass swaying around.. 3rd encore was Rondo from Standard of Excellence, that sec 1 book.. 4th encore was a joke, abt 3 false starting by basses trying to play a brass ensemble piece, haha, but it was fun and DHSSB concerts are abt having fun, esp during encores.. Then by popular demand (the J1s were yelling FANTASY!!), Mr Ng finally decided to conduct Paganini (Fantasy Variations), DHSSB's fame piece, can memorise that too.. The strings sounded so good.

Really wished that I was playing with them, especially for Passion, wished I went for the rehearsals for Passion, will really have enjoyed them.. and I missed Mr Ng's conducting and, um don't scream, his hair-flip, I like his steady strokes, though he does get tired sometimes and start drawing circles.. but it's OK, i spent my Mar hols well and I don't regret not going for DHSSB pracs

HK: I'll reply you another day, after I've thought abt how to phrase the ans to your question, and when it's not 12mn.. =)