On Thursday, May 12th, Aoba-Japan International School hosted the Kanto Plains Middle School Band Festival. This yearly event allows students from various international schools to hear their peers perform, while also receiving adjudication from a local professional music educator. Adjudication scores are not announced at the festival, and the whole event is non-competitive in nature.
This year, over 250 performers from six international schools were represented. Participating schools for 2011 included Aoba, Christian Academy in Japan, Saint Mary’s, Saint Maur, Seisen, and Yokohama International School. The event was held at the Small Hall in the National Olympic Youth Center.
This venue provided a small intimate performance venue with great acoustics. Each participating band performed 2-3 musical selections, after which the adjudicator gave some oral critique, compliments on a job well done, and suggestions for improvement.
To conclude the event, guest conductor Mr. Jonathan Parker, led a group of 42 young musicians for a final performance. This “Combined Festival Band” was made up of the top performers of each participating school. They had a special five hour rehearsal on Saturday, May 7th to prepare for the performance event.
Student participants put on great performances, and were excellent audience members as well. Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s Middle School Band Festival.
— NEAL DILK
