Hey ladies, it’s time for action to resume after a 4-month hiatus!

POLKA! V is on the 11 Dec 09 (Friday) , @ St. Andrews Cathedral’s  New Sanctuary.

We’ve been kindly invited by Ms Chong (the current SMSB conductor, if you don’t already know by now.. :p) to share the stage with the main band on this special evening. We’ve been given about 10-15minutes on stage time. Hazel & I have met up with Ms. Zee (the current teacher IC for band) and worked out a rehearsal schedule and cleared some logistics issue. What’s left for you to do, is to turn up for rehearsals! :)

Let’s start with the very first one, that will be on 19 Sept ‘09 (Sat), 2-5pm @ where else, but THE band room! :)

We’re gonna chat, talk, munch (I’m in the midst of trying to put together a mini high-tea) and work through some of the issues you all have pertaining to practices, concert, and stuff. There’ll probably be no playing of music as yet. Please note that your attendance on 19 Sept will be a clear indication of your commitment towards POLKA! V, thus unless anyone has real pressing things to deal with that afternoon, it will be asumed that non-attendees are not keen/available to perform for the coming concert. So beg/plead/ask/remind all your girlfriends whom you wish to be on stage with once again, to turn up! :)

Please feel free to contact Hazel, Kellyn, Kristen or myself if you have questions regarding the meeting, and do add us on facebook!

There’s so much more I wish to share with you girls, but I shall do that on the 19 Sept instead. :)

That’s all for now, hope to see all of you there! DON’T BE LATE! :)

It just dawned on me that OH NO our blog has been silent for THREE MONTHS. Wake up wake up!

Anyway this week’s been eventful! 8th April 2009, we won back what we lost on our sixth SYF. Congrats to those pretty ladies for a wonderful entrance, you girls looked great! All was well, until… you girls screamed like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a girls’ war cry, we wanted our victory!

So.. CONGRATULATIONS! To our fantastic juniors, you girls have done us ALL proud! (:

Now’s to prepare for POLKA! V, we’ll see you all soooooooooon!

Greetings to everyone!

Firstly, I’ll like to take the chance to thank every single one of you who turned up at Mr Tan’s farewell, and more so to those who made the extra effort to turn up for the tight and limited rehearsals we had before that. Needless for me to say, we all could tell that Mr Tan was very moved by our gesture. I like to think that he was pleasantly surprised. When he asked how many from the alumni were here, I simply replied “Oh, not a lot… Just a few of them.” Thus when the doors flew open and the 50 odd of you streamed in… He stood momentarily in time. Then again, it was rather hard to tell the alumni from the main band since we were all in band t-shirts. (Side note: So it’s high time we come up with an alumni t-shirt already!)

Like you, every single moment in SMSB with Mr Tan has been a memorable one, each molding me into who I am today. His guidance brought me to places- Playing with the big guys at Philharmonic Winds, getting my first flute tutoring job in sch bands, opening me up to the local band scene, and even the “music teaching scholarship” that I now hold. Having been inspired by him, I too want to be an influential educator, touching lives and molding futures. He’s my hero, my model in life.

(Sorry, got a little carried away while typing.. *sigh* Typing this post is stirring up much more emotions than I thought.)

Well, back to the point: Mr Tan is leaving. Flight details are as follows (I don’t know if he’ll kill me for this..)

4 Jan 2009 (Sunday)
UNITED AIRLINES (UA) 896
TERMINAL THREE
Departure time: 0650 hours
He will be at the airport by: 0430 hours 

Those of you who are thinking of making your way down, do give me a call. I’ll be there.

Perhaps it’s appropriate for me to tell you this:

Mr Tan would like us to continue the alumni band, even after he leaves. In an SMS conversation, he said (Will I get killed for quoting his SMS??)

“If circumstances permit, I hope to have St. Marg’s Winds again one day…”

 With that, I leave you all to think about how we can keep this big band family going on. I’m not leaving this place, and I hope you won’t either. Let’s keep things alive! Start drawing up performance plans! Perhaps we can stage our own concert someday, or take part in POLKA!5 when it comes around. Whatever it is, please keep the passion for band, music and SMSB going.

“Never forget to thank the people who have helped you grow…”
and for that, we have SMSB and Mr Tan to thank.

But for now,I’ll leave nostalgia to overflow your mind and heart.

A part but not apart. :)

Oh well, the day everyone didn’t wish to arrive did eventually. It’s inevitable, and Mr Tan broke so many girls’ hearts all at a go. I guess every could control their emotions all well until they looked at Mr Tan’s flushed up face with tears welled up in his eyes, or at least for me. ): So yes, I have got some pictures from a few people including myself and uploaded them into an album! Do contribute if you have pictures to share! (:

Contributors: Alison, Fung Yin, Kellyn, Kristen, Linda and March.

Click here to view the pictures!

Oh, and click here to check out what our lovely juniors did for Mr Tan – creating a page in Wikipedia for Mr Tan! :D

Hello ladies,

I enjoyed my practice yesterday, and I hope you girls did too! (: Anyway, I have uploaded the pictures on my camera to the alumni’s gallery, and I hope you would do your part by contributing too! Just zip the files up and email them to stmargs.winds@gmail.com! If it’s just a file or two, you can forget about zipping the file, hahaha!

Current contributors to the album: Kellyn, Kristen & Linda

P.S: On a side note, can someone please email me the name list of the new alumni that just graduated by section, so that that I can update the members page! Same method, email it! Thank you!

I’ve ripped our SYF recording in 2003 and added them to the media collection! :D If you have band songs to contribute to our collection, please feel free to email them to us! (:

No. of Media added: 2
Total Media Count:  125

1. Symphonic Paraphrase by Elliot Del Borgo (SYF 2003 – Silver)
2. Tales of the Sea by Soichi Konagaya (SYF 2003 – Silver)

★ denotes a file that’s newly added for the ease of finding.

Well, by now, EVERYONE should know about Mr Tan and his leaving. It’s sad to know it is really happening now, as compared to the previous year/months of speculating the gossips. Current alumni still playing in bands, I bet you’ve been hearing things about this issue among your band friends.

So, fellow alumni of the polka-dotted club, I’ll like to urge you to join forces [sounds so Star Wars-like] with Hazel, Kristen and Kellyn as they plan up the activities and stuff for the farewell in late December. Do send Kristen your favourite band photos, those ‘precious moment’ photos and videos. Also include a short message to Mr Tan and we’ll add that into the video as well. I’m not sure if we’ll be playing during the farewell. If we do, it’ll prob be in a rush. Hazel will speak to the band teacher-i/c to see when we can borrow the band room for our practices.

Alumni, it’s time we come together. If not now, I don’t know when else.

He has taught and inspired us all to love music a little more than before.
It’s high time we show him how much we love him too. (:

Feel free to comment on this post, anything related to your band memories. Even events that happened in Sydney or funny incidents in the band room. Let’s all bask in the memory of our wonderful Polka-dotted band days and re-live them together yea? (:

SMSB
Together We Achieve the Best!

Thank you Fiona for sending this two songs in to add them to our Media Collection! (: Meanwhile, do email us band music to stmargswinds@gmail.com if you have any. :D

No. of Media added: 2
Total Media Count:  123

1. Jazz Suite No.2 - Mvt 6. Finale by Dmitri Shostakovich
2. Thames Journey by Nigel Hess

★ denotes a file that’s newly added for the ease of finding.

Hey everyone! :D

Alright, I just created a facebook group and hope that all St. Margaret’s Winds members out there who has a facebook account would join us there! Well, as usual, announcements would be posted here (mainly by Shufeng) still, and the facebook group would serve as a platform for our members to continue interacting.

For those who are still in tertiary bands, you can also make advertisements for your concert there. It’s an interactive ground open to all of us. I guess all forms of conversation/discussion would be fine except for explict ones. Or unless our president Ms Seow would like to make changes to how the group should be run. (:

Meanwhile, just join our facebook group here! Enjoy. :D

Sorry people, I haven’t got any band professional recordings recently so the media section has been hiatus for quite awhile. But now, I’m back with 5 pieces by James L. Hosay. (: Do help to contribute to the St. Margaret’s Winds Media Library as well! Email them to stmargswinds@gmail.com if you have any. :D

No. of Media added: 5
Total Media Count:  121

Also, I have created 2 really simple buttons for you guys to use if you’d like to beautify your blog/webpages when you link St. Margaret’s Winds. (: There’d be more to come, but meanwhile, there’s 2 for you. Click here to view them.

1. Atlantic Avenue by James L. Hosay
2. Black Granite by James L. Hosay
3. Guardians of Peace by James L. Hosay
4. Heaven’s Valley by James L. Hosay
5. The Peaks of Otter by James L. Hosay

★ denotes a file that’s newly added for the ease of finding.

Sincere apologies for this long outdated post.

June holidays have come and gone and… TRAILBLAZE did not happen! Due to some administrative deficiency, TRAILBLAZE will be postponed to the end of year holidays. This does not mean that we dedicated alumni sit around aimlessly. Our juniors still need our constant nagging and support through the changes in school and in band! More changes lie ahead and we will need to face them together with our juniors.

The school term has started and I’ve finally began my teaching career as a music specialist in a certain Secondary School (The school shall not be named for safety reasons) and my schedule is getting packed up. As such, I will to urge you younger people (I’m so old…) to rise up and plan TRAILBLAZE. It’s hard for me to spearhead and handle all the admin matters alone. I will be more than willing to input my ideas and share my experience. But I need help in actualizing this project of ours. It is my dream that TRAILBLAZE becomes an annual event for the band, organized by the alumni.

So…Enough said.. If you and your friends are interested in taking up this challenge, contact me. It’s going to be rewarding- I know it. :)

Best wishes and one and all for a challenging and exciting year.
Godspeed.

For God, for music and for love,
Shu Feng