GIVING THEIR BEST: The band performing during the preview show yesterday. — Photo by Saiful Bahari
KUCHING: The Marching Band of SM St Joseph has been invited to participate in the German Open Championship Show Band category in conjunction with the Germany Music Festival 2013 in Chemnitz from May 9 to 12.
Accompanied by 11 teachers, the band comprising 70 members will depart for Germany on May 5, according to band director June Ling.
“We are honoured to be invited and will be the sole representative from Malaysia to play at one of Germany’s biggest music festivals,” Ling said at the preview of the band show and handover of windbreaker to band members at St Joseph School yesterday by Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS).
She said band members were in high spirits after practising hard for the last three months, and will compete against more than eight bands from all over the world in the show band category.
“They are enthusiastic to play in a foreign country. We are proud of them for the hard work they put in,” she said.
“This will be the right time they perform in front of an international crowd. The four-day festival is expected to draw more than 150,000 spectators,” she said.
She added that the outing in Germany will be the third for St Joseph marching band that has performed in Italy in 2004 and Singapore last year.
Also known as the Deutsches Musikfest, the festival is a platform for around 15,000 musicians from genres ranging from traditional military march to folk, classic, modern jazz and rock.
The band consists of members, aged 12 to 17, assigned roles such as pit and marching percussion, horn section, colour guard and conductor. Their drill was designed by Edward Derlin of Winter Guard International.