On Tuesday afternoon some of our talented percussion students were involved in an online Association of International Malaysian Schools (AIMS) Percussion Masterclass, taught by Joshua Vonderheide of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ahead of the workshop students were asked to prepare different rhythmic patterns so they were able to contribute to the workshop. Two of our students were lucky enough to perform at the end of the Masterclass on their chosen percussion instrument, gaining valuable feedback from a professional player.
In the video below Joshua explains why joining a Master Class is a great idea and the benefits players can get from them.
Let's hear more about the experience from our participants Kieran (Year 9) and Jeremy (Year 8);
"The Percussion Masterclass lasted from about 4:30pm all the way to 6:15pm and it was an amazing experience. At the beginning, I was quite excited to see that there were 70+ people from different schools all together in that one class.
Listening to his (Joshua's) approach to the basics in a different way was very nice. I volunteered quite a few times throughout the session, the first when he asked if anybody could demonstrate the rudimental rhythms and soon after when I attempted one of the pieces he demonstrated.
I later got to ask him a question during the Question and Answer session and finally, was lucky enough to have been able to perform one of my own pieces to the session. I felt the piece performance section went really well for me, and it was really great to have been able to feel that nervous sensation before performing in front of an audience again which nowadays rarely happens anymore."
Overall it was an amazing experience and I really enjoyed it.
"Thank you for inviting me to this class and I would love to be involved in any other music events in the future." Kieran (Year 9)
"I just finished the masterclass! IT WAS GREAT! Thank you so much for introducing me to this. I've really benefited from this course. At the end of the Q&A session Mr Joshua allowed us to perform our pieces if we wanted so I offered and was able to get some really good feedback which was great!😀" Jeremy (Year 8)
Thank-you to Mr. Joshua Vonderheide, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and AIMS for organising such a wonderful event for our students to participate in.
