Sunday, November 25, 2007

Rabobank Performance Is Back...

Rubber band? No. It is Rabobank - A Dutch bank with a lot of specialized international offices. For the younger AJCAACO peeps who do not know about the 'affiliation' between AJCAACO and Rabobank, AJCAACO has always been regularly invited to perform in Rabobank's annual Chinese New Year (CNY) function held in a colonial bungalow owned by the regional General Manager of Rabobank.

Due to 'unknown' reasons, AJCAACO wasn't invited to perform in the CNY event in 2007. Most fortunately, I have just received news that we are going down to the giant bungalow to perform again in Feb 11th and 12th 2008 (7pm onwards).

It was ages ago when we were first invited to perform for Rabobank. Was it in 2003? (Somebody help me with this). The performance is always a two-night event - one night is catered for the staff of the company while the other night is for V.I.P.s. It was quite a new experience for us since that was our first major 'lobang' to earn money for AJCAA(CO). It was also because of that performance that AJCO received their first batch of quality music stand (rather than the metallic silver music stands). If I am not wrong, $1000 was allocated to buy those music stands. Aren't we nice to AJCO? HAHAHA...

We performed very 'orbit' CNY songs during our first performance. Slowly, we started to incorporate more sophisticated pieces such as 三六. As for our 2008 Rabobank performance, we hope to explore into new areas. Our dear Kah Yong has willingly provided some of his arrangements on top of the typical CNY songs:

1. 歌声与微笑
2. 云河
3. 但愿人长久
4. 菊花台
5. 风真透
6. Don't Cry For Me Argentina (Quintet Piece)

For memory sake, here are some photos of our maiden voyage to the house of Rabobank regional's GM:

(Top): Our nicely built tentage.

(Top): A view of our bow-string section

(Top): A view of our plucked string section.

(Top): The performance continued into the night with the lion dance troupe at the background.

(Top): Peijun, our Yangqin player, attracts the attention of the V.I.P.s.

(Top): One of the Rabobank staff showcasing her unforgotten yanqin skills by playing 风筝乐.

(Top): First row; Left to Right - Zixing, Xue Xian, Lilian, Teresa, Shuwei, Zhiliang, Guoyong, Yiwei, Siqiang and Mr Wee. Second row; Left to Right - Kahyong piggy-backing Fengyi, Peijun, Shujing, __________ (Sorry. Please tell me who this is?), Minyi, Weilin, Liyan, Tat Kuan, Sihui, Shumi, Zhongneng, Liping, Jianwei, Jianjie, Adrian, _________ (help me with this as well), Wanying.


It is really my wish to see the old faces back for our Rabobank performances. Also, we hope to see new faces as well because the Rabobank performance is probably a different form of performance for the freshly graduated AJCO peeps. Let us all make this coming performance a success.


@@@ AJCAACO - We Still Get Good Lobangs @@@
***Liang Ah Lucas***


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