恭喜恭喜，皆大欢喜，the final results are out for central judging and we have:

NJCO - Gold
NJGZ (JC) - Gold
NJGZ (IP) - Gold

Huge congratulations again (wah I duno type out how many times c-o-n-g-r-a-t-u-l-a-t-i-o-n-s liao)!

The rest of the results can be found on chinese-orchestra.com.

SYF 2009 is here! More information found on our SYF 2009 page (link on the right as well). (Side note: anyone willing to volunteer to post blog entries here or run the site etc, please contact Weiming for a login id) Post your well-wishings on the NJCOGZ Facebook group, or right here:

Hi everyone, just to update, there was a Fish&Co outing earlier in Jan and also a gathering at Mr Tek’s “new place” in the newly built NJC boarding complex. Both were reasonably successful, a decent close-to-10 size for the Fish&Co and a much better received Chinese New Year gathering. Photos will probably be posted, well, when there’s time and stuff (the only person running the show here unfortunately, is having his final year exams in a week’s time, go figure). Volunteers are definitely welcome!

Hellos everyone, here’s some suggestions for the gathering/dinner, please vote. if any suggestions, do post as a comment here or on the tagboard or even on the facebook event. Thanks hope to get a good response otherwise we’ll just anyhow decide liao. based on turnout, some places might not be very suitable also.

oh and dont worry about not knowing ppl, drag ur frens, and we’ll be sure to do some informal introductions along the way yea?

Its been such a long while since there was an update to the website. Sites come and go but we believe that hua yue will never go. ‘A’s would’ve finished a while back and congratulations to the graduating year twos in clearing another hurdle in the race of education While the girls have fun trying to find jobs or just slack and the guys start worrying about national service, why not join Alumni? (lol, but really, why not?) do remember to stay healthy and look forward to the next chapter in life! :p

Anyway yes, coming from people who’ve since left hua yue for quite a number of years, I’m sure a lot of us still miss the days of performing in a group and the fun of running around feeling the buzz of SYF or a concert, running around checking scores, mics, tunings, stage-running, loading buses and lorries, gathering at the atrium and all the what-nots. Its all been fun really very much due to the people around us and certainly in my opinion, people who’ve been in CO are a unique breed on our own :p Some of us may love the music, some of us not, but ultimately many of us continue to feel an attachment towards friends we’ve made in the orchestra. While many of us do move on in life, indeed I think there’s still much of a desire in all of us to keep in contact. Here’s a personal kudos to the few “generations” of the Alumni Association team, keeping the alumni up and running and really fun with all the activities, bbqs and Alumnite! Keep the fire burning and keep the bonds alive!

To further aid our cause of keeping the flame alive, we’ve hopped onto the bandwagon called Facebook! Since quite a while back, there’s been a group created specially for all affiliated with NJCOGZ and AA. Do join if you’re not already in and see if we can make a success out of that where this website has failed :p Cheers to all, to those still in NJCOGZ, enjoy your december holiday, to those in army, stay kilat, those in local uni, hang in there for the exams! those overseas, enjoy the sights but still work reasonably hard :p those working, woah, hang in there too! those who are slacking and enjoying life, good for u lol

Mr Yeo Puay Hian passed away peacefully on the morning of 11th July 2007 after battling with cancer. Skilled in tanbo and well-known for his numerous compositions and transpositions, Mr Yeo conducted NJCO in the early years of the orchestra’s founding. In 2003, he was invited to compose a piece for NJCO and conducted two songs for the orchestra’s first public performance in the Singapore Conference Hall. While the orchestra had not had the privilege of being under his tutelage in the more recent years, he was definitely not a stranger to us in the Chinese Orchestra community. He was known to many to be warm and fatherly as a conductor and very dedicated as an instructor. He will always be fondly remembered by many of us in the Chinese Orchestra community for his contributions and invaluable tutelage to countless students.

The wake is held at Blk 514, Jurong West St 52 until Sunday, 15th July.

旭 曦 八- 跃
Date: 27th July 2007 (Friday)
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Victorial Concert Hall
Ticket price: $12/ $10

Please contact Jasmine at 9876 0959 by 10th July 2007 if you wish to buy the tickets.

Right after dismissal at SCH, NJCO proceed to the celebration dinner held at Fish & Co at Glasshouse. Ziwei, our NJCO president, had reserved seats for 40 people the night before. As such, they reserved the 2nd floor just for us. Cool ah!

The night started off well, with some catching up with juniors, learning more about what they are doing in school nowadays. Although I’ve graduated for only a few years, they have so many new activities that I can’t seem to be able to catch up with. Is that what people term as “generation gap”?

Back to the celebration.

After most of us had polished up the food on the plates, a dedication was made by Ziwei to all NJCO members. I don’t exactly remember what he said, but should be some words of encouragement. This dedication is followed by the song “Stand by me” and the party starts now!

A junior, whom I don’t know his name, suddenly stood up and dance. Yes, he danced! Everyone was cheering him on to ask another girl to join him in the dance, and she did! Enthu juniors! But after a while, both of them went on to sabo another couple and made them stand up to dance. I think NJCO should find SDU when we need sponsors. Just look at the number of couples we have and had in the CO.

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Just that I thought this dance will be the highlight of the night, the juniors continue to stun me when 3 girls went on stage to sing “Take me home country road”.

If this isn’t enough, Ziwei and Wilson went onstage to sing “When you said nothing at all”. By that time, NJCO had gone crazy and got very high even without the help of alcohol. So, who was that who said NJC stone? We ROCKS k!

Despite not achieving GWH, it’s still worth celebrating for we have sustained the Gold award for 3 consecutive SYFs. Like what Shaopin said, when we got our first gold back in 2003, we only had a mini celebration at KAP where we met HCJCO people too. In 2005 we upgraded to marche at suntec. This year, we’ve moved to glasshouse with the whole 2nd floor all by ourselves! I believe this dinner is memorable for both the juniors and the alumni people who were there because we all had fun. All thanks to the NJCO exco members who went to the extra mile to organize this post SYF dinner for everyone to relax after so many months of hard work.

Although it will always be a regret to our juniors for not being able to taste that sense of achievement, but it will teach us not to take things for granted. We fought hard for the Gold, hence in order to get GWH, we must fight even harder. I hope this year’s batch and also other seniors who had graduated will let our future juniors know about the regret we all had for not getting GWH. Make them understand this so that they will fight harder when it’s their turn so as to fulfill what we were not able to. The sharing of experience and encouragement is the reason for the existence of NJCOAA and I hope it will continue to serve its purpose.

Well done NJCO and NJCOGZ for all their hard work put in for this year’s SYF. We are very proud and honored to be part of this big family. Continue to do your best for the upcoming concert. NJCOAA will try to help all of you in any ways we can. JIAYOU!

10th May 2007.
A day filled with mixed feelings.
NJCO has put up a good performance to sustain the Gold award, yet there was no sign of cheers or happiness in the air when the result was announced.
Some remained calm, while some frowned.
It was a different story 4 years ago when NJCO got GOLD. We went crazy, we were overjoyed. Why the change in reaction?
The day started with squeezing in the packed-like-sardine train with the morning crowd, hoping to reach Singapore Conference Hall early to get tickets and good seats to watch the performance. I had only 2hours of sleep the night before.
9am. We were brought to our seats and soon after that the first JC, ACJC, were on stage performing the set piece <<秀丽的红钟>>
After viewing the first 5 JCs’ performance, we went down to receive NJCO’s arrival. We were overwhelmed by the sea of red in front of us. The juniors were all very excited to see the Alumni with greetings and hugs exchanged right in front of the main doors of SCH. It was a heartwarming scene as you see the close bonds between the seniors and juniors given that many of us graduated for as long as 6 years!

After a long wait, NJCO was finally on stage. Seniors sitting at the audience seats were exchanging glances and mumbling, “I’m so excited/scare/looking-forward to their performance!” I think I felt more excitement than when I was set to go on stage to perform 4 years ago.
NJCO put up a great performance. We felt relieved to hear what NJCO has delivered and most importantly, we know our juniors had worked very hard for today’s performance. As the saying goes, “台下十年工, 台上十分钟”, who else can understand the effort to prepare for SYF other than the performers on stage and the seniors at the audience seats?
After all the schools have performed, we waited patiently for the results. Some people were discussing about the various schools performance while some were predicting the results. It was a torturous 40min wait.

As the MC and judges walked into the hall once again, the silence in the hall was deafening. The result of their hard work is in the ‘mouth’ of the MC. As the results were announced, there were cheers, applauds, sighs, tears, shouts of ‘YES!’ and many other emotions. I would say the hall is like a mini world where you can find the 喜, 怒, 哀, 乐 in life.
National Junior College. GOLD.
…
…
…
I doubt the juniors could hear what the MC continued to say afterwards.
There was no sign of cheers or happiness in the air when we know we got GOLD.
I laughed.

I took out my low batt hp and started sms-ing seniors and friends about NJCO SYF results. Some of the replies I got were “YEAH!”, “Congrats!!! Well done NJCO!”, “Good Job! They must be very happy now”, “GREAT! How are they (juniors) feeling now?”
I don’t know how to reply to that last message.

After the results were revealed, there’s a discussion time slot for the schools and audience to ask the 5 judges questions regarding music and of course the competition. Judges were mainly amazed with the great improvement all the schools had shown in this year’s SYF and also the focus we all have on the bass section with some schools having 8 cellos and 4 bases. NJCO was specially mentioned for having 10 cellos as according to the judge, it has never seen in other orchestra at the JC level. Also, one of the judges mentioned that CO in the JC category had always lag behind secondary school category with the former outperform the latter. However, after viewing this year’s competition, we can proudly say that the JCs CO are indeed the ‘big brothers and big sisters’ to the secondary schools’ CO. Personally, I also feel that generally all the JC have improved and the judges must have had a hard time in deciding the results.
After the discussion session, NJCO gathered at the foyer to hear what Mr Ong has to say. He was also wondering why everyone not happy. This is the 3rd time he joined NJCO for SYF, the 3rd time we got GOLD, yet the 1st time everyone went out of that hall frowning or worst still, emotionless. I told Mr Ong it’s a sign that NJCO has moved on. We are no longer the CO who will be elated by GOLD. We have moved from the silver co category to a true GOLD CO.
When we got gold the first time round, others can say it’s luck.
Second time gold, maybe coincidence.
Third time getting gold?

Maybe because we’ve grown and our target is higher than before. We want gold with honour.
After the speech by Mr Ong and a series of cheers, it seems that the reality of the results has sunk in. Our dear juniors finally showed some energy and start to have some real fun. Some were busy taking photos while some played pranks on the members. By that time, everyone had left SCH except us. The air of anguish seems to clear with the crowd dispersed, leaving behind NJCO to enjoy having the whole place by ourselves.

This is not the end. The fun has yet to start.
In the next entry, we will show you why NJC rocks but not stone.
Shall continue tomorrow.

The following are the results of SYF 2007 - Chinese Orchestra (JC category)
ACJC -Gold

VJC- Gold

MJC- Silver

TPJC- Silver

TJC- Gold with honours

YJC- Silver

PJC- Bronze

HCJC- Gold with honours

NYJC- Gold

NJC- Gold

AJC- Gold

RJC- Gold

SAJC- Silver

JJC- Silver