NMI dominates Guam festival, bags 9 awards

The CNMI dominated the entire 5th Tumon Bay Music Festival after it bagged nine major awards in various contest categories.

Saipan Southern High School’s Manta Ray Band and the DoReMi Music School of Saipan were the only delegates from the Commonwealth, competing against over 40 other musical groups in the weeklong event. Held since March 14, hundreds of students and several musical experts from the region joined the festivities.

Last Monday, the 44-member Manta Ray Band flew back to the island with eight major awards from the contest: four gold, three silver, and a bronze. DoReMi, meantime, posted a gold medal for its lone performer, Zhen Yu Su, who played the violin.

SSHS’ music conductor and director Will DeWitt said yesterday he is delighted with the overall performance of the CNMI groups.

The five gold awards earned by the CNMI included the following categories and divisions: concert band, rock band, string quartet ensemble, instrument solo performance for cello, and solo violin performance. Except for the violin performance, all awardees are members of the SSHS Manta Ray Band.

Haelin Kim, the cello gold medalist, is also a member of the Manta string ensemble that won the gold award for its division and which was voted as overall top festival performer by the jurors, deserving to receive the Tumon Fest’s sweepstakes trophy for 2009.

Other members of the string ensemble included James Camacho, Minjung Song, and So Jung Song. They were accompanied by their director, Young Mi Han.

The Manta Flyerz’ members who won in the rock band category were Min Seok Choi, Yoonseok Choi, Sangwoo Han, Chan Young Kang, and founder Joseph Jang.

The silver medalists in the solo performances were Anthony Gomez, trombone; Trini MacDuff, flute; and Junyeop Han, saxophone.

Meantime, the bronze medal was awarded to Krysthian Villanueva for his saxophone solo performance.

Command performance

DeWitt shared that during the event’s final show of champions, the Command Performance, it was evident that SSHS students ruled the moment.

“I can say that we dominated the competition…and we ruled in the final show. Almost virtually the entire command performance concert was given by the SSHS. We are very proud of that moment!” he said.

DeWitt vows to have more amazing demonstrations and performances from the Manta Ray Band next year.

“I was never in doubt about the fact that our students will perform well. We’re very proud because we were able to win the sweepstakes trophy back to SSHS,” he added.

The festival’s sweepstakes trophy can only go to whoever gets the highest rating, whether it is a band, choir, rock or solo.

DeWitt described the award as “superior” to any performance at the festival.

Last year, the SSHS Manta concert band was also named recipient of the prestigious honor.