Doremi wins 2 gold, 4 silver at TBMF

Members of the Doremi Music School group “String Stars” pose for a picture with pianist Cameron Fruit, front, leftmost, and instructor Ao Zhang, front, far right. (Contributed Photo)

A Saipan-based music school won first place, one gold, and four silver medals on Monday during the continuation of Guam’s Tumon Bay Music Festival.

A group called “String Stars”—composed of Doremi Music School students from Saipan and Guam—won gold at the festival in their first ever collaboration.

The Saipan students are Kevin Liang, Judy Kim, Kate Ishida, Jinju Thompson, Alan Yu, Alexander Chen, Timothy Park, and Daniel Bae.

Guam Doremi students include Aprile Kim, Justine Xu, Shaun Wu, Rachel Seo, Claire Yi, Irene Ko, and Marsh Zhang.

The group, which consisted of 15 students overall, played Bach’s intricate Concerto for Two Violins, first movement violins 1 and 2. The piece divides the group into two groups led by Mount Carmel School’s Judy Kim and Saipan Community School’s Alan Yu.

“I feel fantastic. I think it’s our last year to go as a group because I am not sure if I would be able to join next year,” said Kim.

Yu is especially thankful to his teachers, Ao Zhang and Yi Wang.

“As leader of the group, including everyone here and on Guam, I would really like to thank our instructors. If it weren’t for our instructors, we wouldn’t be where we are today. They made it possible for us to put such a difficult piece together,” said Yu.

The group also had Cameron Fruit as the groups’ pianist.

“He is a very good pianist,” said Zhang.

Zhang said the Saipan group practiced separately from the Guam group. The whole group had little time to prepare as a whole, but still pulled off the win at the TBMF.

“We practiced a lot separately. When we got to Guam, that was the only time we got to practice as a whole and we succeeded,” said Zhang.

Several members of the group were able to bag medals for solo performances.

Dandan Middle School’s Kevin Lian won gold for his solo performance, while Grace Christian Academy’s Jinju Thompson, Marianas High School’s Kate Ishida and Alexander Chen, and Saipan International School’s Timothy Park each won silver medals for their solo performances, totaling one gold and four silver medals.

The Doremi School has been winning at least one gold medal for either group or solo performances at the TBMF since 2009. Keeping the streak alive, the String Stars won gold for 2017 and even set a milestone as being their first time to collaborate with Doremi students from Guam.