h1f1 pandemic: Music Exchange at the KL Performing Art Centre, Sentul West

There I was on sunday, 5th september 2010, at the Sentul West, at the Performing Art Centre(PAC) with other writers of the H1F1 blog. Earlier Erik Goh had called up the group to inform of a music performance by the KLPAC orchestra and the visiting Penang State Symphonic Band(or PESSBAND) at the PAC. It was a music exchange program cum charity drive. So we quickly got together at our meeting place in Rampai, Setapak for a drink with the 'Wise One'(a very close and good friend of the group), check our stuffs/ photographic gears, etc., got a drink and grab a bite, and off we go to meet Erik who was already waiting in his car near the Sentul West to go with us to the PAC.

The PAC is situated in a pristine, clean and peaceful place with lots of greenery and open spaces, just the right place for an auditorium for music and play performances! We don't feel the need to do things here in a hurry which includes parking our cars and the slow walk into the PAC, followed by a short climb up to the 1st floor entrance, where we were greeted by some young people presumably from the young peoples' music groups. Entrance was by donations only into a donation box for disbursement to charitable organisation(s). So there were no ticketing and it's free seating for all.

We were guided into the right side of the auditorium and we had a pretty good view of the performance area. I thought it was just about right as I need to take some really neat pictures of the performances without disturbing the audiences. I had brought along an Olympus DSLR camera that has a very low level of shutter noise and I have taken along a AF ED short range zoom lens and another longer range lens for that really close up shot to capture the scene with the available ambient lighting as it's simply not right to use a strobe light for photography during the music performance proper.

Most if not all the performers were very young people, I reckoned in their late teens and very early 20's! The performers(combined Penang musicians and those from the Klang Valley) included the string section of violin and cello group, other group further into the performance area included wind instruments group of flutes, the brass section of trombones, saxophones and the timpanis are on the left with the electric guitar and the hand drums and modern drum set and percussions on the right. Several conductors took turns at directing the group performances.

The music presentations and performances reminded me of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)performing classic rock music from the likes of Beatles, ABBA, Rolling Stones and Stephen Bishop and music from the movies as well as TV themes!!! If you could take out your CD of LSO performances you will surely know how I felt about the music being performed. It's very own style of presentations and not an exact duplication of the original music presentation as per the movie or tv theme! Very original style and presentations.

After the music performances, the crowd were simply exhilarating and there were shouts of encores!! Probably most of the people from the crowds were the parents, relatives and friends of the performers and many more regular visitors to the PAC.