The SJA Jeju Secondary School hosted 3 musical artists this week. They were David Squire, Phillip Barham, and Paul Thermond. Mr. Squire is a choirmaster from New Zealand who directs the New Zealand Youth Choir. Paul Thermond is a pianist and Phil Barham is a saxophonist. Both of them teach at Tennessee Tech in the USA. They came here to share their artistry with our students and community.

Phil Barham and Paul Thermond gave mini-concerts at assemblies throughout the week to the elementary school, middle school, and high school students. They also worked with many of our SJA Jeju Band students in smaller groups and helped them with their music and performance skills.

David Squire worked with the SJA Jeju Choir all week to prepare for a Friday concert. The SJA Jeju choir is made of up of 3 different classes and this is the first time they sang all together. It is also the 1^st time that they played with a  piano accompanist who happened to be our very own 9^th grader Sung Eun Moon.

It was a week of discovery for the choir as well as Mr. Squire as they worked together to find their sound and to develop it as 1 cohesive ensemble. They certainly found it by midweek. Each day the choir sounded better and better and sang with more confidence. They sang for about 3 hours per day. By the end of the week, they had found their voice and the choir sang with a lovely tone.

The culminating concert on Friday, November 9^th was a wonderful evening of beautiful music. Phil and Paul performed a variety of music from different genres. Much of it very contemporary. Mr. Barham displayed an amazing sound and technique in his performance and Mr. Thermond accompanied him splendidly with his own high level of technique. They played so well together and complemented each other.

Following this performance, the choir took the stage and really shined. They performed 6 pieces in different styles and languages and sang with a lovely warm tone that was a pleasure to listen to. They ended with a pop tune “Counting Stars” which added electric bass and drums to the choir and piano. It was a high energy closer to the program.

The whole week was a wonderful experience for our school and culminated with a fantastic concert. SJA was treated to some wonderful musical artistry this week by both visiting artists and our very own SJA Jeju Choir. We all learned a lot from this experience and have grown personally from our involvement and exposure to this musical art.

We look forward to more inspiring art here at SJA Jeju in the days and years to come. Thank you for supporting our music program and the arts here at SJA Jeju.