This year, the band played two songs for the graduation, The Royal Fireworks and Pomp and Circumstance. These are the songs traditionally played for the graduation, and since I participated last year, the songs were not new for me. However, unfortunately five member had to leave, due to the shocking terrorist attacks that had happened here, and the US embassy ordered them to leave the country for security reasons. This meant we had to make sure the songs would not sound empty due to the lack of instruments. We were also only two trumpets, and as the first trumpet, I had to play much louder, which was challenging at several of the high parts. The first rehearsal without the US players went quite well though, and we were glad that everything should be fine with a little but more practice.

We had a dress rehearsal on Wednesday before the graduation, which was crucial in getting the timing right, as students carried the flags of the nationalities of graduating students, which had to be in time with our playing. This was followed by the walk-in of the students themselves. The playing itself went well, but it was challenging to time everything right, and it was necessary to watch the conductor, Ms Duncan, as she sometimes increased or decreased the tempo.

The graduation was on Saturday June 1, and we arrived at 1pm for a rehearsal, to be ready for the graduation at 3pm.