We were delighted to be invited to attend a Battle of the Bands event from 24th–26th November, hosted by the British International School in Riyadh. Eight of our pupils from the Year 9 & 10 band signed up for the trip and had a wonderful weekend of making music and new friends. BISR were fantastic hosts and we are already planning future musical collaborations with them. Thank you to all the parents who supported this trip and to the Music Department at the British School in Riyadh.
Mrs Henderson
Pupil Report
We left for Riyadh from BISAK on Thursday 24th November at 8:00 am. The journey was full of tasty, extremely unhealthy snacks, an hour-long conversation about sand, accidentally waking someone up with a kazoo, and attempting to produce a band name.
The BISR campus was large and had many excellent facilities, lovely instruments, music studios and an auditorium. The first day was full of rehearsals, lunch, back to the hotel, Spiderman: Far from Home as a movie night, and then back to the hotel.
The day of the performance was non-stop rehearsal, in which we managed to learn a song three hours prior to the actual performance. There were masterclasses during the day and we had an amazing time learning more about the instruments we play and playing with new people. After our performance, we had a disco party where we danced, sang, played volleyball and just lightened the mood after a day full of rehearsals.
On the last day, we split up into mixed groups with the other bands and learned completely different songs in two hours to perform to each other as well as mini-interviews with the BISAK band members before departing back to Al Khobar on Saturday. The journey back was exhausting but we made jokes, played games and saw an abandoned ferris wheel.
We enjoyed socialising with other bands, meeting new friends, and learning new things from them and from the teachers chaperoning the event. We had a lovely time thanks to the host school, BISR, and we hope that we can experience this trip again next year.
Co-written by Mariam Hindawy and Tamara Awadallah
BISAK Band (Indecisive) Aiden Dindial, David Azamfirei, Orla Hannan, Mariam Hindawy, Sandy Wang, Selena Mahmoud, Tamara Awadallah, and Yejin Kim
