During the Peanuts rally on November 15, Neal Qu (9) represented the class of 2028 through a performance of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on the saxophone. Although the class of 2028 didn’t win the competition through Qu’s performance, he was able to put up a good show against the other grades.

Qu has participated in band for most of his academic career and plays a variety of instruments. In preparation for his performance in the rally, Qu spent free periods during band practice and time at home to perfect the piece. He made sure to focus on the smallest details in order to perform to the best of his abilities.

“I ended up practicing a lot of licks [fast, 32 note sequences] for this performance but normally the lyrics don’t have lick runs and adding them would add more flavor to the music,” Qu said. “Some of these runs are really fast and getting them up to tempo was the hardest part and playing them in time with the actual song.”

Leading up to the momentous show, Qu experienced some of the challenges in the routine. Qu began to dread stumbling in front of his peers. Luckily, during the actual competition, with the help of adrenaline and as a result of his dedicated practice, all went well.

“If there was one fear it would be messing up or squeaking a few notes because saxophones aren’t as straightforward as hitting a key on the piano,” Qu said. “It’s all about finger mobility embouchure [the position of the mouth when playing a wind instrument] and the correct amount of air used to produce sound so all of these factors were my fears since this was my first saxophone performance.”

Beside his apprehension regarding playing a faulty note in front of the audience, Qu’s largest setback was getting used to playing the saxophone alone in front of an audience. Performing in front of one’s closest friends and peers is not an easy thing to do, especially when the audience is a group of 2,000 high school students. Still, Qu was confident, allowing him to persist in providing the audience with a beautiful, yet grateful performance.

“The hardest part was playing in front of hundreds of people near my age, but also not knowing how rallies worked and being guided by the staff was also a hard part of getting used to,” Qu said.

Losing one’s practice consistency can be detrimental to how someone performs in a certain activity. Qu was able to conquer these challenges and fears, providing the audience with an outstanding performance, playing graceful music for all ears. His performance included tricky technique and instrumentals, yet was a great representation of how great one can be despite being new to the campus and experiencing a variety of fears. Through Qu’s music, he not only brought great representation for himself, but provided amazing representation for the Ayala band and the class of 2028.