(2016 KIMEA Orchestra’s Concert on March 15th, 2016)
KIMEA, Korean International Music Educators Association has been dedicating itself to foster musicians in Korea in diverse categories such as band, choir, orchestra and solo by having students participate in music festivals. This year, on March 15th, 6 students from APIS(Asia Pacific International School) along with around 80 students from other schools performed at the annual KIMEA Honor Orchestra Festival hosted by SFS(Seoul Foreign School), including me as a violin player.
While having a curiosity on what was the purpose of KIMEA, I had a chance to interview my orchestra director, Ms. Johnson.
(KIMEA band poster 2016)
Q. How exactly was the KIMEA formed?
“In 2010, music teachers from foreign schools in Korea met at APIS in order to plan for the future after recognizing the need to make an organization that would grant chances for students to showcase their musical talents. That is how the KIMEA was born.”
Q. Any changes have been made recently to KIMEA?
“Yes, actually the number of schools taking part in this program has diminished this year compared to that of 2015 because some schools could not spare time for this. New schools also joined this year, so I would say the members list change sometimes. That means you can meet a lot of new people here who you can share ideas and feelings with.”
Q. What is the biggest advantage of different schools working together?
“Granted students get to develope great music skill in KIMEA. That is something very obvious, so I am not going to pick that as the best merit of this. Rather I would choose ‘networking,’ for we decided to do the KIMEA to see how students interact with each other through music. People are more likely to make friends in KIMEA rather than enemies. You can get to know other teachers and peers. This will provide benefit to your college life as well, since you need to mingle with strangers from various parts of the world there. Interaction with others through music would definitely help students in the near future.”
Then the interview ended. It was truly interesting to learn more about KIMEA from Ms. Johnson.
KIMEA Orchestra training was as vigorous as attending a school. We began practice immediately after the members from nine different schools arrived at the SFS campus. Some students came all the way from Jeju for this event. We spent hours and hours working to perfect our music.
Overall, the goal of KIMEA is to unite the music enthusiast of different schools and have them cooperate with each other, building networks. This is a great milestone for those who are willing to participate in activities outside of school. I personally had a wonderful time at KIMEA, and it is the most valuable experience of the year so far.
Matthew Choi
Grade 8
Asia Pacific International School
Dear Matthew,
Thank you for your informative article on KIMEA. In a short article, you manage to give the viewers clear descriptions, purposes, and your personal feelings about the event. As with the Costa Rica story before, I really appreciate that your articles are based on personal interviews, telling the story from the 1st person perspective certainly adds interests and depth to the story. I always enjoy reading your stories and feel that you write well for the grade level you are in. To improve your writing, there are a couple of things to remember. As I pointed out before, pay extra attention to prepositions and run-on sentences.
After finish writing, make sure you read the article out loud to catch sentences that don't flow smoothly. Remember that the sentences need to tell readers the intended message in digestive chunks with appropriate pauses so the readers can clearly understand your story. As for your word choice, start with what comes to your mind first as the most fitting and maybe add an adjective or find other words that can enhance the exact descriptions that you are looking for.
Keep up the good work and hope to see more of your writings soon!
Lori M.
http://apply.heraldstudy.com/proofreading_committee.asp