Taufa'ahau Pilolevu College Brass Band 1990-1992

As part of the 75th Anniversary Celebration of Taufa'ahau Pilolevu College that's going on right now (July 2021) in Ha'apai Tonga, I wanted to share this true story of the Taufa'ahau Pilolevu College Brass Band from 1989 to 1992. It's mostly my personal reflection about those magical years with input from a trusted friend, former Taufa'ahau Pilolevu College (TPC) Principal 'Alifeleti 'Atiola, who was hugely responsible to make it all happen. Both of us are getting on in our old age and our memories are not a great now but we've managed to put together some recollections from that short but unbelievable 2.5 years.

'Alifeleti back in the late 80's and 90's found out from Penisimani Fonua (my Peace Corps Tongan language instructor) that I was a musical person with marching band experience from the US. He asked me to help teach the brass band in early 1989. Willing to help in any way because that's what Peace Corps volunteers are supposed to do, I took on the task but it was an utter disaster from my point of view! My musical background is from the US and I didn’t know anything about British style brass bands, which are entirely NOT American. So I arranged a short familiar hymn for the band and on the first rehearsal, the students actually played what I wrote for them but it sounded terrible. Why? Because I was writing the music the way Americans read music, not the way brass band players read music - wrong clefs, wrong key signatures, etc.

The students didn’t trust me and 'Alifeleti didn’t ask me to continue. I don’t blame them. A 2nd rehearsal was never called. The idea for the “palangi” to help the band was dropped quickly even though I had music “experience”. The Peace Corps had sent me to Tonga to primarily teach Science and Math because of my BA in Physics and Math. Interestingly enough 'Alifeleti was the 1st Tongan with a Physics Degree so naturally we understood each other in so many other ways. Coincidently, my daughter now has the same birthday as 'Alifeleti. He will admit, however, that he is NOT a musical person. But he was the visionary then just as he is a genuine visionary now. 'Alifeleti, many years later told me, “After your first rehearsal, it was not a disaster. I was very impressed, but kids and staff were a little impatient to learn the music properly as they were used to their style of playing/learning the music with their ears rather than from the music notes.” Different perspectives on the same event.

Not wanting to give up, I studied my errors and began to understand how brass band music is actually written and then I rewrote the music correctly. It wasn't until about 18 months after my first disastrous rehearsal with the band did I try again with the band. This time, the hymn actually sounded like I heard it in my head. A real life lesson for me was to understand that many people do things differently in many parts of the world and you have to make it work their way, not your way. They played it well and I think we played it for church and the school.

The reason why 'Alifeleti asked me the second time to teach the band again in probably Sept or Oct 1990, was because Honourable Fielakepa asked him to register the TPC Brass Band for the 1st Tongan Brass Bass competition to be held in Dec 1990. He gave 'Alifeleti the music in June or July but when he came to Ha'apai in Sept or Oct, 'Alifeleti told him that the band could not join the competition because Deputy Principal and Band Director Mapele 'Otumuli told him the TPC Brass Band could not play the music. 'Alifeleti asked Linikoni Taufa, a very young musical prodigy on any brass instrument and a young teacher in the school, and Linikoni said the music was easy (naturally for him it was easy) but he was not able to teach the band yet due to lack of teaching experience.

Honourable Fielakepa was begging 'Alifeleti to get the TPC Brass Band to join the competition because the our school was named after Tongan King Taufa'ahau and Princess Pilolevu. He told 'Alifeleti not to worry about coming last, as long as we show our support because the competition was in honour of the 25th Year of the King Taufa'ahau's ascension to the throne. That was the main reason why 'Alifeleti asked me whether I could teach the band the music. I looked at the music and told him "No problem". And that's how it all started.

So the TPC Brass Band was officially entered into the competition in October 1990 and I was asked to direct the band, now that I could be “trusted”. Everyone expected us to fail but we didn't know that and we didn't really care. There was a challenge in front us of and we set off to meet that challenge. We had only 2 short months to prepare for the competition and be good enough not to be embarrassing. Our competition had been practicing the music since June or July when the music was first distributed. We had to really make up a lot of ground.

The competition format was new to me, the American in a British style competition, but music is music. So we got to work learning the required pieces - the typical hymn, a march, a concert piece and an own choice piece. The question for me was what would work well for the own choice piece.

After living in Ha’apai for almost 2 years, I had a small sense of what might work for the own choice piece. I thought about my American drum and bugle corps experience as french horn player in the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps and also watching many other drum corps in the US. In 1984, I competed against and saw the Phantom Regiment that performed an amazing rendition of 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky. The piece itself is very reverent with the starting hymn segment and then ramps up to a glorious and very bold finish. This was, in my opinion, the perfect own choice piece for the competition in Tonga specifically because of the religious tones and strong military and fanfare passages which matched what I observed about Tongan culture.

Then the question was … could the band play such a piece? After working with the band and getting to know their talent level when working on the other required hymn, march, and concert piece, I realized that indeed there was enough talent to make 1812 Overture work. But there was no way we could play the entire 15 minute piece. Time, however, was short to get the music for the 1812 Overture, as competition was in December, so I played the music with tape recorder and I had written the music for each instrument by what I made out from the recording. But it was not played by a brass band, rather an orchestra. I spent a few weeks cutting up and rewriting the arrangement with my chicken scratch musical notations. My goal was to present a shorter version of 1812 Overture and also rearrange the parts so that the harder parts were played by the more talented musicians in the band.

I explained to the boys the meaning of the piece and why it is famous and most appropriate for the royal celebration. We were all eager and excited. So I started teaching the kids from my own written music of the 1812 arrangement, cutting down to 9 minutes or so.

In the first week of November, Mapele left for Nuku'alofa to get the prizes for speech night from the Friendly Island Bookshop (basically the ONLY bookshop in Tonga at the time). I asked Mapele to check with Police or Army Band whether they had the brass band arrangement for 1812 Overture. It was to our delight that Police Band indeed had the Music in their library and Mapele photocopied it all and brought back with him. Director of Music, Siua Faka'osi, asked Mapele why he wanted the music, Mapele said that it was for our competition choice piece. Siua laughed and said it was a tough piece for a high school band, let alone TPC, for he knew our standard.

We started learning the piece straight away for the speech night on the final week of Nov. Harder parts were transferred to the most talented musician of them all, Linikoni Taufa, a young euphonium prodigy. I couldn’t believe my luck when I heard Koni play for the first time to have such a talented brass player in this small island band. Even some of the very talented American musicians I knew couldn’t match his talent. So I wrote a LOT of parts for him specifically. Other members who I wrote harder parts for included Sioeli Taufa, Koni’s older brother, on baritone/euphonium. Aisea Vaomotou on cornet/trumpet, Akuila Taumopeau on Eb horn, Sepeti Vakasiuola on trombone and Pasalili ‘Ilangana on bass. With all the other players, we spent hours every week for several weeks practicing the competition pieces. It was a lot of long hours of practice but hey, what else is there to do on a small island?

I do remember that our instruments were so old, bent, deformed, slides stuck, etc. that it was very difficult to play in tune. How then were we able to play anything in tune? Everyone in Tonga sings and they all sing well - in four part harmony no less. One of the most amazing musical things to hear in Tonga is a few dozen young school kids packed on the back of large truck (this is a Tongan school bus), singing songs in four part full throated harmony. Every Tongan sings in church, in school, at home, in kava circles, and in all kinds of small and large gatherings - which meant that my brass band musicians could sing their parts with their voices and in their head. And to me that was absolutely crucial to make all the pieces sound “in tune”. Even if their instrument was so naturally out of tune and with no way of adjusting it, their ears became the most valuable way to make those adjustments. I taught them how to lip a note up or down on their mouthpieces so that it would be in tune. Their ears and natural singing abilities did the rest. Without the ubiquitous musical and singing culture in Tonga, I am quite certain we would have been really bad.

In order to pull off what I envisioned for 1812 Overture, the pieced required some bells at the end (but there was no chance of using canons) and somehow we got two somewhat large bells - must have been some old church bells. Beautiful new uniforms were designed and inidivually hand made for each member of the band by an amazing sewing crew led by 'Alifeleti's mother, Silivia 'Atiola and Head Mistress of TPC, Katalina Lutui. Naturally, we practiced the music but we also practiced marching and a different way of performing than what was previously seen in Tonga / British style brass bands because I brought in some of the American drum and bugle corps performance style.

We looked amazingly good with new uniforms, sounded good, and had a unique performance style. In a very short 6 weeks or so, we had managed to pull it all together - musically and visually. So many people had invested so much of their time for our success which really boosted our confidence that we could represent TPC and Ha'apai with musicality, class, and dignity. We were so ready for the 1990 Tongan Brass Band Competition. And as I recall, several months prior, the band was so bad that when the King arrived at the airport, the band started to play the National Anthem but had to stop playing because they couldn’t play it well enough and instead sang the rest of the anthem. That was a really low point for us but with a lot of really hard work, dedication, and perseverance, we began to get better and better in just 6 short weeks. Some would say it was a “miracle”.

Here's a recording of 1812 Overture as recorded in Sydney Australia:

Word had gotten out that the TPCBB was pretty good and the excitement of the Ha’apai people was truly over the top. The support and encouragement was quite amazing which I think really helped to push the band players to achieve at a level beyond what they thought they could do. The drum corps or military style of performance we presented was just … different. And the performers really embraced it and thus the audiences soaked it up too. It was truly like a “rock band” frenzy scene when the band performed at the 1990 Tonga Brass Band Competition. We were all so proud to represent Ha’apai well regardless of the competition results.

To our surprise, and honestly to the entire Tongan nation's surprise, the Taufa’ahau/Pilolevu College Brass Band actually won that 1990 Tongan Brass Band Competition. We played the music fairly well but we also added some performance flair which, I think, put us over the top. 1812 Overture was just so emotional and joyful that despite our musical faults, because by no means did we perform it perfectly, the combination of sacred respect at the beginning, musical tension in the middle and release of that tension at the end of 1812 Overture with bells, grand musical finale, and thrown streamers allowed our performance to be a festive and very celebratory event. The audience loved it and I guess the judges felt the same. We had done the seemingly impossible - the terrible band from Ha'apai had come from nowhere to beat the big bands of the big cities. Very much a David and Goliath scenario.

From my perspective, all I wanted for the band members was for them to feel confident and proud that they were indeed performing music correctly to the best of their ability and presenting themselves in a way that reflected class and dignity. I was so proud of them for achieving well beyond anyone's expectations. It always amazes me how people, young or old, can rise to meet what seems to be an impossible task. Life is incredible that way.

I recall soon after we won the competition, the band was called upon in the middle of the night by Princess Pilolevu to perform at her house in Nuku’alofa. That was a new one for all of us - basically it was a personal concert for our school namesake, at her house, at midnight. It was an odd request but we all loved Princess Pilolevu so much that we would do anything for her.

Speaking of Princess Pilolevu, she was a strong supporter of the band. One really strong memory we all have is one summer evening in Ha’apai on the pier. The Princess was on the Olovaha, the supply and passenger ship that came to Ha’apai every once in a while. The band was called out of school to perform for the Princess while she waited on the boat to be unloaded. Another odd request to the American me but I guess was normal for Tongans. So we played music on the pier next to the docked boat while cargo what unloaded and loaded as entertainment for the waiting Princess. It was late evening by the time the boat was ready to leave. The sun was setting, creating a beautiful orange sky behind the boat. As the boat left the dock with the Princess on the boat deck, we started playing our farewell song, a well known song in Tonga. All the people on the dock were singing and waving farewell to our beloved Princess as she sailed off into the sunset. It was truly a genuine show of love for her and the band helped make the scene quite emotional. We must have played the farewell song for about 15 minutes, over and over, as the Princess slowly sailed off toward the setting sun. Once in a lifetime event for all of us.

While on tour, it became very obvious to all of us how tremendously proud the Ha’apai people were who lived in Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand. Wherever we performed, they came out and showed us incredible passion and pride with their newly crowned Brass Band Champion from little Ha’apai. Their passion sometimes got dangerous for me. I am physically small relative to Tongans, especially to Tongan adult women. While the band played, proud Tongan women would come up and dance near me and sometimes bump into me, grab my arm, two women would tug on me, pull me in different directions, etc. I understood that it was really an act of joy but night after night of that became somewhat dangerous for me. My hero was ‘Iengi Tapu, one of my Eb Horn players. He saw the problem and his solution was to put his horn down, step up in front of me and distract the overly zealous women by dancing in a crazy way like them. He became the focus of their attention and left me alone. This became Iengi’s life saving act for me at virtually every Tongan community concert for the next two years where Tongan women became too overjoyed. Thank you ‘Iengi!

While on tour, it was also interesting to see how Tongan boys from a small island would react to the world outside of Tonga. Reactions to ATM machines - You can get money out of a machine on the street? What? Girls giving them huge smiles and presents. Eating different foods. Seeing different sites. Meeting so many new people. What a tour - I mean what kid wouldn’t like to be away from school for 6-weeks. A completely different kind of education.

In Brisbane Australia, we marched as part of a local parade. The parade route was through downtown with high buildings on both sides. Our big brass band sound really echoed between the buildings and we sounded very loud and much bigger than we looked - so much so that the parade organizers made a special request that when we finished the parade, they asked us to begin AGAIN and march the whole parade over again. It was an honor to do so and we were proud to be a repeat performer. It was our chance to proudly feature Tongan culture.

In Melbourne, Australia, I went to a local music store and told the salesperson I wanted to buy brass instruments. Looking at me, he thought perhaps I was looking to get a cheap instrument or two for a kid. Then I proceeded to tell him what I wanted to buy - a long list of 35 or so brass instruments of really high quality Besson brass instruments ranging from a tiny Eb piccolo cornet to a large Bb double bass. His reaction was total shock but he believed me when I told him the context of the list. Basically with the money raised on tour so far, I was tasked to purchase new instruments for the ENTIRE band to replace the decrepit set of instruments we currently had. The salesperson has just landed the deal of his life with our purchase of over $50,000 worth of instruments. That was a fun shopping trip.

It took several days to collect all the instruments but once we had them all, the first thing that happened was that Viliami Tu’akoi and Mapele ‘Otumuli, Headmaster and Deputy Principal of TPC, made arrangements to bring all the instruments to a local Tongan Church. In true Tongan culture, the instruments were “blessed” in church - that was a new experience for me …

When the band finally had the new all matching shiny silver instruments in their hands and after tuning them together, we played one of our hymns. If the band sounded good before, then with the new instruments, the band sounded 100 times better. Notes and chords were in tune without too much effort. Most notably to me, the timbre and quality of the sounds now blended so much better because they were all the same instrument brand. When we finished, we all looked at each other and we just smiled because, yes they were new instruments, but more importantly, the music we played sounded so much better than ever before. And wow, we also looked really good. New instruments immediately put the band on a much higher level which for me meant that we had to have greater musical challenges.

One of the best results from the 1st tour was that the band played several hours pretty much each day. And when you play that much, each player became much stronger as a musician. I noticed that they really began to play the music with more confidence and more accurately. I noticed that they began to understand the concept of musical balance better because they were less focused on their own part but they were opening their ears to listening to other parts and understanding the relative importance of each part. The mental light bulbs about the musical concepts I talked about with intonation, balance, and blending was really taking hold. In other words, the kids were becoming more musical because the physical task of just playing the notes on their instruments was no longer hard to do - all from playing every day for a few hours.

Inevitably, while performing for a Tongan community anywhere, someone would request a traditional Tongan song, mainly for someone to come up and dance and then others could place money on the dancer(s) as a fundraising method for the band or community. This was a a very typical Tongan way of asking people to donate to a cause.

The incredibly amazing part to me, as the foreigner “palangi” was that the band members could play pretty much ANY song requested EVEN IF WE HAD NEVER PLAYED IT BEFORE. This kind of thing doesn't happen with American high school band students AT ALL. Linikoni, my Assistant Band Director, and musical prodigy would determine the key then tell everyone. He would give me a tempo and I would start them off. They could play all these songs for the first time because they could all sing the songs - this is true of every single Tongan band. Just incredible in my eyes!

As the band conductor, often for these Tongan songs, it was literally just wave my hands as the band played and sang, “read the room” and indicate when to come back in with instruments to end the song then bring the band to a graceful and musical halt. I really wish I knew what some of the lyrics of the songs were about. It was too difficult for me to understand even with my 2-4 years of Tongan language knowledge. I have many traditional Tongan song favorites, but one of my personal favorites was Siana Ha'apai which I think translates to "The Ha'apai Guy" which is somewhat appropriate for all of us.

The 1st Tongan Brass Band competition in 1990 was such a success in Tonga that the Honourable Fielakepa, competition organizer, decided to organize another competition in late 1991. The TPCBB had to naturally defend our championship. With a similar format as the previous competition, all bands had to play a hymn, a march, a concert piece and an own choice piece. The required pieces were actually “easy” now that the band were more musically experienced and had new instruments. We added some performance flair to the concert piece with some body and instrument movement which was quite a hit with audiences because it was “fun”.

I honestly don't remember much from the 2nd Band Competition which we won because the next day after the competition, a very serious tragedy crushed our spirit. One of our young 16 year old baritone players, Soueni Feleketi, was rushed to the hospital but ultimately passed away - from a stomach ulcer. It shook us all to the core.

News spread quickly around Tonga that a member of the winning brass band has just died. What happened in the next few days was so heartwarming and truly Tongan. A funeral and a procession was organized by the community just prior to the band heading back to Ha'apai by boat. Members of all 5 competing bands performed together at the church funeral and also marched together from the church to the boat taking the band back to Ha'apai. It was a 2 kilometer long funeral procession that was unlike any ever seen before - even for nobles, I believe. The outpouring of support was simply unbelievable - all for a 16 year old band member.

Soueni's funeral continued once we arrived in Ha'apai. The band paid their respects by playing at his burial. Soueni was actually buried in his TPCBB white formal uniform. And we honored him by placing his horn next to his grave during the difficult ceremony.

Winning the band competition didn't matter much anymore. Life was too precious and we had just buried one of our own young lives who did not have to die from something that was completely avoidable. There were probably many explanations regarding his death, I'm sure, but I was not part of those conversations because losing a student of mine put me in a different state of mind. RIP Soueni Feleketi. Thank you for being part of our lives and making music with us.

Time slowly passed and eventually school Principal 'Alifeleti 'Atiola had a grand and absolutely brilliant idea to prepare a marching “display” for the purpose of presenting something new at the upcoming Ha'apai Agricultural Show - a huge event were people brought their best of ANYTHING to show in a festival celebration. Large crowds and the Royal Family would attend to “inspect” it all.

So once again, we went to work to make that marching “display” happen. I had shown Feleti some American drum corps videos and talked to him about my American marching experiences. He recognized my passion for it and he had the vision to see Tongan bands doing something similar but in a Tongan way. My drum corps experience with the Santa Clara Vanguard made it relatively simple for me to design and write the “display”. I Tonganized the process meaning, since there were no lines on a rugby field, we created our own “field” complete with a metric grid of “dots” on the field. The Tongan way of marking a grid is to use old car oil because there is no chalk in Tonga - brush dots on the ground or grass. It worked. Band members learned the drill I wrote based on the grid.

The band were novice marchers so I wrote some pretty basic drill for a march that they already knew how to play pretty well. They worked hard to understand and execute the fundamentals of horn manuals, uniform step size, covering down a file, dressing a line side to side, snap turns, maintaining rectangle blocks with uniform distance and spacing, circular forms, alternate directions, forward, backward (which is hard to to in sandals), symmetrical and asymmetrical formations, and of course, the standard company front. I really enjoyed teaching it, starting with a “band camp” of marching basics to a few weeks later, learning the drill and putting it all together with music. I believe the members really enjoyed learning it all. I recall that our practices would even bring out some spectators. You could tell that the kids also enjoyed performing that “display” and showing off their marching skills. At the time, only the military bands in Tonga would perform such “displays” but to see young students doing it at a high level was truly unique.

To end the “display”, we presented a shortened version of our 1812 Overture including a presentation of the Tongan flag at the finale of the piece. I had chosen the tallest girl in the school to present the flag to make sure the flag was raised high. 'Alifeleti and I talked about that moment much later and we both agreed that we should have used a small girl for the flag which we thought would have brought tears streaming down everyone's cheeks. Who can resist a young girl presenting the national flag to the King, Princess, and Prince? Such is life.

We went on our 2nd tour in 1992. The purpose of the 2nd tour of Hawaii and the Western United States spanning 10-weeks was:

1. A reward for winning the 2nd Tongan Brass Band Competition in late 1991
2. To compete at the Pacific Basin Band Festival in Hawaii, where bands from all the US and other countries performed for audiences and judges. We received a Silver Rating for our performance.
3. To allow Tongans in those American communities to celebrate Tongan Culture
4. To share Tongan culture to communities in the United States - not necessarily Tongan communities. We performed for many non-Tongan communities.
5. The 2nd tour was also another fundraising tour. Money was raised to further develop the school grounds and facilities, most notably the large open hall in front of the school which I think still stands. I recall something like $250,000 was raised. Another astounding feat by the band.
6. Another goal of the tour was to make a good recording of the band. We actually spent an entire day recording in Skywalker Ranch in the same large recording studio that was used for many of the George Lucas films including Star Wars. Pretty crazy to have students for tiny Ha’apai recording in the same studio for blockbuster movies like Star Wars.

By this time, we had made a absolutely necessary point of adding some females to the band to encourage even more girls to take up playing instruments. 'Alifeleti and I felt it was important to change the culture and members from all male band to a co-ed band. Very young Keleni proved to be a good musician and became an important part of the Eb Horn section. Silia was added to the percussion on bells. Heilala, Silia, and one other girl whose name escapes me formed our Tongan female dance trio which added a very nice feminine touch to our performance set. The girls contrasted our existing all male dances some of which that even I participated in and I had a lot of fun doing so. Sioeli Taufa, one of teachers and euphonium players, was an excellent dancer himself and he choreographed and taught all the dances to everyone. We had a short set of Tongan dances in the middle of our musical performances. Here are some videos of a performance in a mall in Hawaii.

While in Hawaii, we were awarded a Silver Medal at the 1992 Pacific Basin Band Festival and reflecting back on that, I would say that the Silver was appropriate, rather than a Gold. We performed some pretty hard pieces with our longer rearranged version of 1812 Overture and Festive Overture. In retrospect, I think Festive Overture was perhaps a bit too hard for the band but it was an excellent difficult challenge for them. We featured our female dancers in full costume with a traditional Tongan song because it was important for us to share the Tongan culture especially to a predominantly non-Tongan audience. Linikoni Taufa absolutely blew away the audience with his virtuoso performance of Grandfather's Clock - a euphonium feature. I recall he got a pretty long standing ovation for it from an audience of like minded musicians. I know I was very proud of him. I was proud of the entire band for their performance.

On to California and Utah. We performed several times a week for various Tongan communities. Honestly, it all blurred together for me. All I know is that there were some really proud people from Ha'apai that showed up and our fundraising efforts for the school was astounding - eventually topping $250,000 in the span of 10-weeks. Again, 'Iengi saved my life several times from some large overly proud and excited Tongan women.

These two playlists contain the many songs we recorded at the famous Skywalker Ranch Studio. The band members I don't think understood how special that all day recording session was. It was all just part of “America” - understandably so but for me it was another unbelievable experience to record and mix songs together with the Skywalker Studio recording engineers. These recordings were made at the tail end of the 10-week tour. And to be able to have an good archive of all the music we played was precious to all of us.

My parents invited the entire band to their home in SoCal and you can see some photos above. Talk about a proud mother. A year later, my parents actually came to visit me in Tonga and they were treated with so much respect and kindness by the Tongans but honestly, that's the way Tongans are - genuinely respectful and kind people. I experienced and very much appreciated the respect and kindness for the 4 years I was a guest in their community.

We actually left the US and returned to Tonga with a few band members missing. The teachers in charge always knew that this would be a possibility. The pressure on the students of staying in the US with relatives would be irresistably strong for some of the band members even if they were to be an illegal immigrant in the US. The day before we left from San Francisco, everyone was housed with different Tongan families in the Bay Area. But when we gathered at the airport to fly back to Tonga, we were short a few students. We had the responsibility to bring the remaining students home and we did so. I hope those that chose to stay behind made the right decision and are living a good life. I have to believe and respect that people have to make the best decisions for their own lives.

Back in Tonga, our musical journey was not yet complete. There was, yet again, a 3rd Brass Band Competition at the end of 1992. We found some replacements for those missing members from a growing list of young kids learning to play brass instruments - again both girls and boys.

Our final masterpiece together while I was the conductor was 1st Suite in Eb by Gustav Holst. Compared to our other own choice pieces for our previous two competitions, 1812 Overture and Festive Overture, 1st Suite in Eb was by far the best performance piece we had during my 2.5 years with the band. We worked very hard on that piece and now we had the experience to be able to play something that difficult at a high level - after all, we had played together for almost 2 years now. It was a pleasure to teach that piece because the band members now truly understood so much of musical concepts required from the piece.

On the last night of the 2-day competition, I vividly remember lining up the band into 2 lines to enter the performance indoor arena. As the band entered the “field of honor”, I stood at the entrance as they passed me on both sides. Our 2 year journey was about to peak even higher. As they walked past me, I recall looking into each of their eyes and seeing some real confidence and pride and not much nervousness. It was their “game” face. I knew something great was about to happen.

In my own mind, while I was conducting the band during the competition, I couldn't believe how well the members were playing it. They really REALLY sounded fantastic. The concentration, execution, and energy coming from them was just outstanding. The final moments of the last movement were truly joyous. After the last note that echoed through the arena, I personally was in a daze. They had just performed that piece the best they had ever played anything in my 2.5 years with them. I was so tremendously proud of them at that moment that I almost forgot that we were in a competition and I had to turn around to bow. I just wanted to soak in that moment a bit more than usual. Forget competition. That moment was all about the MUSIC. It was special to me because that's what I had always imagined that band could sound like.

That performance was also special partly because that would also be my parting zenith experience together with them. Nothing would ever top that moment with respect to making music together. My 4 years of Peace Corps service would be ending soon and I would be handing over the band to my Assistant Band Director Linikoni Taufa, who very rightly took over the band after me.

You can see in these last photos some of the really young band members we had in our Junior Band that Linikoni had been teaching. I occasionally helped but we all knew the deal - if I didn't step down, then Linikoni would have never taken over. It was his time and his band now as I was preparing to leave Tonga. I was proud that there were so many young kids who wanted to play in the band - both boys AND GIRLS! Perhaps the senior band members and those junior band members are still playing in bands somewhere now sharing the gift of music with others. I also still play occasionally with the Santa Clara Vanguard Alumni Corps when possible.

To any of the current members of the TPCBB now and in the future, I hope you see that working hard, practicing, dedication and passion for music can lead to great accomplishments that you can't achieve by yourself. You can be part of something greater. If we could do it in 1990-1992, then you can do it too.

One of those small young boys in the junior band photos is Siaki Ali, who eventually became the Musical Director of the same Taufa'ahau Pilolevu College Brass Band almost 30 years later in 2020 or so. In 2021, Siaki, who is no longer a small boy but a confident man with tremendous musical talent, asked me for help with the band. I once again gladly arranged 1812 Overture for the band - 30 years after we first played it in Ha'apai. I hope one day to hear and see it performed by the new members of the band. Thank you Siaki for bringing 1812 Overture back to TPC and continuing music education with Ha'apai students.

Ha'apai was once brought back to the 1940's. There was a dance on the island and the band was asked to play at it. We had a Glenn Miller medley that was part of the playlist and we loved to play it. In teaching it, I remember Tongans finding hard to clap on the jazz beats of 2 and 4 because in Tongan culture, everyone usually claps on beats 1 and 3. It was breaking their nature to do so. But they got it eventually. I recall the dance was somewhat magical - the sounds of Glenn Miller songs in a large hall on a Pacific island with lots of smiling faces on the young and the old. That was a fun evening - just for the island of Pangai, Ha'apai.

One of the most lasting memories I have with the band was an evening concert for the King at his palace in Ha'apai. It was a beautiful warm evening. The band faced the King while I faced the band with the ocean behind them with the sun setting on the horizon. There was NO competition. There were no crazy Tongan women dancing. It was just the band playing good music for their beloved King on a summer evening. Yes, I got to meet and greet the King after the concert but that musical presentation for an audience of one was simply special. It was also my farewell memory to Ha'apai - a place that is near and dear to my heart.

We were all part of something truly unique and special for those 2.5 years. There were so many once in a lifetime experiences. NOTHING like that will ever happen to us ever again. I have my own memories of that time and I'm sure all of the band members have their own stories, perspectives, and memories that they have shared with others. Perhaps they will share their perspective about our time together also somehow, someway. The collection would be fascinating.

I am forever grateful to the Tongan people, the people of Ha'apai, the band members, Sioeli and Linikoni Taufa, and 'Alifelti 'Atiola, the person with the vision driving all of this, for the most rewarding 4 years of my life. I shared my experience and knowledge with you during those years and in return, I received so much more with the respect, kindness, warmth, friendships and honor afforded to me. Malo aupito lahi! 'Ofa 'atu TPCBB and Tonga.

This page of memories is for you.

• PCV Fai Ifi - YouTube Channel
• PCV Fai Ifi - Sound Cloud Channel
• PCV Fai Ifi - Website