On the 16th of May, students and their families got to immerse themselves in the amazing arts of North Park students during ANT Night. Visitors were greeted by paintings all across the hallways featuring self-portraits, sketches, photoshops of movie posters, among many other pieces for audience’s to enjoy.
At 7 PM, the bands and musicians started performing their songs. They went on till 9 PM, with a ten-minute intermission in the middle of it all. They all performed with fantastic effort and vigour. All the musicians did fantastic and performed to their fullest. Among them were Conway Hammond and Nathan Adithela.
Conway describes the training for ANT night as “… a little bit hectic.” He mentioned that he had multiple tests to study for while practicing for five different acts. He also learnt a solo which he had to perform and improvise parts of it on the spot, two days before ANT night. His improvisation worked out well as there was tremendous applause during the end of his solo by the audience.
When asked if he was nervous during the performance, Conway responded by saying “I had already had experience playing several times in front of crowds, so I was less nervous due to that. I still had some stage fright. Every time I sat behind the drum kit to play, my nervousness just seemed to either melt away or fuel my energy.”
Lastly, when asked how he got into music, he explained how he started practicing at eight or nine years old. He continued by saying that it started when his dad saw him using paint-stirring sticks as drumsticks and hitting some paint cans and boxes. After that incident, he was enrolled into drum lessons and got to what he is now.
Nathan had his own experiences of the night. He similarly described the training as hectic. He said, “Training for [ANT] Night was a little stressful, as our group was struggling to coordinate practice timings… but we all had a pretty good team dynamic as we’re friends outside of band…” When asked if he was stressed during the presentations, he said he was as the ANT Night was the first time he would ever do a solo, which he says was stressful. He kept his mind off of that by helping and being kept occupied by spending time “running around helping stage crew set up amps and making sure other bands were ready for their performances.” The exhaustion from running around made it so he couldn’t process what was happening, but it sounded wonderful in the end, so it really worked out.
Overall, ANT Night was not just an event, but a celebration of the arts here at North Park. It was a night where music blended with visual arts and where parents could admire their children’s abilities outside STEM.
THE NORTH STAR 