After he mastered the French horn, Edwin Wan, 20, biology major, decided to pick up playing the trumpet and joined the EC Concert Band.

Wan is a foreign student from Macau SAR and he was the leader of the French horn team in his high school brass band, the Yuet Wah College Brass Band.

He has also performed with the band in several parades back in Macau SAR.

The one performance that meant the most to him, Wan said, was playing in the marching band for a charity activity called the Walk For A Million.

“I have played the French horn for five years now,” Wan said. “But when I joined the marching band, I had to learn to walk, march and play at the same time, which was quite difficult to do.”

He was so fascinated with the trumpet a year ago that he started to learn to play it.

“The sound of the trumpet is just so bright and good to hear,” Wan said.

Although he spends a lot of time on schoolwork, Wan said that he still puts a lot of time and effort on playing the trumpet and practices every day.

Wan joined the El Camino Brass Band last semester and found that joining the brass band was a very good experience for him.

“I had a chance to perform and get to know different people,” Wan said. “I’ve also learned more about music,” Wan said.

Although he is an international student, Wan said that there was no communication problems among his band members and they got along very well.

“All the people in the band are pretty friendly and nice; they are very good players, too,” Wan said. “They can play extremely well.”

“We usually share our ideas, but there’s absolutely no problem at communicating,” Wan said.

He said that he has also learned how to play other musical instruments other than the trumpet in the band and how to develop a good relationship with his fellow bandmates.

A few of Wan’s memorable experiences in the band, Wan said, include marching in the stadium when there was a football game of EC vs PCC and performing in public for a number of times.

“I have played some great songs such as ‘Get Ready For This’ and watched the drummers dance in front of the audience,”Wan said. “It was all so amazing.”

Music, Wan said, means a lot to him and that he would never give up on it even though his major is biology.

Wan said that even though he considers himself a “science guy” and has not thought of music as a career, it is still a special part of his life.

“The trumpet is a wonderful musical instrument that makes it worth to play,” Wan said. “By learning to play the trumpet, I get more fun in my life, and take myself away from just books, classes and papers.”