After the string competition.
Raya, Marie, and Hailey immediately supported Lainie in organizing the orchestra.
Because of the overwhelming performance of the three young ladies during their respective finals, there were many new applicants who wanted to join Lainie's orchestra.
The main reason was that they too wanted to be a part of something historical.
By joining Lainie's team, there is a possibility of playing a lost piece once again and being part of the Prasinos Musical History!
As for Desmond, he had to focus on his upcoming finals days from now and so, Lainie and he agreed to choose a symphony piece that actually does not require a piano to become a major part of the arrangement.
Just as everyone expected, Lainie chose another monumental piece from Eli's 'Lost Piece Collection' and it was none other than Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100!
Seeing the volume of new applicants, Lainie was confident that they will be able to give justice to this symphony because now, they will no longer worry about the lack of orchestra members.
The previous small chamber orchestra was now close to becoming a full-sized youth orchestra!
It made Lainie and the original members of the orchestra excited.
"It's looking good Lainie! We can immediately proceed to the first rehearsal after the formalization procedures." Raya excitedly commented.
They were able to get the best number of people for all the instruments in Lainie's musical score. All they needed to do at the moment is to play according to the theme of the tournament, which is playing a symphony.
The conductor's tournament was in no way easy because every contestant is required to assemble their own orchestra from the qualified participants of the tournament and have them train and learn a symphony in just about a month.
Luckily on Lainie's side, the core members of the orchestra were already training for two weeks and would only need a little reinforcement.
The challenge for her was to help the newcomers catch up with the earlier members of the orchestra and ensure that they would not pull the entire orchestra down.
"Let's try to take on the first movement and see where we can adjust." Lainie immediately announced, directing everyone to go into their positions.
"For the newcomers, have your seats beside the assigned group leaders in each section. You are to listen and study the piece for this moment. Familiarize your parts and appreciate as much as you can during the first play." She calmly said.
The team nodded, and all of them were excited.
Before, they would rather become spectators on the bench until the tournament ends, but because of what happened during the string competition, their dejected hearts desired to play more music in the tournament.
Joining Lainie's team was their last chance as Vanderford and other established teams were already closed in their recruitment.
While they were busy preparing for the upcoming fight, the painting and sculpting competition had already started with great intensity.
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Unlike the string competition, the fine arts competition is not open to the public. Only the proctors, the judges, the mentors, and the participants were the people involved in the finals.
Raphael and Anna both concentrated on creating their masterpieces in their secluded rooms, and Max was also giving his all in creating his greatest work in the workshop.
They were given three days to finish their creation and they were free to use the time as they wished. Whether they have to stay inside the workshop until the presentation time or go home at night time, it is up to the participants to spend their time wisely.
While they were in the rooms, they were supervised through recording stones in order to ensure that no one would dare to cheat or tamper with one's work. Their respective workshops could also be accessed through their own identity tokens issued during the start of the tournament.
They were also given the freedom to source out their own raw materials and medium of expression to exemplify the utmost form of their creativity.
And so Raphael, Anna, and Max toiled their way for three days straight, not wanting to cut the momentum they gained whenever they reached a milestone on their creations.
They decided to not lose the chance to create their own masterpieces by negligence and exercised utmost concentration.
Worried about their well-being, Rande and Princess Arielle tried to send them water, food, and clothing to their respective rooms.
But then the three held on until the third day, as if there was no other thing important to them but the work in progress standing in front of them.
Finally, the time is up. Three days were over and the time for the presentation came about.
The painter's words were now carefully transferred into the gallery for their first display. After that, each of the judges will have to scrutinize their work and give a score.
The same is true with the sculpting division. Their works were also carefully transported to another gallery.
From the moment they stepped out of their workshops down to the moment their works were placed in the galleries for scoring, Raphael, Anne, and Max did not leave sight of their masterpieces.
For they were afraid that something bad might happen along the way.
The first one to be scored was the painter's division.
One by one the paintings of all the delegates were revealed. Everyone in the hall was able to see a glimpse of her works.
However, at the first glance, only four outstanding paintings were able to catch the jury's eyes.
Nevertheless, they still become patient, going around all of the paintings.
The scoring was rather nerve-wracking for the painters because they were still expected to answer questions from the judges who were suddenly curious about their line of thought during their creation process.
Finally, it was the turn of one of the Vanderford Students who were able to produce a painting that stunned the judges along with another three.
"Student Gifford, what do you call this work of yours?" The judges asked the student as their eyes lit up at the painting of a willow tree and a beautiful lady resting under it.
"This painting is called Love in Solitude." The student painter, Gifford, from the Vanderford institute, answered calmly.
"???" There was a trace of confusion in the judges' eyes as they looked at Gifford and then at the painting back and forth.
"We could understand the solitude element for the painting only depicts a lady resting on a beautiful willow tree."
"Judging from her posture, the details clearly showed that she was in the tree looking for solitude."
"But where could the love element be… when there was clearly no other being other than her and the willow tree?"
They all asked Gifford.
Gifford let out a confident smile and pulled out a magnifying glass. "Esteemed jury, kindly look under the shadow of the willow tree in the direction behind the lady."
"Hmmm…" the first jury took the magnifying glass and was shocked! All he knew was the dark part of the willow tree was a shadow!
But upon close inspection, there was a silhouette of a man standing behind the willow tree, with his back resting on the tree's trunk completely blending into the shadow!
"How come you were able to trace the outlines of a silhouette over black ink? This is fascinating!" The first judge exclaimed in awe."
"Indeed! There is a man!" The other judges also exclaimed.
Gifford gave a smile and replied one more time, "Over the black ink I used a graphite pencil that was infused with silver and used my mana to reinforce it over the blank ink in the canvas.
It was supposed to look like someone would have just randomly drawn on top of the shadows, but incorporating it with mana produced the best effect.
I have achieved the right texture and effect of the silvery traces while still maintaining the precision I could only get on a pen rather than on a brush."
"Well thought!!! Clever! Very clever!" The judges praised in awe. The more they studied the painting the more they were amazed by how Gifford was able to execute his work.
If not for the organizers reminding them to move to the next subject, they would not stop discussing Gifford's technique until the day ended.
Watching the judges reluctantly move to the next painting, Gifford let out a triumphant smile.
His eyes were then directed in a certain direction - Raphael, who was positioned across him on the other side of the gallery.
Looking at Raphael's 'ugly' painting, Gifford appeared to be doing his best not to scoff at this work, but then his eyes did not stop sending provocative glances toward Raphael.
Raphael only ignored the guy and patiently waited until it was his turn to be scored.
However, when the judges saw his painting, their eyes darkened.
Bursting with anger, the judges asked, "Student Raphael, do you take this competition seriously?!"
