HARD work was rewarded when Sha Tin Government Secondary School girls won the top prize in a pi-pa ensemble contest at the 46th Hong Kong School Music Festival on Tuesday.
The contest, which took place at Hong Kong Schools Music and Speech Association, required the five participating schools to perform a piece of music of their own choice.
The five-member team played ''The Song of Guerilla Forces'' and said their victory was a big surprise.
''We never thought of winning and we came here just to gain more experience,'' said jubilant team leader Lung Man-lee.
The group spent about three months practising for the competition which involved a lot of hard work.
The team also attributed their success to the art of being as ''relaxed and natural on the stage as possible''.
''When we first got on stage, we were really scared but later we became more relaxed and just let our feelings and skills speak for themselves,'' the group members said.