Concerts, concerts, concerts

:D

1. Chamber concert
Haha i've put this post off for such a long time that my memory is quite hazy now.

Basically it is a rather enjoyable concert :) Apart from the cello section 全军覆没 during the Chadwick 3rd movement with John's C string going drastically out of tune and the other two stands having page flipping errors, the rest of the concert proceeded quite well.

And yes, two years after graduating from RISE, we get to play in an orchestra again. Capriccio Espagnol sounded great right from the start with the booming bass drum, and LOTR was quite a nice ending :D

Kudos to Zhaokai and Tryphena for all their efforts in this. Personally I feel that I haven't really been involved. I did everything that was assigned to me, like ms ku telling me to rearrange and compile the wind scores, and ordering dinner, but that was quite little I think, which just shows how much work the two of them has been tanking, together with lumpy and aera.

Exco'10! I think we all looked quite shagged xD
(pictures by tryphena)

And I'm really thankful to the quartet. It's been a really enriching 3 weeks, and certainly i've learnt a lot from it. I think I did my first quartet in sec 2, playing Mozart's Hunt quartet with benwee zhiyi and gerald. And then there was the sec 4 chaRIty concert quartet with jonkoh, the J1 concert Tango quartet, and the J1 common test shostakovich quartet. But this quartet is truly amazing, and I've learned a lot from it, from crazy rhythms to ensemble playing. Thanks Fangying, Zhiyuan and Lumpy for this amazing experience, and of course the security guard who comes and chase us away every night xD

And great thanks to my awesome cello section :D

I wonder how many Chamber J2s will stop playing their instruments from now on D: Chamber mates '10, continue to make music! ^_^

2. Piano Ensem concert
Okay I'm in Piano Ensem, and I played cello for this concert x)

Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing in this CCA. I haven't played the piano for almost a year already, my current standard is probably around a grade 5 pianist. If I can do RJ again, maybe I would have joined Chess or bridge. But whatever it is, I really don't regret it :) There are awesome people in this CCA, and it has provided me with lots of wonderful experiences as well.

Great thanks to Haiyan and Magdalene for giving me this oppurtunity to perform with them, or I might leave this CCA without playing for a single event, and that would be really sad. The performance went well, but I was really quite nervous cos this is only my 3rd solo performance after Goltermann's 4th cello concerto which I did in sec 3 during MEP high scorer's concert and mesmeRISE concert. I busted a few notes, but the whole thing went quite well I guess.

And yes, I'm really proud of my kid, YAO HUI!
Super duper cute and fun guy! It's been really really enjoyable teaching him all these weeks. And he's super strong also. He carried my cello with its hardcase (approximately 9.8kg) all the way from the bottom of LT2 to the top without resting and banging into anything, and the cello is like so much bigger than him! :O And I caught him doing dips between two tables as well in the classroom, something which I can't do x_x

Yaohui! I'm really proud of you! All your efforts had paid off! Your Heart and Soul at the concert is the best! :D Someday when I'm free I shall go back to Chen Su Lan or Little Academy to visit you :)

3. CO Concert
Haha okay I was supposed to play for this concert initially, but I guess I was human, unlike Lumpy, and I gave it up in the end.

Nonetheless, I still went to support John, Charlotte, Wenyun, Hubert, Yingying and many others. The concert was not bad :) First half was a bit draggy, but second half was more interesting. The soloists for the concertos didn't really shine through, but nevertheless they were good :) I couldn't really pay attention to Hubert's concerto after one of his guzheng nails flew off halfway through the performance :O If i'm not wrong i think it was his left thumb nail.

Overall i felt the sound was a little weak, compared to other CO performances that I've been too or performed in. There wasn't really an impactful section until the Mulan piece, but when it came it made me realise how much I miss playing in a Chinese Orchestra x) It was an enjoyable concert on the whole. Wenyun's 3 mallets vibraphone solo during the Mama Mia was amazing :D

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Okay thats all for this hectic month of April. With bulk of my commitments gone, it's time to mug and compose!!

6 techniques and 1 free compo by end of this term. That's like 2 compos a week T_T Let's go Hong Rui!

PS: My cello teacher was featured in the news today! Mrs Ilano! ♥