a year and a few months or so later..... =)

Hey guys! so this is me....updating my blog at a crucial point of my life. Alright maybe not so crucial. Just a week and 2 days ago,I played my last concert with the MPYO. It's amazing how far we've all come, how some of us(well me at least) who did not consider a career in music, are now on converging paths towards becoming a professional musician. On a more emo note, I am really going to miss each and every member. Not to mention the "awesome triangle" and the tribal council, what am I going to do without all the drama and craziness and the LOVE(haha)..... I wonder. Damn it,I'm really really going to miss you guyssss!!!!!

craziness
[in case you're wondering,we're having a picnic(on unwanted boxes from ColdStorage) at the park at 1-2pm] =))) it was awesome!




an absolutely awesome chocolate brownie
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equals
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3 awesome happy people!

=D Jia Rong and Dylan

=p

"I love Dome because the BurgerKing near my house got eaten by a dinosaur!"

XD

Mind-blowing!

1st of February 2008 (random)

A random title..
Loads of things happen lately,had a proper quartet experience recently,made some new friends,had to say goodbye to my beloved concertmaster Nami Barathan...gained a stalker(XD) and so on.First off,I want to congratulate one of my closest friends,a certain someone(you know who you are),on a recent achievement(to that someone,Congratulations,you have really earned it!!I'm supporting you all the way!). Yeah...SOME of you will find out soon what the whole Congratulations thing is about.So just wait! =p

Incredibly disappointed,Sarah Chang is performing Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D minor with the SSO in the Esplanade,Singapore...and I couldn't go!I was a one in a lifetime experience and I just had to miss it.(damn that European Orchestra who had immigration problems,because of them,Sarah Chang couldn't come to Malaysia last year! wth!) Well at least Akiko Suwanai is coming and she's performing Sibelius too! Looking forward to watch her play,I just hope she didn't fall sick like the last time too.I just looked through the MPO's season calender (03/04) and realized that they brought in WAY better people then than now! In that one season,Vadim Repin,James Ehnes,Chloe Hanslip,Sarah Chang,Alexander Rozhdestvensky and a few other talents.Not to mention Repin performed Shosti and Ehnes played Lalo! What a huge loss!! I really wish I was more mature at that time to understand masterpieces like those!

someone once asked me...WOULD YOU RATHER LIVE A LIFE OF GUILT OR REGRET?

what say you?



Recently found this new artiste on One Tree Hill,Kate Voegele.Pretty talented,not a bad voice and she's full of emotion.

p.s : goodbye to MPYO's lead violist,Liow Ying Tian as well.We will miss both of you!

Venting

Listening to :

Dvorak String Quartet "American" Op.96,no.12 in F
1st mov.

It is New Year's eve.Exactly 18 days from MPYO tour and 85 days or less till the next camp.That leaves about 50 or less schooling days,argh!I'm very calculative today,just realized there are only 6 violists in the orchestra!and it's really tough looking for one!Perhaps some violinist should branch out to viola playing,because there are sooo few violist in the WORLD(seriously...I wikipedia-ed it and look what I found!...results were interesting)

LOOK! a list of violists!I don't even have to scroll down and there's only 1 page!
I guess I have to admit Viola's a pretty cool instrument.
=p

Compared to Violinists :
Ok...I won't copy and paste the window,because there are a lot of violinists.It's categorized into 9 categories.

1)19th century
(L.Auer,J.Joachim,N.Paganini,H.Vieuxtemps,E.Ysaye,H.Wieniawski)
2)Post 19th century
(Grumiaux,Heifetz,Milstein,Kriesler,D.Oistrakh,Rabin,Neveu)
3)Notable Pedagogues
(Dorothy DeLay,Carl Flesch,Ivan Galamian,Shinichi Suzuki)
4)Other notable violinists
(Ricci,Kavakos,K.W.Chung,F.Zimmermann,S.Chang,S.Khachatryan)
5)Baroque violinists
(Andrew Manze,Simon Standage,Rachel Podger,Jeanne Lamon)
6)Indian violinists
(extremely long names and will not quote...=p )
7)Middle Eastern
(Aboud Abdel Al,Shajea)
8)Jazz
(Johnny Frigo,Billy Bang,Regina Carter,Stuff Smith)
9)Popular fiddlers
(D'arcy{smashing pumpkins},Mark O'Connor,Sharon Corr{the Corrs})

There you have it...the ratio of violinists to violists is a very obvious one.(well maybe in Wikipedia it is)

Those who have lit a candle in my life

Xmas eve post

yes...it's currently 11.38pm on my computer clock...in 22 minutes it will be Christmas.A day where all young kids will pry open their presents and jump up and down with joy.Last Sunday,I went to my music teacher's house for my usual lessons.About 40 minutes in to the lesson,her young 6 year old son runs in with a present asking my teacher,"mama,is this for me?".She didn't really answer and I thought I was doing her a favor by telling her son it is his present.Actually I was doing the exact opposite.Apparently,my teacher and her elder daughter have been trying to keep the presents away from the tiny fella so he won't throw a tantrum saying he wants to open his presents.So,after my lesson was over,all doors were let loose,the young fella burst into tears because he wanted to open his presents.And he was seriously all drenched in tears!! **seriously* In the end,I guess he gave up?After all,Christmas was only 2 days away.

Enough Christmas talk , I have yet to blog about the recent MPYO Malaysia(Peninsular Malaysia i mean) tour.It was FUN!!filled with...all the essentials...drama,laughter,sadness,emoness and other emotions.This tour has brought a lot of us together,well some of us.Personally,I got to know a lot of new people,and I'm glad because I was kindda afraid my whole 1st-time-orchestral-experience will be me sticking around with just one part or one section of the orchestra.The entire experience all together was just great,eating crappy food(except in Johor's Seri Malaysia and Penang hawker food),getting car-sick,feeling anxious before and after a concert,the late night gatherings,Jumping around like ninjas and singing(like drunkards) love songs like "can't take my eyes off u","love","My girl" and I can't recall what else.

Concert Repertoire :
Ria! fanfare for orchestra by Adeline Wong
Senandung Malaysia by Muriz
Hungarian Dances 1,3 &10 by J.Brahms
Four Scottish Dances by Arnold
Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov(II and III mov)
A London Symphony by Vaughn-Williams

The concerts...no doubt that the Ipoh concert was the best of the bunch!! I don't know,but I remember we were all sighing and whining about how sticky the stage floor was and how dry the room was but weirdly we seem to have made it work.And of course Ipoh crowd was soooo supportive and energetic!!Thanks to Alice's friends. =p and the worst concert?it shall not be named.I loved the repertoire for the tour but I'll have to admit that some of the pieces are not exactly easy to appreciate.You can't compare it to the beautiful Scheherazade Symphony written by the ever-so-perfect Rimsky-Korsakov.Next up more difficult masterpieces ahead,and now with our beloved Concertmaster,Nami Baradan and a few other section principals(Eugenia-D.bass and Angela-viola) gone,we're screwed!!(there are big shoes to fill)maybe it's just a panic attack,but I'm sure we can carry on. Things Change,I quote the Dalai Lama.


Despite a few letdowns and mess-ups during the few concerts,there were just more things to cheer up the orchestra members.I remember a time in Ipoh when we were soooo incredibly hungry after the concert and the MPYO staff brought back McDs for us! somehow McDs never tasted better!!Or like the other time in Kuantan,after the concert when we went to the beach.The waves were very strong and something interesting happened.James and Jia Rong's footwear got washed away by the waves but minutes later...the waves washed it back in! How lucky. =p Speaking of water,we also got caught in the flood on the way back to KL from Johor.It was fun yet scary at the same time.Who knows?The bus engine could have died-ed on us.Oh right and the cute monkey(with the HUGE ass...and it shat in front of us and grabbed shit out of it's anus) walking around in circles in its cage at one of the rest stops.And I can't forget,a thank you goes to Adelyn Yeoh and Philbert Tiki Yong for teaching me how to waltz.



To be continued...

A series of day dreaming

Recently(well maybe not that recent...last 2 weeks?)...I went for a concert at DFP to watch famed soprano Sumi Jo. GOSH!!TALK ABOUT TALENT!! yea...so i was inspired and pretty awed.The funniest part was...my teacher told me about the concert like on the day itself...my aunt managed to get a ticket for my mom but not me!...so guess what...I followed my mom to KLCC hoping to see if i might get lucky enough to get a ticket....but sigh!I didnt!Spent an hour at Tower Records...and 45 minutes later...my phone rings!its my mom saying my aunt has to leave early so i get to use her ticket!! weeeeeee....MPO played danse bacchanale and Sumi Jo sang Les Oiseaux dans la Charmille(doll song) from Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach.It was soooo entertaining! seriously!!managed to get a clip from Youtube of the same piece she sang....with the exact same movements and actions!! well except she sang with the MPO and in this clip,she's singing with piano accompaniment.

the doll song

I spent last weekend at SEGI college performing with a few of my old friends...and new ones for this dialysis center fund charity event.met James,Shulamite,Jebat and Mabel there...gosh havent seen them since camp!! anyway...the main star of the night was FOO MEI YI!! she's pretty cool...=p her Debussy Sonata and Chopin etude "black keys" was freaking impressive!!and she's soooo relaxed and calm when she's playing...those of you who know that Chopin Etude would know that its CRAZY! James and his quartet played Ave Corpus by Mozart and Hungarian dance no.5 by Brahms...its was good but bloody mikes had to spoil the sound...

Mabel and I


my cousin Ashley,Jebat and I

FINAL EXAMS ARE IN TWO WEEKS!!!!

Addictive songs

some songs that have made my day!

Boston by Augustana

Grace Kelly by Mika

Mozart's 3rd violin concerto (3rd mov) by Hyuk Joo Kwun
[ QE a.k.a Eugene Ysaye Competition 2005 ]

=p

MPYO camp 3 + carbs on the side

The mid-semester break has come and ended in a knick of time as always. Wish it lasted longer...both holidays and MPYO camp! gosh...talking about it now makes me really miss everyone...I MISS U GUYS!

The third camp was a little less happening then usual...spent more time with jia rong and dylan...had late night walks with jia rong and early morning breakfast's with dylan...in the mean time...the rest of the tribe(Kah Yan,Kit Leong,Jebat,Philbert,Lu Ee) spent time gambling! I think in the end...Philbert lost about RM100 and Kit Leong was about RM60 in debt?hmmm...having to buy meals at KLCC is extremely expensive...I practically lived on Bento(thx to dylan getting me addicted to it) and sandwiches(RM10.50 btw!) for lunch or dinner... as for breakfast....i looked forward to my Tater Tots!!



Arrived at the hotel at about 4pm...checked in and hanged out in Kelly's room watching videos on David's MacBook Pro (12k i might add). Walked to Ampang Point later for dinner....spent don't know how long deciding what to eat...finally...decided on Kenny Rogers!!

clockwise : Myles,Jebat,Philbert,Kelly,Me,Dylan


Emo ppl...( Dylan and I ) =p


Kelly and I


The Oh-So-Delicious Kenny Rogers

Other than the food?...hahaha....moving on...the music yes!!
Gala was amazing!!! The feeling of just performing in that MAGNIFICENT stage...wow...its really an out-of-this-world experience!and...the Ria wasnt so bad after u get the hang of it...kindda grows on u.quite exciting after a while.

Concert Repertoire :
Ria-Fanfare for Orchestra by Adeline Wong
Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert
Serenade For Strings by P.I Tchaikovsky
Danse bacchanale (Samson et Delilah) - Camille Saint-Saens
Scheherazade(1001 Arabian Nights) - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Gorgeous


Before the concert:

people l-r : me,Philbert,Jebat,Kit Leong,Jia Rong,Kah Yan,Lu Ee

After the concert :

At the musician's lounge

Did I add that there was a nice park on hotel premises? Had many walks...one at night...it was a bit scary only Jia Rong and I...I don't think she was afraid but i WAS! it was 10.30pm-ish! anyone could've jumped out of nowhere!!

The park


The jolly girls singing (Jia Rong and I) =p


Taken by Eben


The Bohemianstar and The Daydreamer

Cried like a mad woman after camp ended...it;s funny...it has only been a week but it feels like its been a decade since camp!sheesh...can't wait for December tour!!

My beloved aunt and uncle came back from London for like a few days.Ate dinner with them last Thursday,always like being around them,feel so sophisticated.Especially every time my uncle comes back i learn something new.He's really knowledgeable.This time,I learnt about how to make wine and origins and some other mumbo jumbo. Apparently, the reaction between sugar and yeast makes the alcohol...ok...maybe some of u already knew that but i didnt! People mostly use grapes to make wine because it naturally contains sugar whereas if u were to use apples or flower petals u would have to measure the exact amount of sugar so u won't kill the yeast or not let the wine be too sweet. Should've took picture of my uncle's face when he tasted this horrible(as he said) white wine ! I tasted it...and...wow...this taste good! XD right...he's been drinking wine ever since he was a young boy...he says its good to have two glasses of wine and a piece of dark chocolate everyday fro good health!

The OBE aunt and the knowledgeable uncle

Greens(they didn't taste that good)

Food!

Mummy and aunt