Sorry rather busy...not much time to blog...but just a little advert..
FUSED String orchestra gives its debut concert!
Who: FUSED string orchestra, a newly formed string orchestra expanded from the string quartet CALYPSO
When: 9th October, Thursday, 7.30pm
Where: NAFA Campus Three, Lee Foundation Theatre, 131 Bencoolen Street
What: Performing works ranging from the Baroque era to Modern works! Includes Bach's Double Violin Concerto, Mozart's Divertimento, Tango by Albeniz, Air on G String by Bach, and Jamaican Rumba by Arthur Benjamin. Also premiering three local works!
Terrence Wong - Concertino for Trumpet and String Orchestra
Liew Kong Meng - Sandcastles and Dreams
Grace Chen - Temujin
How (much): $15, email wereldmuziekconcours@gmail.com for tix or contact me @ 90110995
Why: cos i'm premiering my own work!! aahahaha. The string orchestra's pretty good too! Its worth the ticket price!
:D
Friday, October 03, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
long time no post...
hey there readers...sorry for the 'long time no post'...i promise i'll update more often, because...
TURANDOT is finally over! After a month of rehearsals, we actually got our act together! With makeup (yucks), hairdos (even more yucks) and great costumes that were individually measured to fit our bodies, we pulled it off at the Esplanade Theater for five (almost) consecutive nights! mostly full houses! amazing! so many many many people came to watch...fell ill after the performances though haha. But i still think its really worth the once-in-a-lifetime experience...after all most of us in the choir would go on to become concert pianists, composers, orchestral musicians...how many of us would return to an opera production as chorus members in full dress?
"Turandot" in Singapore is really a milestone in Singapore's art history, being the biggest operatic production produced locally to date, and costing over S$800,000. Proud to have been part of it...
Its been a really great experience i suppose, being in a 'operatic' chorus and i still am amazed that we managed to memorise the whole three hour opera in one month! how amazing the human mind is when a person really wants to do something... Here are some pictures from the backstage and from the performances...
more photos on my facebook, of course.
Also, I conducted my very first composition for Wind Band with the NAFA Wind Ensemble (of which the recording you are listening to now under the right column =)) and dear Jeremy Koh helped me to take some rather glam photos! Haha thank you NAFA Band and Mr Richard Adams for providing me with such a wonderful opportunity to perform my piece (not forgetting that it is in memory of Thaddeus Cheong) with a semi-professional ensemble!
Well...i've just had a one week break from school. Term holidays! School begins next monday again...Three more terms to the end of my diploma course and the much dreaded...NATIONAL SERVICE...(gasps)
=)
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Dearest Doktor Goh is away in Taiwan for some choral festival. the school somehow feels emptier without him and his typical booming laughter around...oh well he'll be back this tuesday.
Since Doktor Goh was not around that meant that we had to conduct choir rehearsals for Turandot by ourselves. On Monday we conducted sectionals, which was actually against the Doktor's orders of Raymond going through the entire opera as many times as we could. Still, at least the Doktor ordered Chien Thye to film the whole rehearsal down, so that none of us could 'escape' the rehearsals. XD well on wednesday Raymond (who was supposed to conduct the rehearsal) had to attend to something else and thus asked ME to conduct the rehearsal. Okay, I admit i do know the opera quite well by now...but asking me to handle an entire chorus (esp since most of the vocal majors were not there; they had rehearsal for something else) was something different...and new. So i did. Two Hours. haha great experience really...
More work is pouring in, and when the Doktor returns this tuesday the Turandot rehearsals will start to get more and more intensive...here's the advert for Turandot..
On the other hand, I've managed to upload yet another vid of my composition. here it is...have a good week ahead! I'm gonna get my hands on the CHSSB rendition of Threnody soon too...
:D
Since Doktor Goh was not around that meant that we had to conduct choir rehearsals for Turandot by ourselves. On Monday we conducted sectionals, which was actually against the Doktor's orders of Raymond going through the entire opera as many times as we could. Still, at least the Doktor ordered Chien Thye to film the whole rehearsal down, so that none of us could 'escape' the rehearsals. XD well on wednesday Raymond (who was supposed to conduct the rehearsal) had to attend to something else and thus asked ME to conduct the rehearsal. Okay, I admit i do know the opera quite well by now...but asking me to handle an entire chorus (esp since most of the vocal majors were not there; they had rehearsal for something else) was something different...and new. So i did. Two Hours. haha great experience really...
More work is pouring in, and when the Doktor returns this tuesday the Turandot rehearsals will start to get more and more intensive...here's the advert for Turandot..
On the other hand, I've managed to upload yet another vid of my composition. here it is...have a good week ahead! I'm gonna get my hands on the CHSSB rendition of Threnody soon too...
:D
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Well time really flies, cos the first week of school has already come and gone!
I didn't even get to audition for orchestra...long story. So anyway i'm now singing in the choir (because whoever is not in the orchestra is automatically in the NAFA chorus) and frankly speaking its real fun. We're singing for SLO's (Singapore Lyric Opera)production at the end of this month, Puccini's Turandot. Its real fun learning the Italian words. Choir's definitely fun with Doktor Goh and Yeh Tsung. Oh and all our costumes will be individually tailored, and the measurements have been taken. The take a lot of measurements per person, like 37 or so different body measurements. One of my friends said that he felt thoroughly molested XD fortunately it was women who did the measurements for us...or else our girls would scream haha. Its definitely gonna be a great experience, after all how often does one get to participate in an opera at all?
The computer room's changed alot. All the PCs have been changed to MACs...i'm familiar with mac interface so it's no problem for me. Its just so cool...so zen haha. No more CPU bulk; everything is in the widescreen monitor. nice!
Lessons were fine, work starts to pour in...but generally enjoyable for now..
Our gamelan ensemble is growing bigger and bigger! Four have graduated, namely yanya, natasha, amy and alicia, but newbies like aditya, gabriel pang, hautzeng, hutch, meng jia, bo yang, ernest thio and joanne tan have joined our gamelan ensemble, making it overflow! ahh! not enough suitable instruments for them! haha we'll soon solve that problem...
That's supposed to be it for now...well tata...oh btw...happy belated 19th birthday Joe Tan Pin Khoon! Though i know you'll probably not see this anyway...
I didn't even get to audition for orchestra...long story. So anyway i'm now singing in the choir (because whoever is not in the orchestra is automatically in the NAFA chorus) and frankly speaking its real fun. We're singing for SLO's (Singapore Lyric Opera)production at the end of this month, Puccini's Turandot. Its real fun learning the Italian words. Choir's definitely fun with Doktor Goh and Yeh Tsung. Oh and all our costumes will be individually tailored, and the measurements have been taken. The take a lot of measurements per person, like 37 or so different body measurements. One of my friends said that he felt thoroughly molested XD fortunately it was women who did the measurements for us...or else our girls would scream haha. Its definitely gonna be a great experience, after all how often does one get to participate in an opera at all?
The computer room's changed alot. All the PCs have been changed to MACs...i'm familiar with mac interface so it's no problem for me. Its just so cool...so zen haha. No more CPU bulk; everything is in the widescreen monitor. nice!
Lessons were fine, work starts to pour in...but generally enjoyable for now..
Our gamelan ensemble is growing bigger and bigger! Four have graduated, namely yanya, natasha, amy and alicia, but newbies like aditya, gabriel pang, hautzeng, hutch, meng jia, bo yang, ernest thio and joanne tan have joined our gamelan ensemble, making it overflow! ahh! not enough suitable instruments for them! haha we'll soon solve that problem...
That's supposed to be it for now...well tata...oh btw...happy belated 19th birthday Joe Tan Pin Khoon! Though i know you'll probably not see this anyway...
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The Worthy Concert Experience.
Why do we go for concerts? What is an appropriate concert experience?
A concert is an experience for two groups of people; the more obvious group is the audience, and the less obvious group would be the musicians themselves, be they opera singers, wind band musicians or rock band guitarists. But in this article, I will attempt to discuss the concert experience from the viewpoint of the audience.
Let me recount my personal experiences of concerts. I started going for concerts when I was in Secondary Three, which was also when I took up the music elective programme. Introduced to orchestral and piano concerts which were part of the modular experience, I began to go for concerts on my own too, which included band concerts and the occasional avant-garde music concert. Now during my study in NAFA it is even better. Every Wednesday afternoon is a ‘Music Platform’ of student recitals from different departments, like piano, woodwind etc and every fortnight, on Monday nights, there would be a commuter concert which would feature non-students in recital. These concerts are all compulsory for us music students to attend. Not that I mind anyway.
Let me categorise my concert experiences into three categories; the casual/fun experience, the professional experience, and the sleepy experience. The casual/fun experience usually refers to school band concerts, where there would be an ‘auto-encore’ and full of fans cheering and screaming for their friends in the band. The professional experience usually refers to more professional groups like the Philharmonic Winds and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, where the audience is more reserved and standard etiquette applies, including dressing up appropriately for the concert. Lastly the sleepy experience is for the extremely unprofessional and/or boring concert…
Now I come to the main issue; what exactly do we go to concerts for? I have seen many kids who attend a concert because they are forced to by their teacher or school to attend, and these kids make a boisterous lot, playing with their PSPs, their handphones, listening to their own music from their personal mp3 player. There are also those who go to a concert and frown at every single little mistake that the player(s) make. I once had a young horn player sitting in front of me in a concert and when the horn player on stage played flat for a moment, the one sitting in front of me banged his head on the chair in agony as if he only came to the concert for that single moment and it had been ruined. There are also people who would rush to compete and see who can applaud the quickest right after the silence ensues, and this often causes much disturbance in between movements and ‘false’ endings. And all this undesirable behavior is not only seen in the casual/fun environment, but even in the professional concert environment.
So what do we attend concerts for? Do we really go to concerts to do all the things stated above? I personally feel that when we attend a concert, we should immerse ourselves in the present moment and simply enjoy and observe our own reactions towards the music. Surely there are mistakes in every concert; no human being is perfect, much less an entire organization of musicians on stage! And when we manage to appreciate the real concert quality, we would emerge from the concert content, no matter how badly the group has performed. After all we have paid our way to the hall, and to pay for two hours of pointing out every single mistake is simply ridiculous.
Thus the cliché ‘Sit back, relax and enjoy’ really applies here. Yes, we learn from concerts and their good and bad points, but to ruin our own concert experience by making it difficult for ourselves is plain ridiculous. Let’s just simply enjoy the concert! :D
P.S. here's my collection of every single programme booklet i've taken from all the performances i've been to! XD
A concert is an experience for two groups of people; the more obvious group is the audience, and the less obvious group would be the musicians themselves, be they opera singers, wind band musicians or rock band guitarists. But in this article, I will attempt to discuss the concert experience from the viewpoint of the audience.
Let me recount my personal experiences of concerts. I started going for concerts when I was in Secondary Three, which was also when I took up the music elective programme. Introduced to orchestral and piano concerts which were part of the modular experience, I began to go for concerts on my own too, which included band concerts and the occasional avant-garde music concert. Now during my study in NAFA it is even better. Every Wednesday afternoon is a ‘Music Platform’ of student recitals from different departments, like piano, woodwind etc and every fortnight, on Monday nights, there would be a commuter concert which would feature non-students in recital. These concerts are all compulsory for us music students to attend. Not that I mind anyway.
Let me categorise my concert experiences into three categories; the casual/fun experience, the professional experience, and the sleepy experience. The casual/fun experience usually refers to school band concerts, where there would be an ‘auto-encore’ and full of fans cheering and screaming for their friends in the band. The professional experience usually refers to more professional groups like the Philharmonic Winds and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, where the audience is more reserved and standard etiquette applies, including dressing up appropriately for the concert. Lastly the sleepy experience is for the extremely unprofessional and/or boring concert…
Now I come to the main issue; what exactly do we go to concerts for? I have seen many kids who attend a concert because they are forced to by their teacher or school to attend, and these kids make a boisterous lot, playing with their PSPs, their handphones, listening to their own music from their personal mp3 player. There are also those who go to a concert and frown at every single little mistake that the player(s) make. I once had a young horn player sitting in front of me in a concert and when the horn player on stage played flat for a moment, the one sitting in front of me banged his head on the chair in agony as if he only came to the concert for that single moment and it had been ruined. There are also people who would rush to compete and see who can applaud the quickest right after the silence ensues, and this often causes much disturbance in between movements and ‘false’ endings. And all this undesirable behavior is not only seen in the casual/fun environment, but even in the professional concert environment.
So what do we attend concerts for? Do we really go to concerts to do all the things stated above? I personally feel that when we attend a concert, we should immerse ourselves in the present moment and simply enjoy and observe our own reactions towards the music. Surely there are mistakes in every concert; no human being is perfect, much less an entire organization of musicians on stage! And when we manage to appreciate the real concert quality, we would emerge from the concert content, no matter how badly the group has performed. After all we have paid our way to the hall, and to pay for two hours of pointing out every single mistake is simply ridiculous.
Thus the cliché ‘Sit back, relax and enjoy’ really applies here. Yes, we learn from concerts and their good and bad points, but to ruin our own concert experience by making it difficult for ourselves is plain ridiculous. Let’s just simply enjoy the concert! :D
P.S. here's my collection of every single programme booklet i've taken from all the performances i've been to! XD
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
School starts next monday!
There's been quite a bit of changes made to the syllabus...for example, we as third year students are supposed to have history and counterpoint as two compulsory subjects, but now it seems that we have 'Performance History' and 'Music Theory IIIA' as replacements, and I personally would not know how different they are from the previous syllabus...
We still get to choose two electives in addition to our core modules (that translates into compulsory subjects) and i chose Ethnomusicology II (music of the world other than south-east asia) and Conducting. Two subjects compulsory to me as a composer would be the usual Orchestration II and some weird looking new subject called Music and Multimedia II. Heck, if i didn't take Music and Multimedia I (because it didn't exist then) then how can i jump to the respective subject's sequel? XD Well i'll find out soon...
Orchestral seating auditions for this academic year is slated to be this friday, and my timing is at 5pm. There are SOOOO many trombonists this year, seven including me to be specific. When I was in Year One there were only two of us...hardly enough for the orchestra and band. Now we have seven trumpets, seven trombones, one euphonium, three tubas and three horns for our brass section...oddly enough the horns are lacking a member...oh well. Mr Adams (our head of music) wants to start a brass band cos we finally have enough players to form one? Haha hope the auditions go well first...
Have been busy practicing on my bass trombone for the auditions. Writing my own short piece to play. I'm rather busy now...and will be getting even busier i suppose...so i suppose i'll update this blog just once a week minimum? haha yeap so check back once a week...
P.S. Happy belated 18th Birthday Beiyang!!! :D
There's been quite a bit of changes made to the syllabus...for example, we as third year students are supposed to have history and counterpoint as two compulsory subjects, but now it seems that we have 'Performance History' and 'Music Theory IIIA' as replacements, and I personally would not know how different they are from the previous syllabus...
We still get to choose two electives in addition to our core modules (that translates into compulsory subjects) and i chose Ethnomusicology II (music of the world other than south-east asia) and Conducting. Two subjects compulsory to me as a composer would be the usual Orchestration II and some weird looking new subject called Music and Multimedia II. Heck, if i didn't take Music and Multimedia I (because it didn't exist then) then how can i jump to the respective subject's sequel? XD Well i'll find out soon...
Orchestral seating auditions for this academic year is slated to be this friday, and my timing is at 5pm. There are SOOOO many trombonists this year, seven including me to be specific. When I was in Year One there were only two of us...hardly enough for the orchestra and band. Now we have seven trumpets, seven trombones, one euphonium, three tubas and three horns for our brass section...oddly enough the horns are lacking a member...oh well. Mr Adams (our head of music) wants to start a brass band cos we finally have enough players to form one? Haha hope the auditions go well first...
Have been busy practicing on my bass trombone for the auditions. Writing my own short piece to play. I'm rather busy now...and will be getting even busier i suppose...so i suppose i'll update this blog just once a week minimum? haha yeap so check back once a week...
P.S. Happy belated 18th Birthday Beiyang!!! :D
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
If we can understand that we control nothing in this world, not the country, not your school, not your classmates, not your friends and enemies (if you even prefer to see people as enemies), not your family, not your siblings, and not even your own thoughts (now don't think of an apple. did you think of an apple?) and body (you can't control when you want to get sick and when you want to get better right?),
We would be much more content on this world.
We would be much more content on this world.
Monday, July 07, 2008
CHS Homecoming Day 2008!
One year has passed since the last Homecoming day@CHS...and its relevant post on my blog...Gonna put up pics here. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!
WARNING: 112 pictures ahead XD
CHS Homecoming Day 08!
Drink Boys.
Xian Zhe WAHAHAHA.
The Grand Stand.
Mr Danny Tan: OOI!
The Drinks.
Basket...ball.
Lord of the Ring.
'Mmrh?' says Junyao.
Mr Goh Yong Han on the Dunking Machine!
Gang of Four.
Primary School Canteen...
Crazy Ang Moh! Fish and Chips and Chicken Chop...
Ms Thian: HEY!
Ernest, looking very earnest.
Ernest with Drinks. Looks like he's going to the stadium to sell food...
Xian Zhe XD
Rainbow Boy...oops i mean Darius and me.
Me and Junyao.
"I have a wet drink"
Talk to the HAND.
Joel Tan XD
Mr i-forgot-your-name
Yue Feng: OOrh.
Yue Feng.
Brandon TANOTO.
Big 'Cooling' fan...with lots of vapour.
The lower portion of the carnival.
wad's he sucking?
Wet.
Soccer! Well...not really...
Wenkai and company.
"huh?"
I Scream.
mr mars bars.
Ball that escaped from a stall.
Joel Hong.
Gerard Bong, one day before his birthday!
Fruit juice! made the least money...
another 'fruit juice'...guo zhi...
Brandon Tan!
"Ooh! What's that?"
Xu Song XD
WOON.
Prefect.
Talk to the Hand, says Aloysius.
Victor Tey and ???
Youtube Vid o.o
Haunted House man.
Aloysius Wong.
Fight ARH!
Daren Sin.
Chan DI!!
Motorbike rides. What a waste of money...
Uncle Ringo Rides!
Uncle Ringo Funfair!
Poly boy + Jc Boys
Archery Range...
Chinese Orchestra TROLLEY o.o wonder where they took it from...
Uncle Ringo's BIG ride.
The Wisdom of Mr Edwin Heng.
Ms Krishnan.
Steven Teo!
Philip Lee...
Pool Room.
Jinsheng eating mee goreng.
Your Mother's.
Justin at your mother's.
The satay man can! Qin En is on his way to becoming a master satay griller.
Jinsheng caught eating again...
Band's drink publicity board. i strongly URGE you to zoom in and take a look at the cranky quotes...
Band's formal publicity board.
Gang of sec fours playing cards in the band store...and eating fish and chips from crazy ang moh too...
Tan E Yang takes a break.
Children trapped to suffocate in balls on water.
Children trapped in vehicles on water.
Children that will be trapped in cars.
Primary School side family fair.
Aloysius caught unaware...again.
Nicol Ngiam! ahh only saw three people from my batch...
Chuen Chin, emo kids and takoyaki.
Me and Weilie! he looks just like another st.john member if you look from far...cos he's small.
Jasper Ng.
Jasper Ng: Where the heck are you people? i'm feeling so HOT!!
People being tortured to spin round and round forever...as long as their cash lasts.
Pool room again.
Me and Joel Tan in the pool room.
The Pool Room as viewed through the viewpoint of the triangle.
Takoyaki saxophone boys.
Elson Ngiam. looks alot more interesting than his bro nicol ngiam doesn't he.
Ernest vs. the fan.
Marimbuzzzzz....
Relaxing (slacking) in the band room...
The posters on the outer walls of cat high...mostly my batch people...their youth has been preserved for eternity...lol!
Last but not least, Ingmar Salim, who came really late for homecoming. I was leaving then...
Well that's One Hundred and Twelve Pictures! nothing compared to the professionals but well they're for my memories.
Oh by the way, went for ACJC Concert Band concert at Singapore Conference Hall yesterday...with Ingmar Salim and Isaiah Ho. Then we ate a Maxwell Food Centre...most shops closed though. Good concert haha.
School starts in two weeks...
WARNING: 112 pictures ahead XD
CHS Homecoming Day 08!
Drink Boys.
Xian Zhe WAHAHAHA.
The Grand Stand.
Mr Danny Tan: OOI!
The Drinks.
Basket...ball.
Lord of the Ring.
'Mmrh?' says Junyao.
Mr Goh Yong Han on the Dunking Machine!
Gang of Four.
Primary School Canteen...
Crazy Ang Moh! Fish and Chips and Chicken Chop...
Ms Thian: HEY!
Ernest, looking very earnest.
Ernest with Drinks. Looks like he's going to the stadium to sell food...
Xian Zhe XD
Rainbow Boy...oops i mean Darius and me.
Me and Junyao.
"I have a wet drink"
Talk to the HAND.
Joel Tan XD
Mr i-forgot-your-name
Yue Feng: OOrh.
Yue Feng.
Brandon TANOTO.
Big 'Cooling' fan...with lots of vapour.
The lower portion of the carnival.
wad's he sucking?
Wet.
Soccer! Well...not really...
Wenkai and company.
"huh?"
I Scream.
mr mars bars.
Ball that escaped from a stall.
Joel Hong.
Gerard Bong, one day before his birthday!
Fruit juice! made the least money...
another 'fruit juice'...guo zhi...
Brandon Tan!
"Ooh! What's that?"
Xu Song XD
WOON.
Prefect.
Talk to the Hand, says Aloysius.
Victor Tey and ???
Youtube Vid o.o
Haunted House man.
Aloysius Wong.
Fight ARH!
Daren Sin.
Chan DI!!
Motorbike rides. What a waste of money...
Uncle Ringo Rides!
Uncle Ringo Funfair!
Poly boy + Jc Boys
Archery Range...
Chinese Orchestra TROLLEY o.o wonder where they took it from...
Uncle Ringo's BIG ride.
The Wisdom of Mr Edwin Heng.
Ms Krishnan.
Steven Teo!
Philip Lee...
Pool Room.
Jinsheng eating mee goreng.
Your Mother's.
Justin at your mother's.
The satay man can! Qin En is on his way to becoming a master satay griller.
Jinsheng caught eating again...
Band's drink publicity board. i strongly URGE you to zoom in and take a look at the cranky quotes...
Band's formal publicity board.
Gang of sec fours playing cards in the band store...and eating fish and chips from crazy ang moh too...
Tan E Yang takes a break.
Children trapped to suffocate in balls on water.
Children trapped in vehicles on water.
Children that will be trapped in cars.
Primary School side family fair.
Aloysius caught unaware...again.
Nicol Ngiam! ahh only saw three people from my batch...
Chuen Chin, emo kids and takoyaki.
Me and Weilie! he looks just like another st.john member if you look from far...cos he's small.
Jasper Ng.
Jasper Ng: Where the heck are you people? i'm feeling so HOT!!
People being tortured to spin round and round forever...as long as their cash lasts.
Pool room again.
Me and Joel Tan in the pool room.
The Pool Room as viewed through the viewpoint of the triangle.
Takoyaki saxophone boys.
Elson Ngiam. looks alot more interesting than his bro nicol ngiam doesn't he.
Ernest vs. the fan.
Marimbuzzzzz....
Relaxing (slacking) in the band room...
The posters on the outer walls of cat high...mostly my batch people...their youth has been preserved for eternity...lol!
Last but not least, Ingmar Salim, who came really late for homecoming. I was leaving then...
Well that's One Hundred and Twelve Pictures! nothing compared to the professionals but well they're for my memories.
Oh by the way, went for ACJC Concert Band concert at Singapore Conference Hall yesterday...with Ingmar Salim and Isaiah Ho. Then we ate a Maxwell Food Centre...most shops closed though. Good concert haha.
School starts in two weeks...
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