Our Supporter The Little Babo!

Hi everyone,

I have the picture of one of our little supporters- the Little Babo! As you can see from the picture, he is really happy that we're putting up the concert.

Well, if you want to be as happy as him, do come and watch our performance!

Do look out for Little Babo's friends who'll also be appearing on this blog soon!!!

THE POSTER

Hi All,

I've finally managed to put an image of our poster for the concert on this blog!

Yes, tickets are available at the door (YMS Auditorium) or for advance booking, please contact me (YingNing) 97865503 or koombaiya@gmail.com.

I dedicate this little poster to my girlfriend Adeline, even though she thinks its oogly. =( maybe I should have consulter her 1st... However, it somehow reminds me of her (which of course won't be a good thing now since she finds it oogly). Hopefully the playing will not be as bad! =)

Getting down to business

To members of the "L-family",

It's time we started preparing the printed programme, so could everyone please send me your "blurb" with the following information and specifications:

1. Profile
   - Include a section addressing "Your thoughts on the Live and Love Again concert"
2. Full details of the pieces you are performing
   - Full name of composer, as well as years of birth and death
   - Notes for individual pieces, and if applicable, how it applies to the L&L theme
   - Projected performance durations
3. List of specific people you want to thank in the programme and their special contributions

Also, QH and YN, we need to plan on what external help we will need with ticketing, ushers, stage crew(?), etc.

Checking back in

Hi guys,

I dropped off the radar for a few days because I got quite sick of the internet after spending hours and hours trying to figure out the html code for Blogger in order to make the modifications to our page. I emphasise that this was from scratch, and which involved tedious trial and error, as well as detailed scrutiny of the original html for the page. Hopefully, the changes made helped to make the page easier to read and important information more visible.

My Second Voice Teacher

When I was studying at the University of Chicago for three years (September 02 - June 05), I took lessons with Bruce Tammen, a voice teacher in the neighborhood. Bruce has conducted choral programs in several universities and has studied extensively in France with Dalton Baldwin and Gerard Souzay. Here is Bruce and me at the end of our last lesson in June 05!

Bruce has been a great teacher! Admittedly, I was not very committed to singing in my 1st year with him, cancelling lessons when I was sick, less than prepared or overloaded with work. In my 2nd and 3rd year, I was a whole lot more passionate, practising 5-6 times a week! In my previous years of studying piano, I have never been that dedicated and disciplined!

I have learnt alot from him. In particular, he has introduced me to much repertoire, emphasized diction and most importantly, hammered the necessity of smoothening the registers. With regard to register smoothening, his favorite exercise for me is what he calls "hum-glide", which is to portamento/glissando from falsetto to chest voice (i.e. normal voice, or more professionally, modal voice) and back to falsetto an octave apart, without having any breaks or "clicks" during the transition from one "voice" to another. I tell you, this exercise was killer especially for me! The "click" is always there! One possible reason is that my falsetto was extremely bad and weak, worse than most guys'! Most guys would be able to eliminate the "click" maybe after few months, one year. But I could never do it...even after constant drilling for three whole years!

Albeit initially frustrating, smoothening the register eventually produced incredible results for my voice (which I will relate more later). For that, I thank Bruce for making this the top priority during lessons!

A Little Picture

Hi all, this is a picture of Adeline and myself. We took the picture when we were touring a nature reserve in the states. I hope to use this picture to let everyone know me better. I really like the picture.

Anyway, the little concert in Art Cafe yesterday was still ok. Maybe we could have practised more. At one point, our pianist was still asking me how many pages was one of the pieces we were playing.

We like to thank the boss of the Art Cafe for giving us the opportunity to perform there.

one word...

i was keyin in de url to get to dis site and bingo...i got dis bluish page wif arabic words...i was like "wat de @#$*"...must b a virus man...must b blogger.com's fault....

den i saw de url => http://love-and-life.blogspot.com/

AMAZING...u can rotate between singapore and de arabic world at will all thanks to one word (ok...plus a dash)!

talk abt globalization, abt convergence, abt a flat world!!!

Of Criminals, Musicians and Technicians

in jiahua's (do you think he minds if i don't use caps for his name?) post "trumpet update," he talked about how brass players steal for their own use music originally composed for other instruments...interestingly, mr lindberg (the real one, the "christian" one, neither oskar nor charles) had entitled two of his albums "the criminal trombone"...of course, they are albums containing tons of arrangements/transcriptions of songs and instrumental favorites...

the first: "the criminal trombone"...and the second: "los bandidos - the criminal trombone 2.5"...not sure how he got from 1 to 2.5...but ain't that cute??? and what cute pictures!!! and you don't need a spanish to tell you that "los bandidos" is probably spanish for "the bandits"...and in the plural form since there are two of them, lindberg and the pianist pontinen...

first off, mr christian lindberg is great because he is a really great guy...i mean he is famous but he has zero airs about him. how i know? because he had a nice photo with me when he was doing the motorbike concerto! and he signed many of my CDs happily (unlike barrenbum who was so damn rude). he's so friendly!

and of course, he is an amazing musician...he is trombonist...yes, the...i mean some ppl might dispute his status as the best, but he's the man who put the trombone on E.T.'s map! and he is an accomplished composer and conductor too (ok...maybe because he's so famous to begin with)...but in any case, his technique and tone on the bone are wonderful, though not necessarily unparalleled...but that's not the point...the essence of his greatness (at least to me) is his musicianship, his artistry, his sincerity - things that truly matter. and yes, jia hua, he has a voice, unlike so many other "professional" musicians...

musicians out there...are you listening (to lindberg)?

are we musicians or technicians?

blogger played me out...

i wanted to post post post...but yest, blogger.com was just hangin arnd for such a damn freakin long time like some stupid kid at some even stupider shopping mall tryin to look very very cool indeed...that my post just got hung...and hung posts dun get resurrected...

its so late today once again...so i shall not post wat i wanted to post...but say hi instead...

Hi.

Posters Will Be Printed Soon!

I struggled a few times to decrypt and thumb out the poster from my computer in MINDEF (where I work) and somehow managed to successfully sneakily use Jane's account(the Branch IC). In the end, Mr Song (a DXO) kindly offered his computer for my use. Alas, the final version of the poster was sent to the printer.
The printer was quite efficient and I saw a sample copy of the poster a few hours later. It looks just like what it looks like on computer. Cool.

I would like to add here that I am sorry for neglecting my girlfriend Adeline, the little squishy cottondumpling. I miss her a lot and will be putting her little pictures beside our little friends when I go to bed tonight. She has given me a lot of encouragement and motivation for practising the violin and among many other things. But most of all, she's my best companion. I hope that she'll cheer up a little, although the fact that the water supply to her apartment was cut off would not help.

Classical Music in Art Cafe!

For all those folks who are interested:

Tomorrow night (7pm 26 Jul 2006), another group of friends and myself will be the 1st classical group to be performing at the Art Cafe in Esplanade Library. Many of you must have heard the singers and jazz performers at that venue, but classical music under that setting can be quite ground-breaking.

Performers are:
Jack Tan (piano)
YingNing (myself, violin)
Hongting (viola)
Kenneth Tham (cello)
Zejun (sorry, not so sure about spelling! violin)

We'll be playing some easy listening classical and contemporary music, as well as 3 mvts from both of Mozart's piano quartets. Well, wereally practised quite hard!

Another Concert Series

Shi Mei is involved in another concert on 6th August at the Esplanade Recital Studio presented by SPITZE. Do catch them if you can - these people are real pros who know what they're doing, and do it well. It should be a good show.

Visit their page! SPITZE

Trumpet Update

QH insists that we should update everyday, or maybe even a few times a day, so here I am again.

I'll be playing 3 items for the concert:

Telemann. Selections from 3 Heroic Marches
I. La Majeste
II. La Grace
III. La Vaillance

Edvard Grieg. Last Spring

Oskar Lindberg. Gammal fäbodpsalm från Dalarna

The interesting thing here is that none of this music was written originally for trumpet. Telemann was written for oboe or violin, Last Spring was for voice and piano (yes, the famous string orchestra version came later), and the Lindberg is an organ piece.

As someone once said in jest, "Brass players are like thieves, stealing tunes from here and there", which is of course quite true, due to the lack of quality music written for brass instruments, especially for trumpet, trombone and tuba in the 18th and 19th centuries. This was because brass instruments during this period faced musical limitations as a result of their inability to play outside of the natural harmonic series.

In the present day, we of course have the miracle of the valve system which allows us to play all 12 notes of the western chromatic scale. Thus, we are now able to dig into the past for the treasures which were denied brass musicians and "reappropriate" them for our own and the audience's enjoyment.

After all, which violinist is going to perform the gems of the Telemann, which a string player might dismiss as "elementary" musical exercises, but like a Mozart, demand pristine execution and certainty of style. And wouldn't you rather hear an original vocal melody in a medium closer to the original, than floating in a sea of meshed string tones. And indeed, how often would you hear a classic organ tune played on an organ anyway?

I'm just joking, right?

My First Voice Teacher

My very first teacher was Mr William Lim. He is a bass-baritone and recently performed as Bartolo in the Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) production of Marriage of Figaro. I started lessons with him about two months before I was to fly off to Chicago for the first time. Here he is on my right (in white). The other guy is my piano teacher, Mr Gan Choo Kheng. The photograph was taken at Love and Life last year!


I am fortunate to have begun my vocal exploration with him for he has imparted valuable foundational concepts of singing, notably on breathing and resonance, to me. Above all, he has inspired and urged me to carry on singing even as I embarked on my first of four years abroad. I have certainly heeded his advice...

Who am I? Rojak.

Out of the five of us, I am the least known in what I am going to do on August 27. The rest are famous names in their own respective circles. As I have mentioned before, all of them have or will be getting their degrees in music. For me, the highest certification of my musical ability is only an ATCL in piano. Not in singing. Nobody in the vocal/choir scene even knows me. As a musician, I am probably better known in my own narrow circle (simply, people who know me personally!) as a trombonist or an amateur conductor. Not as a singer. The last time I played the trombone for any period of time longer than 1 hour was 7 years ago. But I intend to pick it up again (somehow), since I actually own a trombone (for those interested, VB 42BO with a gold-plated VB 5G Megatone mouthpiece). The last time I conducted was quite recently actually. I took a whole-year's worth of Orchestral Conducting course (that contributed absolutely zero to my degree in Regional Studies - East Asia) while at Harvard. Prior to that, I conducted RJ band and RI alumni band. Where's singing then?

Few actually know that I used to sing even before I started with trombone in secondary school. First, I sung in my primary school choir. Then, in a Singapore Children's Choir (SCC) that represented Singapore in some ASEAN festival. Thereafter, in Seraphim Voices, the choir into which the SCC morphed. I was boy soprano then. Not just a soprano, but a very high one, hitting at least a D above the top C. Then, when my voice broke, it all stopped.

Then, just before I flew off to Chicago in September 2002, I decided to rejuvenate my hoarse and yes, manly voice, destroyed by many years of shouting and screaming and speaking really low (the last being the preferred method which many guys use to make themselves sound manly...also a sure way to traumatize your voice). Then began my four-year exploration into the world of classical singing, guided and inspired by the many teachers to whom I am really indebted. I will introduce them one at a time over a series of entries.

yet another day...and TICKETS and DETAILS!

i m not sure whether i shld post when i dun hv anythin interestin to say. m i just postin for de sake of it? wat in my life can i relate to the concert?

ok...TODAY...when jiahua passed me de printed tix, i met shimei for de 1st time, the missing piece in de jigsaw puzzle...ok...dat's the update...and of cuz, de tickets...

TICKETS are ready! and i m de ticketmaster. but for some reason or another, the poster (which will be revealed soon) indicates ying ning as de ticketmaster. two ticketmasters? confused? not really. as a (fake) economist, i believe in de division of labor. i m the ticket-owner and i assign tickets to be sold to all five. n dey come bak to me for more when dey hv sold deir allotted share. as for yingning, he is de main contact for outside ppl. in other words, he distributes tickets to outside ppl! SO SIMPLE! Now you know...

actually, it suddenly seems like complicated arrangement...but watever...it's trivial!

OK! for $8 TICKETS (yes, only one price and it's free seating! how wonderful!),
contact:

either
Quan Hui at 98719166
mobsterboy@gmail.com

or
Ying Ning at 97865503
koombaiya@gmail.com

if u r deciding which person to contact, just contact de person whose name u like better. somehow i tink "quan hui" sounds better. =P

for de absent-minded or de newb visitors of de blog,

DETAILS OF CONCERT
Live and Love Again
Aug 27 (Sun) 3:00PM
Young Musician's Society (YMS) Auditorium, 54 Waterloo Street, SINGAPORE
Piano, Trumpet, Violin, Voice (Baritone...to be a precise, a high one...which is me...nope, my voice...)

evidence for "behind every musician is..."

...see what i mean...in the photo, it is in front...but of course, you know he's standing (nope, he can never stand; he only sits) behind the audience...

Schools!

I was looking at QH's post about backgrounds and caught on about the idea of schools. For those of you familiar with my ERI mechanism, it's inevitable that I would have done the following, sooner or later, haha.

All of us came from different secondary schools! No overlap at all.

Quan Hui: Raffles Institution
Ying Ning: Chinese High School
Beatrice: Methodist Girls' School
Shi Mei: Dunman High School
Peiying: Anglican High School
Jia Hua: Victoria School (yes, for those of you who thought otherwise, I'm actually a half-breed Rafflesian, and damn proud of it! haha)

And...it's interesting that, even though they're all secondary schools, none of their official names carry the word "Secondary" in them.

Interessant, gar nicht?

A Violin Lesson Today With Yew Shan

I just had the privilege to have a lesson with Yew Shan today and I would like to post what are some of the things which I can improve on. We worked on the Grieg 1st violin sonata in F (what I'll be performing). We looked chiefly at some of the general things and corrected a few details.

1. PAY MORE ATTENTION TO PHRASING. I think sometimes in my urge to copy almost all the details I hear in recordings, I forget to do what would be logical, especially in phrasing.

2. DO NOT STOP VIBRATO BETWEEN NOTES. I think I am both too lazy to correct this and also a little insensitive to this aspect. Will definitely improve.

3. VIBRATO SHOULD SOUND JUST AS WIDE ON DIFFERENT POSITIONS. 2 main things to vibrato: amplitude and frequency. I'll have to try to vibrate such that the listener won't be able to tell which string/position I'm playing on.

4. PLAN THE BOW MORE CAREFULLY. Something even I tell my students ALL the time. I should be more vigilant than actually allow myself to be this lazy. I've to work backwards sometimes to see where my bow should end up, then plan from there.

5. BE CAREFUL TO NOT SLANT THE BOW TOO MUCH. This happens quite consistently when I've more down bow beats than up bow beats. I would then slant the bow away from my head on the up bow. This may be due to my sudden movement on the violin when changing string. Solution: look at mirror and practise a few times.

6. DO NOT OVER BEND RH THUMB/ BOW ARM CAN BE SLIGHTLY HIGHER TO BE 'ON TOP' OF THE STRINGS. My RH thumb tends to overbend especially when playing loud passages. This will affect the natural 'suspension' when holding the bow. It will also cause tension and possible/likely injury. Making the bow arm higher is related to this, but the problem of having a bow arm which is too low mainly caused me to have some difficulty playing the e string near the frog as my RH would tend to bump into the violin. I forsee that this will require a fair bit of experimentation and time to improve.

7. PRACTISE CERTAIN SHORT PASSAGES WITH METRONOME. When you think you've done enough of it, you actually haven't. The metronome still comes closest to a miracle when practising certain problematic passages. No easy solution!

I will try my best to improve. I would like to thank Yew Shan for his help and guidance.

Tickets Printed!

Tickets have been printed and will be available be sale from this Saturday!

I don't have a digital camera, so I can't take a picture of a ticket and post it here. But we do hope you will reserve/buy a ticket, and come enjoy the afternoon of 27th August with us at YMS!

Tickets are selling for $8 a-piece, and it will be free-seating inside the auditorium.

somebody asked for MY pic...so i give him OUR pic

This is a picture of JH (wonder whether he minds acronyms?) and QH (me) at McDonald's at Ghim Moh, right outside the old RJC in June 2004. Caveat before viewing: this is by no means my preferred pic.


BUT...Ghim Moh McDonald's is NOW gone. I was at Ghim Moh last week and to my horror, it's gone! WHY? I couldn't think of a reason since it's usually pretty crowded. A few seconds ago, I think I might have found the answer. Maybe it's because RJC has moved to Bishan and there are less rich kids around to eat the grub. Hmm...I need more research on this!

Fate or What? The Story of YN & QH

It's strange how Ying Ning and me came together again. We used to be coursemates in the Junior Music Course and Junior Piano Course at Yamaha, when we were baybees. Then, we lost contact. I mean, it's not surprising friends lose contact in the era without handphones. Do you remember the times in the not-too-distant past without handphones? But even now, with handphones, friends still disappear from time to time. And we were at 4 years of age? 5? After that, we went on with our happy lives. Then one day, I found him in the same JC as me! Oh well...but so what?...never did talk much to him...

Then, on yet another day, I found him in the same bunk as me!...not only the same bunk...but in adjacent beds (NOT on the same bed, mind you)! We turned out to be "buddies" in our 7-week Very Modified BMT (i.e. no swimming, no running, no gym, no route match, no SOC, no IPPT etc., at least for us). As you might know, both of us are PES C9 but are actually super-fit (actually not me...but Ying Ning ,, the only triathlete performing on stage on Aug 27). Since then, we have kept in contact. And so Love and Life and Live and Love Again became reality. Fate or what?

Of Letters and Names

I don't usually make a fuss about it, but seeing it in print here on the web startles me everytime. My name, is Jia Hua, not Jiahua... not a big problem, but it always catches my attention. heh

And if anyone's interested, in Chinese characters, it's

刘嘉桦

Yes, it's a very feminine name, and I do know a number of girls who have exactly the same, the most famous of whom is Ella Chen of S.H.E. fame. For the record, 桦 is a birch.

I also noticed that all our surnames start with the letter L. I'm not sure how the chinese characters line up, but it's pretty interesting anyway. And the concert's Live and Love again, so go figure!

An Accompanying Announcement

Hi guys, here to announce the addition of a new member to our team:

Lee Shi Mei

Shi Mei is currently an undergraduate at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, USA, majoring in both piano AND violin. (Powerful!) She's back in Singapore for her summer break and has graciously agreed to take part in Live and Love Again in spite of her busy schedule. She will be playing the keyboard part for me in the Telemann, Grieg and Lindberg.

Thanks Shi Mei, and welcome aboard!

About ME and US

Inspired by Ying Ning's "Low Ying Ning here!" post, I have decided to make a formal introduction of and for myself and ourselves.

I am happy, I am happy, I am happy.

I am crazy, I am crazy, I am crazy. So are we.

I am 24 still...same age as Ying Ning (Ying Ning is ONLY 24...he lied...he's the baby boy of the year!)...same age as Jiahua...3 of us are born in 1981...and hail from the RJC of the broken fence, "artistic" toilets, tiny classrooms, strange corridors (and whatever-have-you) fame...yes, the Mt. Sinai RJC...

Beatrice is a little younger...not sure how much younger...but younger...she looks younger too...

YING NING plays the violin and the piano, but will play the VIOLIN in this concert.
JIAHUA plays the trumpet and likes the piano and singing, but will play the TRUMPET.
BEATRICE plays the violin and the piano, but will play the PIANO here.
QUAN HUI (that's me) played/plays (depends on what happens) the trombone, plays the piano and sings, but will SING this time round.

Both JIAHUA and BEATRICE are in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at NUS, while YING NING, as he told you, graduated with a Double Major in Electrical Engineering and Violin Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Unlike my illustrious peers with peerless credentials, I graduated from the University of Chicago and Harvard University with NO music degree but one in economics and one in Regional Studies - East Asia. What a stark comparison!

I will continue another day...I am tired...=)

poster and tickets soon to be in print

OK! the poster and tickets will be finalized by tomorrow (wed jul 19)! and will go into print! YAY! when designs are done, we will post them up here for all to see!

Draft Poster by Ying Ning

Thanks Ying Ning for preparing the poster. It looks great, and I'm all okay for it. We'll need to confirm the pieces though.

Life is...

Going to the Esplanade Arts Library to make a copy of some music for Peiying, only to bump into her there!!

Bad news is, Peiying can't make it to our concert again as it's on a Sunday again, and our responsible hardworking composer-friend has to teach on Sunday! I think we should put a picture of her in our programme, so the audience will at least know what she looks like. After all, she'd be involved with us this year and last.

Reminder: Recital Details

It is:
Live and Love Again
27 Aug (Sun)
3PM
YMS Auditorium (Waterloo Street)

Official Photographer: James Chan Lianghong

YAY! After some thorough negotiations, we are extremely fortunate to have signed on professional photographer, James Chan Lianghong, as our official photographer. Photography being his main calling, James will soon be moonlighting as a proud scholar-official in IDA.

His unmatched artistry and unsurpassed technique at the camera can be sampled at his webbie "idiosyncratic verbosities". Look in particular at the photo album entitled "Love and Life: A Musical Journey" under "Events" for great photos of an equally great (or perhaps even greater) concert recital last August (OURS)!

Here is his pre-confirmed, -chopped, and -guaranteed picture, what I call his preferred pic (i mean all of us have at least one pic that is preferred enough to be publicized yah?)...here goes...Mr. James Chan:


We look forward to an exciting collaboration between James the Photo-Maestro and us at Love and Life.

P.S. For those kaypoh people, James was my RI upper-sec classmate, the one who was my class partner for a bit, and the one whose scratch-proof Seiko Kinetic watch I scratched during class...FYI...with his due permission...it was a challenge, you see. I just heard from him that the victim of my relentless scratching has found its final resting place in Yosemite. He thinks he just "dropped it."

Programme! Live and Love Again.

Okay, preliminary programme out!

1ST HALF

Telemann, 12 Heroic Marches (3 selections) Trumpet and Piano

Bach, Sanctus (from Mass in B Minor) Voice and Piano

Mozart, Abendempfindung (TBC) Voice

Schubert, Heidenröslein (TBC) Voice

Grieg, Violin Sonata in F Violin and Piano

2ND HALF

Romantic Piece (TBC) Piano

Grieg and Oskar Lindberg, Selection of Songs (TBA) Trumpet and Piano

Vaughan-Williams, Songs of Travel Voice and Piano

1st Meeting

I'm at QH's place now, and we're waiting for Ying Ning for arrive so that we can start our first official meetng for this year's L&L concert.

Right now we're listening to options for trumpet music I can play. Stuff by Grieg, Lindberg, as well as Telemann.

Peiying (our esteemed composer who did the arrangement of Home last year) is holding on to my Simon and Garfunkel CD to see if she get's inspired by any of the songs, and to arrange them to play with me. The poor girl is working at SCO six and a half days a week, so we'll have to wait a little longer before we can confirm that.

More updates later...

Low YingNing here!

Hello everyone,

I am YingNing and I have never blogged before. I will be playing the violin for our little recital and I intend to play Grieg's 1st violin sonata in F, accompanied by Beatrice.

Well, a little about myself:

25 male, loves Adeline, music and travelling. I studied the violin initially with Mr Lee Yuk Chuan, then with Mr Jiri Heger, after which I studied with Ms Jiang Danwen and Mr Sibbi Bernhardsson in University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The best way to know how I sound like is still to attend our little concert.

I am currently serving my NS in MINDEF, G1-Army, while concurrently teaching the violin to a number of students. If all these sound boring, I'll be a secondary school teacher after I ORD. Though not exactly the most exciting person you'll find, I envision a better future for the world.

OK...i shall update...

practising pretty regularly too...and jiahua finally got the missing song "Bright is the Ring of Words" from the NUS music library... so i have the full "Songs of Travel" now! YAY!

me, yingning and jiahua are going to meet very very soon to finalize the repertoire and proceed with our publicity blitz...YES! we want many many many ppl to come!

so who is updating!?

c'mon guys...do your part! write something! DUN B BORING!

discipline returns

YES! i did 20 minutes this morning!...little but satisfying! =)

laziness breeds remedy

i have not sung for the past two days and i am feeling very guilty. tomorrow, i am going to wake up and practise singing first before going to work slightly later and knocking off slightly later. this is the discipline i need to keep up. this is necessary because i will only come back at about 11pm tomorrow.

behind every musician is...

Behind every musician is...


...a toy (E.T. in this case)...giving inspiration and joy throughout the years...

E.T. in Venice!

World Cup Night

Hi all,

I'm at QH's house tonight for the World Cup Finals between France and Italy. Viva France!!!

I asked Beatrice yesterday if it was possible to do the S&G guitar stuff on the piano, and she said it would be a bit difficult, but maybe do-able. There's some drum-set stuff too, so maybe Anthony can get involved?

Was thinking of getting Lim Jia to play the 2-part counterpoint with me, but it seems like she probably won't be back for the whole summer. Then Najib might not be around come 27th August too, so I'm not sure who else to ask. Definitely shouldn't be Quan Hui, because then one voice would dominate over the other - it has to be two voices of similar timbre.

Simon and Garfunkel

I'm giving in to temptation and contemplating the (very real) challenge of doing some S&G on trumpet. I assure you it is extremely difficult to do proper songs on a wind instrument.

Got hold of an anthology of their songs, but aside from Bridge Over Troubled Water, all the piano transcriptions are simplified versions of the original guitar accompaniment. Plus, none of the famous S&G counterpoint included. But the counterpoint is the simple part. How do you make a piano play (not sound) like a guitar??

I thinking of...

Sound of Silence
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.
For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her
Kathy's Song
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Ensemble finale. This would be the easiest. Original piano, and long soaring lines that scream "violin")

Maybe need an upbeat song, right?

Inaugural Photo of Inaugural Recital

OK! First photo! Taken at the Inaugural Love & Life on 14 Aug 2005. Me and Ying Ning flanking our VERY FIRST piano teacher! Never thought we would see the teacher who taught us when we were 4-5 years old! CRAZY! (P.S. Me and Ying Ning were in the same Yamaha piano course - Junior Piano Course (JPC), I think - when we were baybees!)

missing 4th member

yes...where's mr yingning? the soon-to-be teacher...

Of Voice Timbre

jiahua: my voice is more resonant, yup. but i m not sure whether it's loud enough. my priority in my timbre is beauty! it's more beautiful (at least to me) but not sure whether it's loud enough for you! but i think i can match a restrained trumpet sound...haha!

My First Song Cycle

I will attempt my very first song cycle, Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams for the recital this year. English songs based on poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. Not very easy for many reasons.

1. English is the hardest language of the four languages in Western classical music. Cannot believe, right? YES! Cuz English has too many variations in consonants and vowels. A language extremely unkind to singers.

2. Song cycles (might) require a level of maturity in musicianship and age to attempt (attempt only, NOT perform...HAHA!) because it demands the singer to be able to make poetic and musical sense of each song and at the same time relate each to the rest in order to impart a sense of unity, a sense of wholeness to the cycle.

3. The poems are not THAT straightfoward. Especially for someone who last studied poems in Sec 2.

4. The songs in the cycle are in general slow ballads. Slow songs are extremely hard to perform!

That's all that I can think right now...BUT exciting! I like excitement! YAY!

QH

Singer Rep

QH, can you post your repertoire up, so I can see what I have to work with...

I think Dickinson is out of the question. Doesn't really recite well. Hardy's much more accessible.

For the ensemble piece, how about Bridge Over Troubled Water? Unlike most Simon and Garfunkel, this is built around the piano.

Also, I think QH's voice has improved a lot - much more resonance. Do you think you can hold up beside a trumpet? That might open up other possibilities.

*Where's Ying Ning?!*

tentative booking at YMS Auditorium - 27 Aug

OK! yingning has reported that our preferred date of 13 Aug is no longer available. he has made a tentative booking on 27 Aug (Sun) at the Young Musician's Society (YMS) Auditorium for our concert - whatever it is called. good to have more time to launch our publicity BLITZ and of course, more practice!

Something irrelevant

Sorry, this is something totally out of point.
I was looking at the dates of the previous post and thought, wah, how come these posts are dated a few months back? Then after 5 minutes, I realised that the date is actually today's date. -!!!- So I've actually been living in september or october for the past few days.. sigh!

A Taste of Hardy

A Young Man's Epigram on Existence

A senseless school, where we must give
Our lives that we may learn to live!
A dolt is he who memorises
Lessons that leave no time for prizes.

boss...u'd better go take some lessons from a pro...don't embarrass urself!

Poetry

Yes, like I was telling QH, what about....

"Live and Love Again: An afternoon of music, song and poetry"

I'm thinking of reciting poetry instead of playing trumpet. Just got the complete works of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Hardy. If you're into commemorations, 2006 is the 120th anniversary of Dickinson's death and 30th anniversary of the publication of Hardy's complete poems.

Of course I have no experience with this, but heck, this will be the experience, right?

2nd POST!

YAY! my 2nd post! maybe E.T. should post too!

LALALA!

YAY! my first post! my virgin post! i hv always wanted to blog! YAY!

test again

test again

test

QH: how's this?