Long Day...
I had accompaniment the whole day at the conservatory today, from 9am to about 8pm, with a few breaks in between. Very tiring, but enjoyable.
Time to rest for tomorrow. Another whole day of.....teaching. Sigh!
A "Hot" Evening
Yesterday evening, I met my sis, Darius and Jae Sern for dinner at Marina Square. As I had a few super yummy fried chicken wings (thanks to my brother) before meeting them, I was quite full by the meeting time, so I ordered a bowl of pork and vegetable dumpling soup. It was so-so. The soup tasted funny.
After dinner, JS went back first, so the 3 of us walked over to Esplanade Recital Studio for a piano recital by Albert Lin, afterwhich, we went to Harry's Bar for a drink and chit-chat. I ordered Star Wars, and by the time I was halfway through the drink, I was already "burning".
My face felt really hot and I didn't know how red I was until I saw the photo of myself. We also ordered a basket of spicy potato wedges and it was super delicious. D and I couldn't stop eating, and by the time we remembered to leave some for my sis, the basket was nearly empty. Luckily she was too engrossed with her new handphone to notice the food. Haha.
We had a great time chatting about anything and by the time we got ready to go home, it was already nearing 11.30pm.
It sure was a "hot" and fun evening! :)
My New Blogskin & Mahjong
Darius came over to my house yesterday afternoon to change my blogskin. After spending lots of time trying to fit the picture onto the whole screen with no success, we settled for this finished product. I like it very much in fact. Thanks, Darius! :)
After dinner, Darius, my sis and I proceeded to our "multi-purpose" music studio for mahjong. It was really fun! I was the big winner for the 1st game, but Darius was the bigger winner for the 2nd game. All the money that I won at the 1st game went back to him at the 2nd game. No need to say who was the big loser. Haha. By the time we ended the game, it was about 12.45am.
It was a fun evening and we're planning to have another session before Darius goes to serve our dear country. Haha.
Michael Head's Oboe Works
This afternoon, I played for the oboe studio class at the conservatory, and one of the students played 3 short pieces by British composer Michael Head (1900-1976):- Gavotte, Elegiac Dance and Presto for oboe and piano. They're really beautiful pieces. They have the feel and the mood of English countrysides. The student and I really enjoy playing the pieces. They have given me inspiration to write a piece for oboe and piano, which I'm now working on. I hope to present it to you guys soon.
My Broadjam Music Link
Last night, I've uploaded a handful of my compositions onto the Broadjam (
www.broadjam.com) website. I've added the link to my blog and it's under
Shao Ying's Music on my music links. I also have a direct link to it at
www.broadjam.com/shaoyinglow . Those of you who want to have your music posted on Broadjam can sign in as a member on it's website but you have to pay a membership fee, which has a different cost for a different package. The website is very interesting and you can also sell your music online, and even sell them to US radio stations direct!
It's worth checking it out for composers/songwriters/singers or any music-lovers.
A Beethoven Recording
I did a recording of the 1st movement of Beethoven's 5th Cello Sonata with Tang Jia this afternoon at the conservatory, and we had a lot of fun recording it. As the recording engineer is very good, plus the "reflective" accoustics of the rehearsal studio, our recordings sounded very professional and impressive.
I can't wait to get a copy of it when it's ready!
My Handphone
This afternoon, my sis and I went for rehearsals/lessons at the conservatory, and when we reached there, I realised that I've left my handphone at home. I was charging it and I had forgotten all about it until then. Left with no choice, I went for my rehearsals.
After my 1st rehearsal, I had to borrow a handphone from a student to call the student for the 2nd rehearsal, as she was 10mins late. She arrived 5mins later to say she sms-ed me to say that she'll be late, but as my handphone was at home, I didn't get her sms.
Halfway through our rehearsal, my tiny mechanical pencil dropped behind the piano keyboard cover, so I had to borrow the student's handphone to call my sis, and ask her to call Eddie, the conservatory piano tuner, to come and help me get my pencil out.
After our rehearsal, I had to borrow the student's handphone again to call my sis to go home together.
When we finally reached home, I went straight to check my handphone and found that I had 1 missed call and 4 sms-es. 1 was from the student telling me that she would be 10mins late.
My goodness! How inconvenient it is when one doesn't have a handphone. I guess I'm too "pampered" by my handphone such that I "can't live" without it. I have realised the importance of having my handphone around at all times.
"I promise I'll never forget you again!"
Good Friends
"This is Teddy and Me!"
"We are good friends."
"Tickle, tickle!"
"Let me tell you a secret!"
"Gasp! What's that smell?!"
"Heh! Heh!"
Cello Masterclass
This evening, I played for a cello masterclass by American cellist, Stephen Framil, at the conservatory. He has a doctorate degree in music from Indiana University where he was a student of Janos Starker.
4 students played for him, and works performed included Shostakovich's 1st Cello Concerto (1st movement) and Cello Sonata (3rd and 4th movements), Stravinsky's Suite Italian (1st 3 movements) and Kodaly's Cello Sonata Op.8 for solo cello (1st movement).
Framil talked mostly about the bow arm and vibrato for the concerto and Suite Italian, and a few of us felt that maybe he didn't know the works well enough to talk about them. But when he came to the 2 sonatas, he was very at ease and he taught with such detail (especially for Kodaly) that he could have easily gone on and on if not for the time restrain.
The 2 and a half hour masterclass finally ended at about 8.30pm. I wished he had talked more about the concerto and Suite Italian, though.
It works!
This morning, I went to check on the 2 lizard traps. I found a big, fat lizard trapped in the one next to the computer table. Unfortunately, the other one in my studio is empty. It's either the baby lizard is super smart, or the bait in the box is not tempting enough for it.
Nevermind. I'll leave the box for one more night and see how. If it's still not trapped by tomorrow, then I'm going to use insecticide.
To the baby lizard: I know where you're hiding!
Lizard Traps
The irritating lizards in my house, including a baby lizard in my music studio, really got on my nerves, so I decided that I have to do something about it. Therefore, this morning, I went to NTUC to buy a packet consisting of 2 foldable lizard trapping boxes. They come with baits in the middle of a big patch of sticky surface. Tonight, I'll put 1 in my studio and 1 next to the computer table to see if it works. If it does, I'll go buy a few more to put in the other parts of the house.
Sickening lizards! Waste my money!
Well-done!
This morning, I went to the conservatory to rehearse with Ekachai for the conservatory's Concerto Competition Finals. He played Elgar's Cello Concerto.
When we got to play at about 12.30pm, we were told beforehand by the head judge that we would be stopped halfway through the slow, 3rd movement, but in the end, they listened to the whole concerto. Later in the afternoon, Ekachai called me to say that he won 1st prize. I was, and still am very happy for him. He really deserves it.
Well-done, Ekachai!
A Night Out
I had dinner with Judy, my JC classmate, this evening at Ang Mo Kio Central's Jack's Place Restaurant. We chose the place because we like it's cosy atmosphere. Tonight's dinner was also my pre-birthday treat from her. Thanks, Jude! :) We chit-chatted about everything, including lasik eye surgery which she did some time back. She has perfect eye-sight now and she's really happy with the end result. After talking more about that, I was, sort of, tempted to give it another try, but we'll see.
After dinner, we went to nearby Courts to look at laptops and furniture. After browsing through the store for a while, I ended up buying a clothes rack, while Judy bought a nice red foldable chair. I was very tempted to buy it as it was really comfortable, especially the head-rest, but I didn't want any naggings at home, so I decided against buying it. :(
Maybe I'll dream about it tonight...
Unfortunate "Accident"
I finally have some time to update my blog.
This past week especially, has been packed with happenings such as our SSO rehearsals and concerts, YST Conservatory rehearsals, lessons and Concerto Competition Preliminaries, rehearsals with students taking their ABRSM and Trinity Graded and Diploma examinations, and my own teachings.
This morning, my sis and I went to the Conservatory to play for the preliminaries of the Concerto Competition. Ekachai and Yi Bin played very well and I'm very happy that they both got through to the Finals, which will be held on the 13th September.
In the evening, together with our parents, we went to VCH early to get ready for our 2nd "Mozartiana" concert with the SSO, where we played Mozart's Concerto for 2 Pianos in E flat Major. The past few orchestral rehearsals and last night's concert had gone quite well, especially the cadenza of the last movement. Very unfortunately, tonight's cadenza wasn't as good as last night, due to some very unfortunate "accident".
I hope I can get over it as soon as possible. If not, it's going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
My face felt really hot and I didn't know how red I was until I saw the photo of myself. We also ordered a basket of spicy potato wedges and it was super delicious. D and I couldn't stop eating, and by the time we remembered to leave some for my sis, the basket was nearly empty. Luckily she was too engrossed with her new handphone to notice the food. Haha.
"This is Teddy and Me!"
"We are good friends."
"Tickle, tickle!"
"Let me tell you a secret!"
"Gasp! What's that smell?!"
