ah, i think being away from melbourne and conducting allows me some freedom to blog bout less serious stuff in a less serious manner:

- watched elvira’s own show with her band at alexis for the first time, fantastic voice.. nice gesture of letting me step up to jam on the guitar with them for ‘ain’t no sunshine’. wonderful musicians!

- third MPO concert this saturday, fantastic musicians.. lots of respect for kees bakels and his conducting. okaylah shouldn’t blog about them, trying to be casual.

- feel a little guilty that the first airconditioner in my house is in my room.. parents got me one cause i’ve been having problems breathing and sleeping. looks like i’ll be sleeping well tonight!

- been having a good time with the boys (and charissa..) playing poker, COD4, supper, futsal etc. good times. hope to be back in june again, but will have to struggle to swim above the pile of music that’ll be thrown my way when i get back to melb

- kat’s going back to melb in 2 days.. i’ll be back in 8 (:

- realised i’m no good at being a casual blogger..

it’s been a rather turbulent month, after receiving news of being declined entry into masters of music.

it was rather difficult, being forced to retreat from my comfort zone and reconsolidate my worldview on conducting.. rewatched the videos of the great conductors and masterclasses that inspired me, reread the books that molded my understanding of conducting, and considered applying for the conservertoires in which these great conductors were trained (sydney, russia, uk.. i was quite close to sending an application to st petersburg) all i originally planned for was just to spend the next 3-5 years enjoying the straight forward path of being the regular conducting student in melbourne!

st petersburg’s conducting department has ten conducting professors and tutors of obviously differing conducting and teaching methodologies. melbourne has one.

at the end, i did manage to secure an offer from melbourne for mmusstuds, which is basically the same program as the one i was looking for except it’s 2 semesters instead of 3. perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise.. shorter term of study. quicker to be tossed into the real world of dealing with unforgiving orchestras, other conductors, musicians and audiences. (: how delightful!

it seems that there will be no comfort zone in pursuing this career of conducting, not until you reach the highest level. the difference in styles and philosophies in conducting are really unaccomodating, especially in the area of training. it’s so hard to find any security in knowing that you’re on the right path, cause it really depends on who you choose to listen to.

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flying back on the stroke of midnight, that’s the earliest i could get a flight home! will be counting down in tullamarine’s boarding room. see you soon!

i have passed all my exams and will graduate on 15th dec! masters audition result yet to be released though.

ocf convention went very well, my deepest thanks and apologies to the many who tried to sabo me for my 22nd birthday. kat tells me that there were milk, 2 buckets, water, lots of muffins and eyebrow shaving involved. PHEW. thanks for planning all that, but i think i’m glad i missed out! thanks also to those for coming to trevi to share a meal together.

will reply all facebook wall posts as soon as i can!

atm trying to get a flight back at 21st dec with uncle peter’s help, if i can’t it’ll have to be 8th jan.

this week i learnt that music must precede technique. music cannot be imprisoned by the rigidity of ‘good’ technique, on whichever instrument. technique should be learnt and adapted to serve the music, not the other way around.

total opposite of what i have been doing the last 4 years.. no wonder i didn’t enjoy it. it’s such a beautiful instrument of expression; but i realize that so much learning of music has been undone in the last 4 years, in spite of some technical improvement. i must remind myself not to make the same mistake again (with conducting or any other instrument).

final exam on tuesday. hopefully i will brave myself to approach the instrument again after this..

bach – fantasie in c minor
mozart – sonata in bflat k570, i
schumann – des abends, warum, in der nacht (from fantasiestucke)

i had the most amazing experience meeting a man on the street last night, spoke to him until 2 in the morning. it was FREEZING!

last night for not much reason at all, i went to borders half an hour before it closed, took some music magazines and sat down at the cafe. there was only one other person there sitting one table away from me, he saw my magazines and asked me whether i was a musician, and his eyes lit up. turns out he used to be the concertmaster for tasmanian symphony and is now a freelance preacher. we chatted for about 20 minutes, and as we walked out of borders, he said that he must introduce me to melvin.

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melvin was standing outside lygon court as he does every other day and night, tirelessly entertaining people with his violin playing. i pass him by all the time without saying a word, but i needed an introduction for me to speak with him.

we didn’t take very long to warm up to each other. as we stood there in the cold for 3 hours, he tried his hardest to impart on me as much knowledge as he possibly could. his eyes welled up with tears as he recalled what greatness he seemed destined for as a musician and conductor, having turned down conducting the melbourne symphony and a scholarship to paris conservatoire, because he felt that he needed to prepare himself as a human being so he accepted a scholarship to oxford to study philosophy instead.

so he did. but after 10 successful years of great music in london, he tragically lost the use of his right arm. the rest was history. he regained the use of his arm many years later, but that hiatus was enough to turn his career over.

and as it turned out, he wasn’t grieving over the loss of his career, but he was grieving over what classical music has become here in australia. with the exception of a few sparks, dead. meaningless. empty.

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he taught me such a great deal in 3 hours, very intense ideas, some were in my mind overly spiritual, but it was all amazingly inspiring, meaningful and musical. i had a good glimpse of what great musicians are made of.

how odd is it that i have found myself a friend and mentor, in an unkept 60 year old violinist on the street.

i’ve only managed about 25 posts since i was back in kl last year!

looking forward to going back, it’s really been a long while. it might be the first christmas i won’t be able to spend with my friends from church, without caroling practices and randomly singing christmas songs. will be back latest 8th january cause the flight tickets were completely sold. better late than never. lots of friends to catch up with, and see how the year has treated us.

my third battle of the bands today! i’ll post photos if i can find some. it should be quite strange to have them side by side with photos from the orchestra.

so much to be said, but so little desire to.

i realize i have not earned any of this success as a musician, i’m forever grateful to these friends who made this experience real for me. thank you.

many thanks to the 160 people that came, the chapel was very nearly full! the video will be put up soon. thanks khai for the photos!

it just struck me that i’ll be home for the first time in almost a year! should i still call kl home? there’re so many things about malaysia i don’t like. rude ppl in general (our formal greeting is ‘oi’), hard-to-find coffee, no spend-at-will privileges.

no classical music. zero. zilch. nada. what’s that? can eat wan ar.

but the definition of home is family, friends who are like family, real food and driving fast right.. and turning into every lane with a nostalgic sigh. haha. in that case i guess it’s home i’m going back to.

more photos!

concert’s this coming sunday, october 21st, 3pm at newman college (887 swanston street, parkville, melbourne). please come if you’re in town! visit the website for more information

www.orchestrenouveau.org.au

will write more thoughts about this experience after.. it’s been a rather crazy week =)

concert’s this coming sunday, 21st october at 3pm, newman college (887 swanston street, parkville, melbourne). please come if you’re in town! click on website for more information

www.orchestrenouveau.org.au