tratakkaaism

Yesterday felt like a departure, a farewell. I feel sad inside, but the concert made up for everything and I’m really very, very happy.

The day didn’t start off too well. Meetings and (pseudo-)conflicts. Whatever. Lunch, got to spend the little time I could spare with my J1 section girls. I really hope they’ll join the pathetic female population of the Clarinet section. (ie. me.) Combined, left after Elsa. Decided to take bus to VCH since there was still time, polished my clarinet on the bus and got my EZ-link checked for the first time. (Haha I don’t take bus that often.) By the time I reached I only managed join in the rehearsal for Punch, then soundcheck ended.

Went Funan for Pastamania dinner with my best MWO buddies Hansel and Weijie. It felt like a farewell dinner, since Hansel and I aren’t coming back for practice anymore after this concert, plus Weijie might not as well. All in all, we won’t be seeing each other any time soon, until perhaps next year when I go back or a few years after Hansel finishes his NS. A little sad yet immensely happy to have dinner with these two great friends, the ones whom I go to practice for. These years in MWO have been great with you guys, I don’t know how life would have been like without your friendships and all those fun times we had. Thanks for the memories guys :D

Went back to VCH, slacked around, got changed, set up my instrument, got ready backstage. I was really excited for this concert because the repetoire is so much better than the previous concerts, and it’s the first time I’m playing first part. I was definitely stressed about sitting next to Mr Chua and yet extremely excited about the concert. One thing I’d say I regret about was my attendance, which I think I should have been more strict with myself about. Shouldn’t have gone to Kor’s church (Well, maybe not.), shouldn’t have ponned when I was tired, should have mugged for Sup Papers earlier, should have arranged for recital practice another time, should have, shouldn’t have. JC Band Fest would’ve been the only exception for not going. Ah well. My apologies and greatest regrets ):

Anw, went on stage for tuning and all that. It wasn’t full house, which was really sad because we always have full house! Omg. I don’t know why sales were so bad ): I think I practically sold half of the ticket sales for Circle seats lah! Sigh. But whatever, those who didn’t come missed out on a great concert haha. Yup, so we started off with New York! :D One of those not-too-difficult light-hearted pieces. Damn fun to play. It super New York-ish, and I love the character of the piece. Go Abidin for the whistle :D Next up, Pagan Dances which was pretty alright. I enjoyed the piece even though I suddenly felt extremely stressed about my entries! Omg, I don’t know why it suddenly became so stressful to count rests. And that repeated pattern in the third movement! I was so worried we might play one phrase less or extra. (We didn’t, phew.) Perhaps we were going faster than usual. I didn’t really like the stressful feeling but haha, at least I was alert. Those high notes and the glissandos up to High G were super fun to play. Woohoo! Warrior’s Dream conducted by Wong Kah Chun the composer himself, pretty decent wind band music I’d say. I like his modulations (but Ben Pooi thinks otherwise) and his lyricism very much. Indeed, its kinda cheesy sometimes, but I still like it. His melodies tugs at the heart, and I’ll like to compose like him one day. (Compo! Argh!) He’s a rising local composer, I’d salute to him :) Internal Combustion next, high stress piece! Omg 272 and 283 were how screwed up?! Haha Chenghuat and I were like omg shit its screwing up !#$%$^&* LOL. Sigh. But the rest of the piece was okay I guess. All that changing metre was so fun :D Kudos to Percussion for the honking and all that mass (mess) of noise haha! Actually I think the whole band made a lot of noise anyway! Lol.

Intermission! Got a packet of sweets from Em, a choc and note from Manning! Went to Circle seats to see all the people who came for the concert: Emily, Sheree, Edwin, Michelle, Zhanwei, Yuyan, Eugene, Soomin, Derek, Jono, Matthew, Daryl, Amos, Saxophone Section (Liz, Pat, Yeejie, Ryan, Peishi, Matthew) Thanks so much for coming! :D I think I’m a really good saleswoman haha. After intermission went around taking pictures with everyone since it was Stage Band haha. Photos in  Flickr! :D Yup then it was time to go back on stage for the second half of the concert! Riverdance was a BLAST :D Wellspring Theme/Women of Ireland was super fun. Joel’s sop solo was super. When I heard his first bend down it was so good I was smiling on stage. (Desmond and Chenghuat as well haha.) Tacet for The Heart’s Cry and Thunder & Lightning but they were great too. Go Percs for T&L! They were how pro man, and Ian, you rock! (He played perc for Riverdance only. Clarinettist leh! Not bad right.) Riverdance Finale was smashing! Extremely fun to play all those running passages, and Chenghuat & I was super into the mood. It was super duper fast and crazy but we did it, and it was amazing fun. Joel’s Finale sop solo was, again, super. In fact it was near flawless! The first clarinets were smiling again haha. I felt so proud of him! :D We ended great, and even more geared up for the next piece Punch. Wow, I tell you, Punch was so high energy, I haven’t felt so high while playing a piece for some time! Loved it. Those hated D minor scales, arpeggios, descending thirds, syncopations.. I love them! Haha. Hats off to YunQi (CGSSB alumni!) for the fantastic solos on the synthesizer and Joel once again for his crazy sop solos. Like he says, its good bullshit haha! That high note, GUSH :D Everyone started bobbing their heads and smiling again haha. Oh yes and great job to the trumpet and trombone solos, as well as bravo to Shuling (CGSSB alumni!) who sightread the Bass Guitar solo and played it on her Double Bass! Can’t Take My Eyes Off You as the Encore after that, which is REALLY STUPID because the encore was freaking PRINTED on the programme booklet. Nice. Not too bad for an encore, Sharon (ACJC alumni!) was great on flute as usual. Yup so the concert ended! On a high note :D The tubas started playing some CNY song which was absolutely retarded but it was so impromtu and turned out fun LOL.

After concert, went to meet the ACJC/IB people, the Sax section asked for Joel, brought Em to see Colin (Mr. Tan!), took more photos, went to Clarke Quay Macs for Supper :D I treated everyone $1 Coke since there was no ice cream ): We took up 3 tables! Lol, my fanclub is bigger than Kakeru’s :P Left about 11ish, trained home with Derek and Matthew.

Time to say thanks! Thanks to Desmond my SL for being understanding about my terrible attendance leading up to this concert! Thanks to Chenghuat for being a great share-stand-partner! Thanks to the section for this marvellous concert! Thanks to Hansel, Weijie, Lihong, Jianjun, Jiexin for all the memories! Thanks to all those I listed just now and my Crescent kids for coming! Really appreciate it :D And finally thanks to Mrs Chua who gave me the opportunity to join Mus’Art 2 years ago! <3 I’ll miss making music with a band which has strong woodwinds, stronger brasses and a happening percussion section. This year I really won’t be coming back anymore, not like in Sec4 haha. It’ll be madness if I play for the 5 July concert, followed by Muse - A Night to Remember on 6 July and the AC Band overseas trip on 7 July. Then if I take part in NBC for Mus’Art it will be even crazier (sometime in July) , as well as the Singapore International Wind Band Competition (20somethings of July), which I’ll have to join with AC Band. Yup. This has been the best Mus’Art concert I’ve performed in. I enjoyed myself very very much and I’m so glad that I performed. It was so fun! Thank you all so much. I’ll miss all of you, so Love, everyone, from me. Farewell!

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Talked to Em on the phone last night and at the end of it I was almost unconscious. Slept from 2AM to 4PM. The weather outside was so sleep-inducing, I couldn’t help myself but to sleep in as long as I possibly could. Haha. Spent my waking hours blog-hopping, uploading concert photos, and updating. I told myself to start work at 8PM, but look at the time now. Haha, what a procrastinator I am. Toodles then.

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¥ŽhÅn ώÆi ® [The irresistable desire to be irresistibly desired] says:
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samho (: says:
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¥ŽhÅn ώÆi ® [The irresistable desire to be irresistibly desired] says:
LOL

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