I woke up at about 9.30am this morning and felt quite fresh, especially since I took leave today for the concert. Met ym, el and cher for lunch at Din Tai Fung, Raffles City and then we head to Victoria Concert Hall. When we got there, we took our time to get dressed, warm up a bit and then all of us took turns to take section photos by a professional phorographer.
We settled down for rehearsal at about 3pm and managed to go through some important parts. My el camino real sounded ok only and I asked Jo what he thought of it. He commented on a phrase from the same page and I took note of it, making sure I will do it during the actual performance. I noticed lately that Jo is not the same person as before. Compared to last time when I just know him, he has opened up more to other people and seems more talkative. Smiles a lot more and is friendlier too.....:) During the rehearsal, the photographers went around the stage to take pictures of the band. My conductor seemed a bit irritated by the shutter noise....hahah.....
We stopped rehearsal at 5 pm. Then I saw an sms from jac and realised he is doing our concert recording. Chatted with him for a while and asked how he is doing. Took dinner and then I went back to the changing room to get ready. As cher and I did our make-up, I told her that I envy her going to Spain for exchange (if her application is successful). I really wish to go there one day. She looked a bit sad and she told me why. Let's just say she wants to take a long break and I am going to miss having her around in the band. After we got ready, we went on stage for warm up and tuning and then standby at the backstage. Took some photos while we waited.....
And then we performed the first piece. Malaguena was so so....Westside Story was ok too....."maria" went rather well but I fumbled a bit in the second phrasing. The first half was rather fast and it was only 8pm when it ended. My conductor doesn't allow us to mingle with the crowd during interval so I called yh and the others to meet up after the concert. I sneaked out for a while when I heard Jo mentioned seeing ph and went to see her. Stood by the stage and talked to her for a moment. She lost weight. Sigh, if only ph, dr, yx and hm also played with us...miss having them around.
The percussion ensemble did their sambal item which got a rousing reaction from the audience. Then its back to normal repertoire as we got back on stage. Jo pat on my shoulder and wished me good luck. Law too.. Second Suite came and went and then came the important piece of the evening, El Camino Real. The french horns went a bit too fast at the beginning but the whole piece sounded quite good. The middle slow passage was also not bad but the oboist had some problem with the notes. Understand that it was the instrument problem, not her fault. My part at the 8/8 bar went ok.....did what Jo told me and then the solo. Took all the breath I need and I sounded nice. I knew this cos Jo tapped on his euphonium after I finished it (a sign by fellow musicians to commend that the soloist or section played good). The last fast section proceeded well and the audience liked it! Jo said I sounded good cos I took in more breath. Got a few positive comments from my friends after the concert and I was glad the solo went well. At least no major mistake.
Went down to meet my friends after the concert and hanged around at the reception area until almost everyone left. I went to thank an ex-colleague who also came for the concert and got a few comments as well. While I was talking to him, a young boy came up to say hi and it was the guest player who came to play with us at convocation last August at Suntec City. Almost couldn't recognize him due to his funky hairstyle. Congratulated me and I thanked him for coming to the concert. Suz gave me a bouquet of flowers.......I was so happy to receive it. Its the first time I receive a bouquet at a concert. :) Took pictures with them. Thank you yh, 3sa & bf, yx & fren, lj, kev, suz and YA for coming to the concert! I really appreciate your support!!!
A lot of people asked why I didn't want to go off from vch and chose to go back to school and I just simply answered that I have no other life, too much time anyway.....so just go back to school with them....
After my friends left, I hanged around to chat with yx and some other people. Shared some gossip and bitching....haha.....then cher and I quickly went up to grab our stuff to head back to school. yx hanged around with us till the truck came to load the stuff and while waiting, we talked about my job and he told me to start thinking about being more positive and not to run once i meet obstacles at work. He encouraged me and told me to be more tenacious. Think through what I have learnt so far about myself and how to be better, which I have not done a lot. He told me to use the example when I was in symphonia exco as a librarian. How I learnt to manage a library with no prior experience at all. Although yx could have step in to help me, he did not do so at that time but let me run my own show and somehow set up a library that somewhat has a system, even though we have different views on managing the library. He asked me whether I have thought thru what I learnt about myself and the process of managing the library during those times, but sadly I did not. I remembered I was stressed out and bad tempered, showing my frustrations at the band members, which is totally not right. And yet all these years, I did nothing about it and it has cost me my sight in my career path and my relationship. I was so sad when I thought about it and yx is right. Like what I have previously mentioned in my other post, I should tolerate and be positive. Do something to improve the situation and not just simply give up. Sigh....as we sat in the bus back to school, I looked out the window, thinking thru what yx said and a tear rolled down my cheeks.
When we reached school, we took quite a long time to move everything back. As usual we dilly-dally around the bandroom, took more photos and finally got our asses out from school. Cher didn't joined us as her mum was coming to fetch her and she went to kopitiam to buy food instead. Hugged her a goodbye. I asked if she was ok and she said yes, just a bit irritated. Think both of us love this band too much. And have too many things going on in our lives. The rest of us went to Mac at bras basah complex. What a place to go after a successful concert. While we were eating, Pao asked whether both of us should be sitting in the audience next year. I have a wierd feeling at this question but I told him I would prefer to perform in the concert. A wierd place to end off the concert but anyway we will have a post celebration to make up for it. Its been a bitter-sweet night. Thank you Symphonia!
2 Feb 2008 4.43am
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