The Dragon Sings

This was a show by the Camerata of St Johns and The Orava Quartet to launch a book called The Dragon Sings by Helen Clancy McBride.

While the link is up, click it for details.

It was on at 7pm in St Johns Cathedral on Ann Street.

This morning Laura asked me if I wanted to take tickets to the show. I certainly did, which is how the princess and I found ourselves at the event. When we went to collect the tickets at the door the ushers had no idea what we were talking about. Eventually we found ourselves at the front of the church where I rang Laura to find out what was going on. While I was waiting for a reply we were approached by a lady in black. She was working with the Camerata and setting up the chairs and stands. We told her what had happened and she said to us "why don't you sit over there next to the other young girl". She was indicating seats in the front row! So we thanked her and sat down. Eventually Dave came by with our tickets and we settled down for the show.

Following is a list of the pieces played:

Purcell - When I Am Laid In Earth (Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas)
Wirén - March from Serenade for Strings
Biber - Der Mars from Battalia
Grandage - When Time Stops (excerpt from commission by Expressions Dance Company for Natalie Weir's When Time Stops)
Hindemith - Trauermusik, for Solo Viola and String Orchestra
Shostakovich - Chamber Symphony, Op.110a (8th Quartet, arr. Barshai)
Debussy - String Quartet in G Minor, Movement III
Bach - Erbarme Dich from St Matthew Passion
Olivero - Achot Ketana for Soprano, Three Solo Violins, Clarinet and String Orchestra
McCurdy - The Strangest Dream

The opening really set the tone. The soprano Shelli Hulcombe did a fabulous job (as did the musicians) in setting the tone.This was meant to be a meditation on the journey that is war. I am not shy about sharing my view on war: The War Prayer sums it up nicely. It is even harder for me since my brother is a Major in the Australian Army.

The music and the poetry matched really well. Barbar Lowing's reading was very effective. The audience was asked to hold all applause until the end of the concert. I am so glad it was this way because it allowed the mood to build up across the pieces.

Thanks once more to Laura for providing another wonderful musical experience, coinciding with ANZAC Day, specifically the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli, Indeed, on the way back to the train after the show we walked by Anzac Square to visit the Eternal Flame. It was very solemn.

Violin lesson #198, #109 and #110???

Szechuan, what's going on? It has been a month (and three lessons) since your last post. Stuff has been getting in the way which means blogging has taken a back seat.

To sum up, I have been working on my assigned pieces from ABRSM Exam Book #2 plus Farewell To Skye. They are at the stage where I know the notes and can play them in tune for the most part. The pieces now require polish before they can be played in front of an examiner.

The biggest lesson I have learned in this time is to break pieces down to small enough sections to focus on in the practice time I can manage. A section is usually a bar or two and sometimes can be a few notes.There is not a lot of point in continually playing the entire piece from start to finish. If I do that it is harder to zero in on the problems I have with the piece.

Once again, scales are my friend. I can sort out so many bowing issues while playing scales (or even parts of scales). Scales take away concerns about learning to play notes and concentrate on bow work. Yes, like using whole bows and working out when to spend-and-save the bow especially for longer notes.

Lessons have settled down to 1230 on Saturdays, and that includes time for violin for Sirisha and I as well as piano time for Anand and the princess.

I will do my best to be more vigilant with my blogging in the future.

Dami Im concert for Compassion

This week-end was very busy and more hectic than usual for the Sage family. The prince had turned fifteen and to celebrate there was a gathering of about two dozen teenagers at our house on Friday night. Half of them ended up staying the night. Early in the morning we discovered two of them were daft enough to bring alcohol (luckily they stayed away from my stash). That tainted the whole gathering and resulted in increased stress for his parents. On top of this we had a family gathering on the Sunday afternoon. Nevertheless, the concert had been booked so I attended, and I was so glad I did.

The concert was at the Brisbane Full Gospel Church in Eight Mile Plains at 7pm. It was quite an experience to go to a church that no doubt was used to hosting Korean congregations. I am sure the staff expected a crowd different to the one that would usually turn up. They were all very friendly and welcoming.

The concert opened with a violin and piano duo. This was an unexpected bonus for me. I had no idea. And they were awesome. They opened with a medley of Disney movie themes which included a great rendition of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Even I can play this passably well, but in the hands of the young lady with the violin it went to a whole other level. She was fast, and precise and included a wonderful run towards the end. Outstanding. And the best part is that after the medley she came back with a cellist and the piano trio continued with a few more sets. They played traditional / classical music and modern songs as well. A few that stuck with me were Amazing Grace + Bach Cello Suite No 1 prelude, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" and Moon River. I would have been happy with them performing for the whole show but it was not to be. I doubt few cheered and applauded louder than I did for their music.

They were followed by a young man named Victor who was in X-Factor the same year (2013) as Dami. As he said "since most of you don't know who I am I did not do very well". Safe to say, not as well as Dami. He sang two songs, and was joined in his version of Hallelujah by Dami herself.

Dami started with a few of the songs she did on X-Factor (first up was Bridge Over Troubled Water). Then she played the songs she has released so far. She is so sweet. She stereotyped her concert crowds: Australian, Asian and Church. She did some songs in Korean too, which sounded so pretty.

Noah (her husband) came on and spoke about Compassion. They help to sponsor children living in poverty in Jesus name. As this was a fundraiser for Compassion I learned a fair bit about the organisation. They do wonderful work, no doubt, and I felt a little bad that I could not sponsor a child that night. I did talk about it when I got home and we hope to be able to organise to do something eventually.

They finished up the show with Dami singing the Endless Love duet with Victor.

It was a great night (not least of all for the unexpected violin) and I learned a lot. And after the events of the weekend it was much needed.