I am Sof.

Four day weekend really felt strange. When I was getting ready for bed last night I was preparing my school stuff and suddenly realized it’d be Sunday the next morning.

Today was humid and .. well, I can’t really call it ‘hot’ while knowing it’s around 36 degrees right now in Beijing. Now formal is finished and summer is arriving, I’m tempted to butcher my hair/shave my head again. But a promise is a promise, I’m gonna grow my hair really long maybe to the level of my waist, and then cut it all off for a mohawk or something.

I almost killed this little girl called Christine today. She’s six and has a little round face, puffy cheeks, little pony tail always swinging when she’s running around. She is soooo cute that I cannot help but to hold her really tightly and kiss her and all that. I have this strong urge to become a single mother with a little daughter - don’t get me wrong, the ’single mother’ part only implies the idea that I want to adopt a little girl. As my msn name suggests: if I have a daughter, she’d die of being excessively kissed. They are just so darn cute.

So much for some nonsense talk, now I’m gonna write about something I’ve wanted to write for a long time. So the Twelfth Van Cliburn Competition has finally ended. My life has been too hectic recently and so I haven’t been watching the semifinal and final arounds through the webcast - also because the quality of the webcast lowered for some reason after the preliminary round, the sounds of the piano could not be subtly distinguished and watching different competitiors wouldn’t really make much sense since all of their sound was the same, so I just gave up. I was kind of shocked at the fact that they let Joyce Yang in to, not only the semifinal around, but also the final around. She played Chopin’s grand polonaise and Liszt’s Don Juan in her first round, and played quite a few wrong notes - not harmonical wrong notes but notes you accidentally missed, finger slip rather - and compare to other competitors, that wasn’t very professional. Now, I’m not on the side of judging a pianist by the amount of wrong notes he/she plays, but if there are too many, it does affect the whole piece and is not as intact. She is the youngest competitor, being only 19, and so she did look a little bit .. let’s say, not as mature as the rest of the competitors; and she looked very relaxed when she was on the stage for her preliminary round recital - almost too relaxed you’d think she’s just here for the fun of it because she knows she’s not good enough to advance to the next level. But then again, I only watched the preliminary round, I don’t have much say in her musical style and overall quality. She was awared silver tonight. Wang Xiaohan did not get into the final round - being one of the 6 finalists in the 11th Van Cliburn Competition, that was kind of weird. His pieces were all kind of too ponderous, all I remember of him was the image of him sitting on the bench, playing and sweating. Chen Sa is the cutest pianist ever, I feel slightly regretful not hearing her concerti but I’m sure I’ll pay to hear her sometime in the future. She was awarded crystal.

Final results from the Van Cliburn blog:

Gold: Alexander Kobrin
Silver: Joyce Yang
Crystal: Sa Chen

Best chamber music:
Joyce Yang (Dvorak Quintet)

Best performance of a new work:
Joyce Yang (Currier’s Scarlatti Cadences + Brainstorm)

Discretionary awards:
Sodi Braide, Jie Chen, Gabriela Martinez, Maria Mazo

I’m sure the experience of entering and playing at this competition is something none of the competitors would forget. As the saying goes: fighting and lost is better than not fighting.

I really didn’t know how to title this post. I’m really speechless.

This has been the most special day of my entire life so far, and I cannot express my thankfulness enough times to those of you who made it special. I was telling Mrs.Houghton before I went on stage that the concert was the best birthday gift I have ever received. You guys are wonderful musicians, and it’s been my pleasure to have collaborated with you all. For the record, I really meant it when I wrote the last sentence of my bio. =)

I’m really tired, but I’m too excited to sleep. I’ll probably write more as the night goes on.

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Alright, so it’s now 2:27 in the morning. My prediction came true: I tried to sleep but couldn’t succeed. Physically tired, mentally excited. So I’m sitting on my bed with my laptop and writing more of my thoughts.

I was actually quite nervous before the concert. It’s not a matter of experience or logic, it just comes out naturally - think about Rubinstein shattering a glass before a concert due to nervousness and Horowitz had to be pushed onto the stage. My pre-performance syndrome is the feeling of throwing up - I can’t eat anything, if I do, I’d feel like vomiting; but if I don’t eat, where do I get the energy from in order to perform? My mom suggested that I should eat no matter what, and go throw up and come back eat again. I should practise that.

Parthi got very emotional after the concert, and I think I was still too into the performing mood that I did not really resonate. But now when I think about it, it’s been four years. I still remember the first day I stepped into the music hall wondering why all these people were so tall and I was so short; how I joined concert choir with Steph, Stella, Barbara, Jing and how much we used to laugh during the rehearsals. Feeder school tours, Madrigal Choir concerts, jazz band gigs, now the most memorable Rhapsody with Wind Ensemble. It all happened too quickly…. But I am ready to say goodbye, because only by departing can we realize the preciousness of one thing. I’m ready to put all these memories into a dainty box with a seal that says Woburn Music.

Oww.. now my stomach is hurting. I don’t know how I’m gonna drag myself to school tomorrow but luckily I only have 1 class. I’m a little tired now, and I think I’m gonna go back to lying on my bed and be awake for a few hours before sunrise.

p.s. I got the offer from Western Ontario U. 3/3, complete.

I talked to a friend last night on MSN whom I haven’t talked to for a long time. She’s currently studying at New England Conservatory in Boston for her graduate studies, majoring in piano performance. I’m really happy for her, knowing that she majored in physics for her undergraduate four years at HK U and is finally on to something she really loves. Another friend of mine, who’s studying at the pre-college division of the Central Conservatory of China in Beijing, decided to go to Oberlin for piano performance. I’m so very proud of them, and am looking forward to joining them in the field of professional piano study.

It’s almost May, and coming with that is one of the most prestigious international piano competitions in the world, the Van Cliburn Competition. It will take place from May 20th to June 5th and is well known for its multitudinous and versatile repertoire; preliminary rounds include many 50min/60min recitals, final rounds include two piano concerti. Like, holy moly. I’d get a brain cramp if I were to memorize 6-7h of music and play them perfectly. Perhaps someday in the future.. perhaps.. But I’m looking forward to listening to Wang Xiaohan, a Chinese finalist from 2001’s competition. There’re 8 competitors from China (most represented country among other countries) and 7 of them are women (Chen Sa is one of them). Now isn’t that something? Much to my regret, I’m too poor to go to Texas to watch the competition, but thanks to modern technology, we can now watch the competition online (and even vote for our favourite pianist…) So register (it’s free…) to watch, if you are interested that is (if you are a PC user, firefox doesn’t work.. you can only use IE. ) And I’m done spreading the good news.

Now I’m looking forward to our concert next Thursday. Please come to the concert if you can, it’d mean a lot to me considering I’m playing Rhapsody in Blue with my school’s wind ensemble and I also happen to turn 18 on that day.

I really hope my hands can survive until the end of Thursday because I almost lost my right arm someday last week; my arm was like paralyzed. The cramp is killing me.

I’m so proud of our mad choir.

The concert went fabulously. We performed well - I’m glad that my inner ear didn’t pop when I was singing as it usually would happen - and the other choirs sang beautifully as well (except for the fact that the adult choir’s soprano section never seemed to get the high notes high enough.. and they sounded as if they were being butchered…), the children’s chorus was heavenly. There was a little chubby Chinese guy who was standing in the centre of the huge choir who attracted all of our attention - not only was he cute, he was also very engaged in the music that he started jerking about like a pro opera singer. Oh those kids were lovely. I feel sorry that not a lot of people attended the concert - it is true that there were more performers than listeners; but if I were to pay $40 to listen to them in the Geroge Weston Recital Hall, I would.

Much love to Ayra who has brought so much fun. We started laughing about something super minor and continued the hearted laughter for about 5 continuous minutes until my cheeks started to hurt - while we could not get over the fact that the conductor’s British accent was so sexy. I finally found someone who can be my partner to make a building collapse through clapping electrifyingly loud. Grade tenners, how I love thee.

Prior to the concert, I went shopping after work today, I have to admit that Jacob Connexion is now my 2nd favourite store. Got some springy stuff, and also went to check out some stuff for babies; a pair of tiny shoes for 1-month-olds is $30. Geez, more expensive than mine. I’m clueless of what to buy for babies.

I’m so happy that my arm doesn’t hurt anymore; it stopped this morning, miraculously sudden. As much as I look forward to the 1st rehearsal with WE, I fear I might bomb it due to the lack of practice. I guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow.

all these is part of being in this choir

Blogsome AND diaryland were both down last night, what is wrong with these blogs.

Right now it’s 7:59 in the morning, can’t believe I got up this early, thanks to a phone call from work at 7:30. Last night I went to a concert at THE faculty of U of T with Tim and Viv, it featured a cello and a piano professor from the faculty. They played some Barber, some Chopin, and some wicked new-age style stuff; they were amazing. And I rediscovered cello’s gorgeous sound, there is nothing like that.

There was an old lady sitting beside Viv during the concert, and during the last piece they performed, the lady fell asleep and according to Viv, “her head kept on dropping because she always wanted to keep her head up but couldn’t do it, and it looked like a free fall object.”

After the concert I went to buy some food (and I had had dinner before the concert), it was well passed 10 . I’ve been increasing my eating amount lately; just watch, I’ll get fat in the not so distant future.

Last night I watched the a Korean film starring Zhang Ziyi called Musa (the Warrior). Parts of the film looked like Zhang Yimou’s style, plus the presumption of Zhang Ziyi’s appearance= Zhang Yimou’s film. The director is Korean, and the actors of the Koryu musa are also Korean. I liked this film, though the princess played by Ziyi really pissed me off sometimes; people risking lives for stupid causes. However, the bravery and the comradeship is much admired; it depicts the (northern) Asian traditional and ideal values of Man. Just like the story of Hero, a man dies a glorious death; dies for his country, for his Emperor, for his parents. As much as I respect these values and traditions, I sometimes do have issues against them; but disliking them is different from performing them, for I believe a person is born with certain things that’s bound to him/her that can neither be shunned nor detruded.

So much for Asian pride. I borrowed a CD of Puccini’s Turandot, by Zubin Mehta, Pavarotti and the London Philharmonic, it’s beautiful. PRC used to have concerns of publicly performing this production and thus had forbidden it, but they relented in the 1990’s and performed Torandot at the Fobidden City in 1998 for 8 consecutive days. I still remember it being such a great event, media and newspaper made it really big. Unfortunately I didn’t go, I was only about 10 and didn’t know a thing about opera except the fact that it is when a few fat singers gather on the stage and sing as opposed to orally speak the words. My uncle went, he is a huge opera buff; I think he even flew to Shanghai within one day just to see an opera production. Anyway. It is good, especially because it contains text about Kong-Tze, Tao, and the theme of this really well-known folk tune Mo Li Hua; get a copy of it and listen if you have time.