Can you spot me?

I’M BACK!!!!!

            The concert was freaking amazing! I’ve met so many people. It’s been more than a week and I’m still incredibly excited. These past few days were all a blur. We performed our grand finale at the Sydney Opera House and some of us also had a site-seeing tour all around the city. The weather was fantastic, the people were fantastic, the FOOD was fantastic, everything was just too amazing for words. The orchestra consisted of almost every single instrument you can imagine, ranging from traditional orchestral instruments such as the violin and clarinet, to little trinkets like the tambourine and the triangle, to cultural instruments like the Chinese guzheng. Instruments such as the timpani, the piccolo, and the electric guitar were also featured. In conclusion, we rocked the house!

            The entire performance composed of many pieces, and smashed in between are “Meeting the Members” clips where the big screen behind us showed how many of the people in the orchestra centered their life around music and how difficult it was to meet up and deliver the outstanding performance. I met this really nice Russian guy named Ivan. He’s 26 years old and he’s been playing with a private teacher since he was six. He’s currently attending the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. His whole life had been about music. So the little clips illustrated how music really changed our lives.

          Some of the pieces we played were our audition pieces. We opened the show with the “Roman Carnival” by Hector Berlioz. He was a French Romantic composer mostly composed from 1820s to the 1850s. Mostly affected by Gluck, Mozart, and Webber, the “Roman Carnival” was a smooth and cheerful piece that featured a happy, if not a little dramatic theme. In the middle of the concert, Mason Bates also came on stage for the premier of his piece “Mothership”. Not to brag or anything but I think we totally nailed that 110%.  Overall we played 13 pieces - Roman Carnival - Overture, Op. 9 by Hector Berlioz, Arrival on a Platform Humlet by Percy Grainger, Toccata in F major for organ by Johan Bach, Danza del trigo by Alberto Ginastera, Canon in three voices by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 by  Benjamin Britten, Kalkadunga by William Barton, Suna by Timothy Constable, Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic by Richard Strauss, Mothership by Mason Bates, Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 by Felix Mendelssohn, Ascending Bird - Suite for string orchestra by Colin Jacobsen and Siamak Aghaei, and The Firebird Suite, by Igor Stravinsky. Our encore song was Rosamunde by Franz Schubert.
            This whole thing had been an amazing experience for me. After this, I think that music will be something I’m going to do as a career. I know that it’s a risky choice but it’s also what I’m really passionate about.

            Expect an update next week!

Just a few more weeks until Sydney guys! This is probably going to be my last post before the trip. I’ve been so busy lately getting all the documents together and trying to pack. Because this trip involves crossing borders, the Orchestra people sent me a bunch of documents to sign and it’s just a huge pain in the behind. And adding to my hectic schedule, I just received through email all the pieces that we’re going to perform at the Live Event concert. There are about thirteen pieces that I have to pretty much memorize before March 20^th. The pieces range from classical orchestra (Toccata in F Major by Bach) to modern awesomeness (Mothership by Mason Bates). I actually played some of the pieces before so it’s not really all that difficult. But all of those pieces are designed for a full orchestra so it’s going to be quite a challenge putting it all together. I feel bad for Michael Thomas already (he has to deal with 101 people who he has never met before in person). But I also heard we are arriving a few days before the concert just to rehearse so I guess it’ll all be okay.

            Yesterday, the section leader for Second violins had contacted me to ask me if I have any concerns over the pieces. She seems like a really nice lady and I can’t wait to meet her. I’m not sure how the section leaders are chosen but I think it’s based on how well your audition went. Our auditions were based on a point system with a maximum of twenty points awarded to each section in the rubric (like twenty points for musicianship and twenty points for creativity etc). That was how they decided who was going to be the finalists. I guess that the people with the most points for each instrument become section leaders.   

            Anyways, it’s now 2: 45 am and I really need to get to bed.  I have to wake up early to go to Service Ontario tomorrow (to renew my passport). Thanks for all the support, my amazing followers, see you in a month!

I’m going to SYDNEY guys!

            I’ve just been informed that I’m an official “Competition winner”; that means I get to go on an all expenses paid trip (hotel fees, travel fees etc) to Australia to perform at the Live Event as a member of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Several of the other contest winners have already contacted me to express their excitement. From what I heard, there are in total 101 members of the group from 33 countries (USA, UK, China, Canada, Brazil, Spain, Sweden etc). The group features people from as young as 15 all the way up to 40. I think that the diversity is absolutely amazing. Most of these players were either trained as a child or have started quite late in their twenties. Either way, all of the competition winners had some professional training at some point in their life and most are rather well-established performers in their home country. For me, I’ve been playing the violin since I was five (not to brag, but I’m kind of like a professional now too J).

            Also, I received a message from Michael Tilson Thomas, the official conductor for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011. He is an American composer, pianist, conductor, and is one of the administrators that helped to create the YouTube Orchestra in 2009. He was born in Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California to further his music studies. In 1969, he conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra and gained international attention. Basically, he will be the one to decide our performance pieces and seating arrangements. He seems like a promising individual, and I can’t wait to meet him!