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!