战前

Saturday was a very long day. I had to meet students' parents in the morning from 10am till 1 plus, on a endless chatter about how their child can do better in school, behavioural problems, encouragements, that sort. I wanted to leave school by 1pm and get to UCC but turns out quite impossible. Met Hiong Gai Gai for lunch before we proceeded to UCC for concert rehearsal. Domy was doing Handel, the cue-ins and all that directing he insisted on doing from his 1st alto solo. Felt that the ensemble was quite disinterested in getting the piece together neatly for him, and so it sounded that way for concert as well. That sluggish sound and sheepish accompaniment.

Next up was sound test for small groups. Huifen and Songyi did a duet; in fact was not ready by audition about a month back, but Domy gave them all the time they needed(till concert day!) and finally agreed to having them on stage. A bad move it is. When it comes to music auditions, I feel it's either a yes or no, after audition. Meaning to say if you feel that they group should have potential to be ready by concert day, but not ready during audition, just give a yes if you are willing to take a risk and trust your judgement. Saying no, should also mean definitely no. Striking up a pact to give the players all the time they need till concert day before saying yes is ridiculous and impractical.

Just imagine, how to say "NO" to the players who've been practising that song twice as hard after audition, even if they really still can't play together? Hello to morale? To top it off, it's Huifen's group. I think unless the conductor wants to see her transform into a 冥炒炒的木乃伊, it's not exactly the best option.

Anyway, she always gets these "special offers", 见惯不怪. Wonder if it's because she's his student yah? Heh heh...

Listened to the duet during the sound check. "Something that we do", new age guitar stuff, I kept losing the melodic line, hence the phrasing and all that. Maybe just no knack for it. I mean myself.

Sound check for Guitaresque, Masak and small ensemble were rather smooth. I borrowed Moh's Alhambra, Alex borrowed Yangyang's Yamaha. The Alhambra was fantastic, a steal for $2k, the high notes were solid and the bass broad. The Yahama wasn't too bad either, but lacked a bit of character in sound, IMHO. In the end, I used YY's and Alex used Moh's instead, since Alex was doing the guitar 1 part. Greatest thanks to both of them!!! Rehearsed a bit with EXPOSE!, Raj was helping out with the sound, everything turned out ok despite cancelling our recent proposed weekday practice. Pro seah.... ha ha. Oh yes! Talking about Pro, Masak only rehearsed 3 times for Suteki!!! (Hansen was away in Thailand, eating scorpions, getting massaged)

This year we had lots of free time in the afternoon, kinda liked that. Instead of that usual rushing here and there, cleaning up of pieces, last minute changes etc.