Dr.Tony Macarome :D

It has been 3 months since I started studying in YSTCM and I really want to talk about one of my favorite teachers in this school. His full name is Tony Macarome Yue and no one in this conservatory can deny that every Tony's lesson bring his students the feeling of jollity and amazement. And I'm so happy that I'm one of his students.

I liked his teaching at the first time I was in his class. My impression is that Dr.Tony is big guy but he has smart eyes, smiley face and very nimble person. He plays the double-bass with left hand and for me that's so special. He played something Jazzy and I really love that. It sounds very playful and virtuoso. Sometimes, he plays the double bass and suddenly rush to the piano and play with happiness like a kid and sometimes he feels not enough then he sings for us. And his voice is so impressive, it could be supper high and supper low. Every time he sings, all students in class will laugh very loud. I can feel that he really wants to teach as much as possible, he has so many things to tell us that he cannot remember what should come first. And when he talk, he talk very fast with a lot of information and interesting things. For me, sometimes I can not understand all his words and just remember what is funniest thing that makes me laugh.

For me, Dr.Tony looks like a big bear with a double-bass as big as him. He always tell us very funny stories related to what we're studying. I feel so happy to listen to him and I'm always looking forward to study in his class once a week on Wednesday.

"The legend of 1900" Review

For me, "The legend of 1900" is one of the best movie films with Ennio Morricone's music. It won numerous prizes like David di Donatello for Best Music, Golden Globes for Best Original Score.
The movie is a story about a man named Danny Boodman T.D Lemon 1900. He grew up on the ship named Virginian. His presence was revealed when Danny, his foster-father dies in an accident while working. Discovering a passion for music, he teaches himself to play the piano without being able top reach the notes, and he soon becomes a virtuoso whose reputation spreads beyond the confines of the ship. His reputation as a pianist is so renowned that Jelly Roll, the person who invented Jazz wants to challenge 1900 to a piano duel. The music in this scene is very impressive with a very virtuoso part improvised by Jelly that makes people thought he will absolutely win the duel. But finally, 1900, a prodigy pianist won the duel with an original piece of such virtuosity that the metal piano strings become hot enough to light a cigarette, which 1900 then hands to Jelly, who has lost the duel.
The music sometimes make me feel so excited but sometimes makes me cry with a feeling of loneliness. 1900 is a very innocent man with a love at the first sight and when he plays the song named "Playing love". It is so touching that makes me have the desire to have a pure love like that.


The end for piano duel between 1900 and Jelly Roll

Qi Zhang's Organ Performance

After listening to her performance, there are a lot of things that makes me feel so excited. First thing is that she has amazed technique and eye-catching gesture. She has ability to totally control the complicated organ not only with her fingers but her foot also. More than that, she is very musical. She tried her best to create the sound of a orchestra on her organ, that's so amazing. But of course, she cannot really make the sound of a real orchestra even though she is the best organ player. The thing I like about this performing is that it is a new experience for an orchestra piece. It is different from the orchestra's and piano's version so it makes me very excited to listen to her performance. For me, Qi Zhang is a really amazed performance in her instrument.
There is few thing I don't like about this performance is that she played too busy and make audiences feel tired when listen for a long time. One of the reason is because of the composer of this piece, Prokofiev is really a virtuoso pianist so he wrote a very hard piece like this one. But a good performer is the person who can handle the hard piece become easy one. For this reason, I really believe that she can be a better player with more control in breath and take it easier. she need to create more space and listen like an audience. I feel like she plays for only her self, not for the listener.
But anyway, I really enjoy her performance. I bet she spent almost of her time to practice on her organ to make a perfect concert like this.

Music is my life

For me, using word to describe how music make me feel is so difficult because music become a part of my life such like breathing, eating, drinking...I cannot imagine what my life will be without music.

Music makes me happy. For a very long time, I've been listening to music to encourage myself, I feel more confident with music and believe what I do will be successful. Music helps me recover when I get stress and feel lonely. For instance, I find peace in Tchaikovsky's music. Beauty in melody and effective instrumentation are what I love in Tchai's music. His music makes me feel satisfy and happy with all I have.

More than that, music inspires me and helps me study more effectively. I can listen to classical music all day long with enthusiastic feeling. To illustrate, Jacqueline Du Pre is one of the greatest cellist to me. She was one of the reason why I chose cello to study. For me, Du Pre is always the best because I can feel not only her vehement passion to make music, but also her formidable technique in controlling the cello. The first time I've heard her playing on TV when I was small, I was very sure that I want to be like her, a legendary cellist.

To conclude, music is consolation and inspiration of my life.

Welcome to my new life!

Hello Singapore and everyone in my new school, YST! This is my first blog I've written since I came to Singapore for studying.

My name is Trinh Ha Linh and I prefer to be called Lynn, my English name. I've played the cello for about 11 years. I love playing in orchestra and chamber music, especially in Piano trio group. I make quite many friends here and I think they are so nice and all good musicians.

I've been here for a month but I have so many opportunities to play in orchestra. Before coming here, I've never imagine that I will play the Hindemith and Shostakovich Symphonies at this age because they are so famous and extremely hard. But I did it with my new friends, my new orchestra members in YST and it was awesome, the best orchestra I've played with.

I've started school one week ago, this is the second week of semester 1. I feel so much pressure, so many assignments need to be complete, so many studies and orchestra pieces need to be practiced. I've slept less and less and still do not have enough time to practice. I need more than 3 hours a day for practice and more than 2 hours to do my all assignments. But any way, everybody get pressure, but I will find the way to get over soon.

That's it, my new life in Singapore, busy and tired all the time but I know that I'm improving my self to be the best. I'm so happy with that!

PS: I miss my mom the best, miss Vietnamese food and my friends in VN.