Through my eyes

When we at Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra to watch the The Swan Lake concert last weekend, my parents got interested in another concert - Dances of The Seven Veils. The concert was scheduled for the next weekend. The next day, my mum bought the tickets for three of us. And she forgot to check for age limit for the concert.

When we went for the concert, they realized that I may not be able to go in because I am underage. Minimum age was 8. They asked me to keep quiet and act like an 8 year old girl. We were hoping for the best. Luckily, no one stopped us at the entrance. The usher just showed us to our seats. They reminded me to stay quiet throughout the whole concert.

The concert was conducted by Claus Peter Flor and the main pianist was Orli Shaham. The orchestra played three compositions for that evening. The main one was Dance of The Seven Veils composed by Richard Strauss, Piano Concerto No 27 in B Flat by Mozart and Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss.

The Dance of The Seven Veil was such a long musical composition. It was almost an hour long before we had a break. My mum and dad kept checking on me to make sure I was comfortable. I managed to sit through the whole concert without talking to anyone.

After the concert, my mum reminded me that she will travel the next day to Seattle for her work.

We are back to Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra again. One week has passed so quickly. My tuition teacher came to give me home tuition twice this week. The concert we attended was Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Before we left our, my mum and dad kept reminding me that there will not be any Barbie in this concert. I will see the real ballet on the screen accompanied by Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

In this concert, the recording of Swan Lake ballet produced by Bolshoi Theater in 1989 was shown on a large screen in the hall minus the sound. The conductor of tonight’s concert, Carl Davis, informed the audience that he deliberately left the clapping and cheering sound of audiences in the show on for us to hear how much the Muscovites appreciated the ballet.

While the Swan Lake Ballet was shown, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra played the accompanying music from the original score used in the ballet. The Bolshoi Theater Orchestra was conducted by Algis Zhuraitis. Yuri Vasyuchenko is Prince Sigfried. Alla Mikhalchenko acted on both Odette and Odile roles. Aleksandr Vetrov is Rothbart. 

The whole concert was 160 minutes. My mum was worried I would not sit through the whole show. Actually, I did and I enjoyed the concert. I kept discussing with my mum about the various scenes in the ballet as I already knew about the story from watching Barbie of Swan Lake.

Unfortunately, after the concert was over. An uncle told my dad that I should not be talking during the concert. My dad apologized to him.

My mum told me that the following week, we are going to MPO to watch another concert and I will have to keep absolutely quiet during the whole duration of concert.

Today is my first day of having my Chinese language tuition at my aunt’s house. It’s was one and a half hour. It seemed like forever for me. I never had to concentrate so much when I was in Montessori school. Now, I have a dedicated teacher to teach and guide me in my Chinese language skills.

My dad told me he wanted to me to learn how to speak Mandarin properly. According to him, I could write and read well. He wanted me to speak Mandarin better.

So, the teacher only spoke to me in Mandarin and no English at all, unless she has to explained something to me which I had difficulty understanding in Mandarin.

Anyway, I survived one day of home tuition today.

When I woke up this morning, my mum told me we are going to attend the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) family fun day concert. Today’s event is “Hollywood to Broadway”. The session will start at 2:30PM. There is another session at 4:30PM.

My mum told that we won’t be going for swimming today. We don’t want to get tired and feel sleepy when the shows starts. The MPO hall is very cosy and one can easily fall asleep.

This concert was conducted by Carl Davis and some of the songs were sung by Mary Carewe and The KL Children’s Choir. I enjoyed the concert very much as they performed many of my favorite songs from my favorite movies like The King and I, Sound of Music, Swan Lake and Toy Story. My dad told me they played his favorite song from the movie Gold Finger. We are allowed to sing along with the Mary Carewe and The KL Children’s Choir for some of the songs like Do-Re-Mi.

The KL Children’s Choir was formed in April 2003 by Ms Susanna Saw. They have performed in many events like the opening ceremony of the largest IKEA store in Asia.

Mary Carewe’s versatility ranges from musical theatre showstoppers and cabaret songs to contemporary music. She has performed under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, Kurt Masur, John Rutter, Charles Hazlewood, with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and
the BBC Concert Orchestra.

After the concert was over, my mum told me we are coming back again next week the watch the Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake concert to be conducted by Carl Davis again. Before, I could asked my mum about Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, she told me this is not the Barbie’s Swan Lake. It’s a real ballet concert. I will tell you more about this concert later.

School holiday has starts next week. I don’t have to go to school until next year. My dad told me that will be about 8 weeks. I don’t really understand what is 8 weeks, so he told me that it is 56 days. What! I don’t get to play with my friends like Jolyn, Ryan and Jaden in school.

My dad told me that he has arranged for one of my Chinese language teacher to come to my aunt’s house to tutor me in Chinese language. He does not want me to forget what I have learned in school. He told me that he cannot teach me Chinese language at home. So, he needs help and he engaged the teacher to teach me twice a week. Each time will be one and half hour.

Anyway, he promised to bring me for vacations and do interesting stuff during the holiday period. In fact, we went swimming yesterday at the pool in our neighbourhood club.

Today is my montessori school concert day. I was excited about it. I get to wear the nice dress that my teachers prepared for me.

After returning from music class, I quickly took my lunch and prepare for the concert. I had my bath and my aunt helped me to dress up. Then, my uncle drove us to the SEGI College for the concert.

During the concert, while waiting for my turn to perform, I was so tired. I went to for ballet and music classes earlier today.

Finally, my turn came. My friends and I went out to the stage to perform. We sang the songs and did the dance our teachers taught us. We enjoyed ourselves. My uncle brought a camcorder to tape my performance for my mum and dad to watch when they return home.

My montessori school is having their concert at SEGI College on Saturday, 6th Oct at 3PM. On this day, I have my usual ballet and Yamaha music classes in the morning. I will be so tired when it comes to 3PM. My mum asked me to skip ballet class so that I have enough rest when it comes to concert time.

In school, we learned three songs for the concert. One ofthem is Do-Re-Mi which I am familiar with after watching ‘Sound of Music‘ with my dad. I practised the three songs in shcool everyday. Sometimes I sang at home and my dad was very happy to hear me singing these songs.

Tomorrow, we will have to go to SEGI College for rehearsals for two days. I will follow my friend’s mum to SEGI College for these rehearsals.

Today is THE day. This is the day where I have to play the electone in front of the whole class. My parents will be there together with the rest of the parents including the principal of the music school.

The principal is going to evaluate and give us feedback on our performance. This is the scariest part. If I don’t play well, will she say bad things about me?

My mum has packed the jelly we made yesterday and placed it in a plastic container. I hope my friends will like it. 

I am nervous but I will still have to attend this session. We will leave for my ballet and music class in a short while.

By the time we arrived in the music class, most of the students and their parents have already taken their place and chose the electones. My parents and I chose the next available electone. Then, the music teacher came in and made an announcement. The school principal was not well and she could not come to evaluate us. This was really a bad news. How can I pass? Then, the music teacher told us that she would do the evaluation and pass us if we do well. This was the good news

I was the first to call upon to perform. I walked to the teacher’s electone and sat down. Calmly I opened the music book to the page for ‘The French-Fry Bandit’ and I started to play. As I play, I began to relax. Moreover, without realizing it, I completed the whole song. Everyone clapped for me. I was so happy and I went back to sit with my parents.

I waited for the rest of the students to perform before we start with group performance. We sang the song ‘Baby Twinkle’ and played various instruments for another song called ‘Indian Dance’ together. Everyone of us enjoyed ourselves.

At the end of the session, the music teacher told us that all of us passed the test. Then, she briefed us on the next session on Book 3.

After that, we had our party. I shared my jelly with all my friends and they shared their food with me.

After the party, my parents took me to MATTA Fair.

I simply cannot believe it!!! It happened again for the second time in two weeks. My Montessori teacher gave me English spelling test for words meant for September 12. This time, I got two out of five. I am not happy and my dad is upset.

Last week on August 29, she gave us English spelling test meant for Sept 5. After my dad clarified with her, it seemed to have resolved the problem.

Never mind, my dad will be seeing my Montessori teacher again tomorrow for explanation with better clarity.

I have always wanted to perform well in my Montessori school’s spelling tests be it English, Bahasa Malaysia or even Mandarin. Nevertheless, if my mum and dad do not properly understand the schedule, they cannot help me prepare for the tests.