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.

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.

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 am so worried about my music test this weekend but excited about the party. My mum and dad are stressed about my practice. They kept remind me to practice every evening after dinner.

I kept pestering my mum to buy jelly crystals so that we can make the jelly for the party. She kept postponing it. She told me she will only buy it on Thursday and we will make the jelly on Friday evening. So, I have to wait another day before we can go the Giant to buy the jelly crystals.

My practice for the three songs is getting better. I made fewer mistakes. My mum is happy. I get to play computer games tonight.

These few days, I am so busy practicing music for my Yamaha Junior Music Book 2 test.  I chose to perform the music ‘The French-Fry Bandit’. I also have to practice a song called ‘Baby Twinkle’ for group performance and practice tambourine for another song called ‘Indian Dance’.  My mum will sit down together with me to help me when I am practicing.

My music teacher is also organizing a small party after the test. The previous week, I told my music teacher that I will bring jelly for the party. Earlier, I have helped mum made some jelly for us to eat at home. I will help my mum to make the jelly and bring it to the party.

Each evening, my mum and dad will remind me to practice these three songs. After the practice, my dad will let me play with his computers. He will let me choose any game I want to play.

I am not perfect yet. I still make mistakes here and there but I am improving. I am sure I will do well on that day and make my mum and dad proud of me.