Thank You for the Roses! Exams, Concerts

These roses were from my piano student Connie and her parents yesterday. Aren't they so pretty?!? Thank you!!! :) They were for belated Teachers' Day. Mr.&Mrs. Lin and Connie are from the United States and Connie attends the American International School, so they did not know that it was Singapore's Teachers' Day last Monday, until they read about it in the newspaper. It is very sweet of them to think about me and get me such beautiful roses! I appreciate the thought and sincerity a lot! I always really enjoy chatting with Mrs. Lin whenever I go teach Connie. She is a very warm lady with a very cheerful personality. It is also highly enjoyable to teach Connie because she is very interactive and attentive during lessons, and often has intelligent opinions/ideas of her own to share with me. I will definitely miss the family when they return to the States....

Just to side-track, the beautiful colour of the roses and the roses themselves remind me of the pretty Paul Smith rose perfume commercial I saw on TV Mobile. I find the perfume nice for a rose perfume, but a of friend of mine says that rose perfume reminds him of the Bandung Rose drink. That thought never occurred to me. It must be a Southeast Asian cultural thing. I didn't grow up drinking Bandung Rose drink, so to me, rose perfume smells like perfect roses. ;) Funny? Thank you Mr.&Mrs. Lin and Connie for the roses!!! I love them, and so does my mum! ;)

During my short break from piano teaching, I went to the ABRSM office to get exam information for the upcoming Feb/March 2009 practical exams. The sign-up date for that starts 29 September 2008. I will be distributing the 2009 ABRSM exam schedule to my students this week.

In addition, during the break, I also attended a Violin and Piano Recital at the Esplanade. I really enjoyed especially the performance of Allegrissimo from Sergei Prokofiev's sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in Fminor, opus 80. I love the sonata itself. It is however very sad. The performance was really well-received and the entire recital studio was filled. The duo was really together too! :) However, unfortunately, I think the colour of the piano was a little too muffled, which contrasted too greatly with the violin which had a much sharper, more vivid sound colour....haha....maybe I am biased because I play the piano ;)......but anyway, it couldn't be helped because pianists don't usually get to choose their pianos for performances! Anyway, it was certainly an enjoyable concert and enjoyable evening! :) The next concert I look forward to attend is the Murray Perahia concert happening on 24 October 2008! Go get the tickets now, if you haven't already!!! The tickets are really expensive though because Murray Perahia is really good, and the program which he will perform is really enjoyable and exciting too! :) I heard from a friend in Shanghai that he is actually also visiting Shanghai, and the tickets there are expensive, but not as expensive as Singapore! I wish I were in Shanghai! I love the Shanghai Concert Hall as well. It's very nice. ;) The piano concert I attended this year that blew me away was the one whereby Emmanuel Ax played Chopin's Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Ops. 21. Not only does Emmanuel Ax have a stable and reliable technique, he also has a really rich and varied sound colour palette on the piano. It was REALLY ABSOLUTELY magical how he coloured and phrased everything. And the most amazing part is that it sounded absolutely natural!! I so much do hope that I will get to attend another of his concerts! I hope he does come to Singapore again!