And a new life begins

It's been quite a while since I'd have blogged. The truth is, I have been BUSY the past few weeks.. especially the last week.

Last week marks the transition of my life. Another turning point, as I embark on a new journey of education… although it wasn't much of a start since i was busy with something else as well.

Last Saturday and Sunday (18th and 19th Aug) was the production of a world-premiere opera. It was a production that spanned for (unofficially 8 years) officially 2 years or so. But where it concerns me, I was only called in about a month ago.

I remember when I saw two missed calls by the same person about a month ago, and a text accompanying it telling me DA told her to contact me. My initial response was shocked. Why would an opera need someone like me? To play piano? Percussion? Can't possibly be yangqin right? When did western opera included yangqin? AND WHY did darrell have my contact number to get someone to contact me for him?!!!

So i called back and got to know about the production of this opera, that was going to be conducted by darrell and would have chinese elements in it and thus the need for chinese instruments. So I was given this opportunity, which I then figured out that it must have been a friend of mine who gave him the number.

To cut the long story short, I did play the yangqin for the opera and my oh my, i required 2 yangqins! Just because the composer thought yangqin was like a piano.. I had to play in D and Dflat keys. How is that even possible on a yangqin.. so I decided to use two, with one yangqin tuned one semitone down. Makes life 1000000 times easier, considering I only had 1 month to master the parts. The composer was fine with some amendments I'd have made as well, so all's good.

*Plot twist added on 14/01/2017: Turns out the lead oboist in this opera was my classmate in Uni! I suspected something when I saw the very same scores he was holding in his hand in the first week of school... kekekeke and now he's my Teddy <3 nbsp="" p="">