These past two weeks have been very musically-fulfilling for me. I just ended a MSM Symphony Orchestra concert with Maestro Leonard Slatkin and Brahms’ Tragic Overture, Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite and Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony were on the programme! The concert went very well but it was Maestro Slatkin’s pep-talks/story-telling that was the biggest takeaway for me. He said many many things but three things stuck with me.
1. When going for an (orchestra) audition or competition, just go out there to show-off, be yourself. There is no point trying to decipher the kind of musician they are looking for because you’ll never know. Just do your best and be satisfied with how you played. The musical career is a long one, this satisfaction is what will sustain you through it – not the chase after money or fame.
2. As long as you have practiced hard, studied and understood the music, there is no need to be nervous. But if you are not prepared, you do not deserve to be on the stage.
3. A concert is merely an interruption of an evening that could have been spent at a nice dinner…. so I guess make the audience’s time worthwhile?
Anyway, the recurring theme of what Maestro Slatkin and my history professor Dr Edward Green have been saying is to always find and express, kindness, truth and beauty in our music. Because it is not art when our music is insincere.
Anyway, it has been getting real cold!! Like below ten degrees cold, and it’s only gonna get colder!
“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” Romans 4:7-8
Charity Kiew 