Friday, April 27, 2007

blog in 10 minutes or less...

hi everyone, here is a quick update for you...

i have a few minutes before my 11 am ear training class and i'm listening to donna summer's' hot stuff' so i can perform it for a classmate next week. ha! i remember an evening at keith and judy's and something about hot sauce on jennifer and steve's answering machine long long ago! today's performance is a song by delta goodrem (australian?) entitled 'mistaken identity' and india arie's 'wonderful'. should be pretty funj.

the earth wind and fire event was unbelievable. i cannot find words to express my gratitude for an amazing experience and opportunity to learn. first the press conference: it turned out to be a private session with about 50 of us from the college with the three original members of the group, phillip bailey, verdeen white, and ralph johnson. we had the opportunity to perform a medley of their songs for them, including 'getaway', 'let's groove', 'after the love has gone', 'september'. after that we just asked questions and received amazing advice and encouragement from the gods of groove. to say that they were grounded doesn't do them justice; they related so well and shared their insights and wisdom gained from almost 30 years of making music. they covered everything from writing 'hooky' music to staying fulfilled as artists. gracious, grateful, and inspiring. sigh.

the only downside is that because we were performing, there are no individual pictures of me with them. i did shake each of their hands, however, and they were gracious enough not to cringe when i sang getaway, so i am content!

and added bonus was that at the end of the conference each one of us received a FREE ticket to their concert that evening!!! so exciting!!! they were worth about $75USD each. YAY!!!!

the next week we performed the full length selections for the icom community and friends. our little theater seats about 70, so there was standing room only and the audience was fantastic. what a great experience. i am glad that i had the chance to be involved although i feel like i am still recuperating a week later.

now it's on to final projects. after 'hot stuff', that is!!!!

much love
xxooo
chryl

chryl left the ground at 10:18 5 comments

Sunday, April 01, 2007

...still around?

it's been a little too long since i've posted, but it's not because there is nothing to write about! any confidence i had previously in my time management skillz has been replaced with the reality that i actually have no skillz to speak of. how have i made it this far without them?? who knows?! i do know that i am still having a great time and struggling a bit to keep up with my classwork.

the good news is that i am singing more than ever and it feels great. right now ICOM is preparing a concert in tribute to Earth, Wind, and Fire, who are in KL for the formula 1 event happening during the beginning of april. the band sounds absolutley amazing, and the vocals are coming along. that music is haaaaard! this week we are performing in a press conference that at least a few members of ewf will attend. (!)

for some reason hyperlinks are disabled, but you can check out the info here:

http://www.malaysiangp.com.my/
motorsports/f1/gala_night.html

greg actually scored some tickets to the event on sunday, which happens to be easter. if i survive the press conference. then we'll have no trouble putting on the concert on april 19. deep breath! and i don't have a thing to wear!!!!

anyway, my semester performance is this friday and i've asked a few players (upright bass, piano, drums, jazz guitar) to back me up to perform the song 'swingin' mood'. my favorite version is janelle sadler's on her 'don't make me laugh' cd. we all back each other up so there is a lot of comraderie and a huge variety of music to learn.
the pressure is minimal since it is a pass/fail performance, but the instructors are very hard on the students, so people fail regularly.

i really am amazed with the students around here; my band picked up the chart and had it in about 15 minutes, which still is a bit astounding to me although a regular occurrence here. now we just work on the groove and have fun. the genre has not been played during the friday performance class yet, so i hope it will be fresh and interesting. i'm also singing a dreamgirls song for my violin-player classmate, rohnie, entitled 'one night only.' disco forever baby.

this week i sang 'only hope' for another classmate, and really enjoyed it. i may be able to put a segment of it on the blog next week. last week i sang anita baker's 'i can't sleep' and 'hillbilly nation' by cowboy crush. what a laugh teaching my chinese classmates the correct usage of y'all and explaining the somewhat negative connotation of hillbilly. of course i outfitted them with my collection of western hats! in return they spent a whole week teaching me the chinese word for 'me' (muah). i may be able to write it with a few more weeks' practice!

we are all beginning to get very excited about our trip home in june! just got news that our very good friend jason will return with us to spend some time exploring kl with ashley and brooke and they can't contain their glee!

my next few weeks will be even busier, but i'm not complaining! we've got our eyes on the final projects already: compose a contemporary piece, compose a bach-style chorale, produce another midi project, and perfrom 5 or 6 pieces in our ensemble. doesn't that sound fun???? i love school!

chryl left the ground at 22:47 8 comments