Music for the Memories
My cousin and I went to the National Center of the Performing Arts to see an orchestra performance tonight! :D (That's the giant dome across from Tienanmen Square, if anyone actually knows where that is)
The theater itself was pretty awesome *_* It's HUGE. And there's about 3 performance stages within it.
Pretty funny how we couldn't find the entrance even though we came off the bus right in front of it, and walked a whole 360degrees around the dome ^^;;; Took us a good 20 mins.
Then we couldn't find the right entrance to our seats into the theater and had to have our way pointed by ushers at 2 doors before we found it =_=;
BUT our seats were really nice! :D We were up on the first row of the 1st balcony on the left wing, right above the stage. In other words, we were right behind the 1st Violins and had a nice view of the stage lol. I could actually see the 1st violins' sheet music and was following along for some of the songs =P
They played 12 pieces, all medleys or specific songs from Oscar winning movies. While they played, they had scenes from the movies playing on a giant screen above the orchestra.
I'm not the most avid movie-watcher, so I only really recognized about half the movies and songs, but it was very enjoyable anyway! ^_^
Some stuff I noticed/was amazed by:
~ I'm forever amazed at how together all the string instruments can move their bows! O_O It's so synchronized!!
~ they had a harp! it was cool~
~ the poor piccolo player seemed to just sit there half the time ^^;;
~ 8 violas, 8 cellos, 5 double basses, army of 24(?) violins, 2 each of flute & oboe (+one english horn) & clarinet & bassoon, 4 french horns, 3(/4 ->one randomly showed up in the end) trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, 1 pianist and 4 percussionists
~ opening piece was a medley of the movie "ET (extraterrestrial)"
~ we've played parts of this medley in band in school; that was in like grade 10 so our version was obviously much more simplified XD;;
~ the rest of the 1st half were old films that I didn't quite know so just sat back and enjoyed the music
~ second half started with "Sound of Music" medley!!
~ 10-year-old Yuu-chan was obsessed with this musical XP she had almost all the song memorized lol...
~ it felt so nostalgic to see those footages from the movie and hear songs like "Do Re Mi", "My Favourite Things", "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" *-* ...ah~ I wanna watch the movie again!
~ second last song was themes from "Lord of the Rings"
~ I've never watched this movie, but the songs mean a lot to me since we also played the medley for it in Senior Band, and I think we got 1st in Nationals with this too ^-^
~ our version was different from the one they played, but some of the themes sounded familiar!
~ listening to this brought back memories of our favourite music teacher (T_T), my stand partner Adelly, hating the stupid Flight of the What-cha-ma-call-it part cuz it was so hard to play, and how long the whole medley was; but we somehow pulled it all together in the end and it really was worth all the hard work
Looking back, I think grade 11 was our best year in music. We had our awesome conductor/teacher and music class was so much fun!
~ last song of the official program was "Titanic" medley; of course I recognize this one! XD
What I got out of tonight? That I miss my life of music. I miss going to band every week and being able to perform in concerts, even if family never came to watch and that always made me kinda sad =_=. I miss singing out our parts as a last practice on the bus to competitions (singing trills, that was interesting). I miss the buzz and running around right before performances start. I miss cheering when standards were announced after adjudications. I even miss the drama that happened in band; man, some people had issues...lol ^^; And I really miss my flute, and my music friends.
I don't wanna give up music, but I don't think I can make it into any orchestras or bands as I am right now either.
Okay, getting sentimental so let's stop here XD;;;
ARGH, tuition, I am hating you right now!! >_< Especially OSAP!! DX *bangs head* Why did they give me money when I didn't ask for it (& didn't need it at the time), and what am I supposed to do with it?!
The theater itself was pretty awesome *_* It's HUGE. And there's about 3 performance stages within it.
Pretty funny how we couldn't find the entrance even though we came off the bus right in front of it, and walked a whole 360degrees around the dome ^^;;; Took us a good 20 mins.
Then we couldn't find the right entrance to our seats into the theater and had to have our way pointed by ushers at 2 doors before we found it =_=;
BUT our seats were really nice! :D We were up on the first row of the 1st balcony on the left wing, right above the stage. In other words, we were right behind the 1st Violins and had a nice view of the stage lol. I could actually see the 1st violins' sheet music and was following along for some of the songs =P
They played 12 pieces, all medleys or specific songs from Oscar winning movies. While they played, they had scenes from the movies playing on a giant screen above the orchestra.
I'm not the most avid movie-watcher, so I only really recognized about half the movies and songs, but it was very enjoyable anyway! ^_^
Some stuff I noticed/was amazed by:
~ I'm forever amazed at how together all the string instruments can move their bows! O_O It's so synchronized!!
~ they had a harp! it was cool~
~ the poor piccolo player seemed to just sit there half the time ^^;;
~ 8 violas, 8 cellos, 5 double basses, army of 24(?) violins, 2 each of flute & oboe (+one english horn) & clarinet & bassoon, 4 french horns, 3(/4 ->one randomly showed up in the end) trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, 1 pianist and 4 percussionists
~ opening piece was a medley of the movie "ET (extraterrestrial)"
~ we've played parts of this medley in band in school; that was in like grade 10 so our version was obviously much more simplified XD;;
~ the rest of the 1st half were old films that I didn't quite know so just sat back and enjoyed the music
~ second half started with "Sound of Music" medley!!
~ 10-year-old Yuu-chan was obsessed with this musical XP she had almost all the song memorized lol...
~ it felt so nostalgic to see those footages from the movie and hear songs like "Do Re Mi", "My Favourite Things", "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" *-* ...ah~ I wanna watch the movie again!
~ second last song was themes from "Lord of the Rings"
~ I've never watched this movie, but the songs mean a lot to me since we also played the medley for it in Senior Band, and I think we got 1st in Nationals with this too ^-^
~ our version was different from the one they played, but some of the themes sounded familiar!
~ listening to this brought back memories of our favourite music teacher (T_T), my stand partner Adelly, hating the stupid Flight of the What-cha-ma-call-it part cuz it was so hard to play, and how long the whole medley was; but we somehow pulled it all together in the end and it really was worth all the hard work
Looking back, I think grade 11 was our best year in music. We had our awesome conductor/teacher and music class was so much fun!
~ last song of the official program was "Titanic" medley; of course I recognize this one! XD
What I got out of tonight? That I miss my life of music. I miss going to band every week and being able to perform in concerts, even if family never came to watch and that always made me kinda sad =_=. I miss singing out our parts as a last practice on the bus to competitions (singing trills, that was interesting). I miss the buzz and running around right before performances start. I miss cheering when standards were announced after adjudications. I even miss the drama that happened in band; man, some people had issues...lol ^^; And I really miss my flute, and my music friends.
I don't wanna give up music, but I don't think I can make it into any orchestras or bands as I am right now either.
Okay, getting sentimental so let's stop here XD;;;
ARGH, tuition, I am hating you right now!! >_< Especially OSAP!! DX *bangs head* Why did they give me money when I didn't ask for it (& didn't need it at the time), and what am I supposed to do with it?!