Meme - Interview Answers

1. Kwek
2. Hongrui
3. No one. I’m my own man.
4. Fiona
5. Jon Shin
6. Adriel
7. Marcus
8. (NA)
9. (NA) – need sleep. I’m more musically active at night.
10. Yiyang
11. Bryan Kum
12. Selina/Jiale
13. Adriel
14. Leave blank
15. Douglas
16. Liyoung
17. Shanghai
18. Shide
19. Kwek
20. Jon Shin
21. Norman
22. Bryan Choong
23. Mum
24. PM Lee
25. Can’t think of anyone. No one seems to be bothered
26. Girls at YST. Although I can’t be bothered
27. Me
28. Shanghai again
29. Laura
30. Live a life that’s full. Anything that’s worth doing is worth overdoing

I slept from 5-10. A little dazed now, but I showered cold and ate a little dinner so I'm alright now.

Started this morning with someone slamming both hands heavily on my shoulder I thought I was going to sink through the floor. Literally a huge bang - Andrew Chua, brother of Matthew Chua.

The rest of the day, RE Congress, which we hardly noticed because we simply wandered around. And had lots of fun in the classrooms on the 4th floor with Hongrui and some GEPs. Even I was a little surprised at times.

After that I followed Hongrui to help him page-turn for his higher performance. Initially I thought I signed up for higher composition but apparently Miss Goh assumed again I was taking performance, which made me kind of, yeah, get a headache because I worked pretty hard for composition.

Check this out - for an impromptu stylistic imitation test which I didn't study at all for, I got 38/50! I think I was one of the top-three, if not, topped the composition class. That's...ok because I expected just a little higher.

Well, why do you ask, we're just hungry kids.

I suspect a newspaper article on me tomorrow, so go check it out. I'm going to post my interview answers here after a reporter - Deepika - asked me some questions.







Dear Deepika,

Thanks! Well basically I've competed in 2 local competitions already (National Piano and Violin Competition 2005 - 3rd prize and National Piano and Violin Competition 2007 - 2nd prize) so I wasn't that nervous. Having said that, this Ibiza competition is my second one overseas - my first one took place in Ettlingen, Germany a few weeks before the Ibiza one. I didn't win anything then.
You could say I was disappointed but yeah I worked hard enough and voila! Anyway if you are prepared all you have to do is to worry about your own music, your own performance - and to stay true to the music.

I have had these pieces for less than a year, say, eight months, and I recovered some of them along the way. The prize did come as a little surprise, being my second overseas competition, but when you're young I guess you're just a little hungrier, so after the whole competition I was thinking, "If only I had won second...". But well I'll definitely work harder!

I played three pieces -
1) Bach's D major Prelude and Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
2) Mozart's Sonata in C major K.330 [all of the movements]
3) Charles Tomlimson Griffes's Scherzo from Fantasy Pieces Op. 6 No. 3 - a really exotic piece that gives lots of room for colours

I started out at Yamaha JMC when I was about 4, and then moved on to the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts at around 6, studied under three teachers, the last one being Mdm Fang Yuan, and finally was accepted in 2007 as a Young Artist in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music under Dr Hecht. (Pardon my long sentences. This one is short.) Erm at first it was all blood and sweat on the piano, going so much as to have an abacus beside me to count the number of Hanon piano exercises I had completed.

Then in primary school it became really tough because it bordered the "freak" sector and the "ok-let's-accept-him-into-our-society" thing. Luckily it was the latter. After that it's all about integrating it into one's life and doing the balancing act. I'm pretty surprised I've been into music for more than half of my life. (redundant part)

Yes I do play another music instruments - I play the cello in my secondary school string ensemble and I used to sing in my primary school choir. Now I still sing except in the bathroom. Occasionally I play the bass guitar but I do that by tuning the bass guitar to cello tuning, which means now I can completely jam with my friends and even perform.

Question 7 is a killer, Deepika. When I was Secondary 1-3 I balanced my academics and music pretty well, but now that music has increased in terms of portion in my life, I've really concentrated on my music. Which means my studies are now basically lagging behind so much, and it's really dangerous. I know there are other kids out there who balance their time much better than me, but me being a 16-year old bordering 'immature' and 'disorganized', I can hardly concentrate on both studies and music. [Realistically speaking though, I'll still need my A-levels so I'll just walk on and on] Ans to Question 7: Badly. But I totally enjoy what I'm doing, (already I can see nearly all the parents in Singapore shaking their heads) and granted, there'll be a way through.

Someday, somehow.

I enjoy playing the bass as previously mentioned, I do composing sometimes (which definitely hasn't reached a substantial level in terms of quality yet), and also learnt a teeny-weeny bit of conducting from my string ensemble conductor. My hobbies also include writing reviews, and I'm learning lots of tips from Dr Chang from Life! too. :) Of course, life's not all about music, so I do engage in some computer gaming (come on give me a break!). Let's put it to a few hours a month. I do play soccer too, so I'm pretty much a normal guy. Oh, and I'm your Number 1 Beatles fan. Got all of their albums and songs and have memorised every single lyric of their songs. Yes, when 90.5FM plays Beatles, I'll scream!!! like a teenage girl. You know, like, Beatlemania? I'm born half a century late.

:)

Question 9 is another killer. Anything to do with academics is. No, I'm not a straight-As student, I hope I clear the stereotype that musicians are all intellectuals with straight-As. Sometimes you can't get the best of both worlds. I'm just stupid.

I love the piano because firstly it can be a solo or an ensemble instrument. You can play it with two people, three people, or make it a piano quintet, or even two pianos, even put it in an orchestra! It's a pretty social instrument. But in detail, I find it the most beautiful instrument of all instruments - it can make the sounds of a thousand tinkling bells, the roar of the flowing river into the sea, the chirps of all the birds you can find - even Messien himself proved it was possible, him being the master of birdsong. So many composers have composed pieces with the piano imitating water, rain, fountains, seas, rivers. On the other extreme, you see Liszt composing the Dante Sonata about Dante's journey into Hell itself. Just lurrve(sp?) the piano.

My training under Dr Hecht has been one of the most inspirational periods of my life - it's really hard to start somewhere about him. Well he's a teacher who really really has no problem of trying to communicate ideas and information to you...and once you can hear what he hears, voila! That's when you experience the magic of music yourself. Sometimes I truthfully regret many people around the world never get to hear these beautiful things in their years on Earth. That's why we're here! To spread good music like a disease...

And lastly my dad works at DHL and my mum a housewife, but she passed away this year in May, so it's really been a trying time for both of us. I live in Bukit Panjang so it's 40 mins on public transport and 15 mins on private car. I have no siblings, which is good because I don't have to argue with anyone over the noise level, and bad because when I'm down and my dad's working I talk to the walls. Just kidding.

My private life's on this blog - www.i-talk-you-listen.blogspot.com . Oh wait, it's not private anymore when it's a blog! :O Post it on the papers (your choice, larh) - 16-year olds never fail to be happy when their blog hits increase.

Thanks and regards to you too!
Jonathan