.the.string.quartet

新不了情 - Xin Bu Liao Qing

2008-05-29T01:33:00.001+08:00

瑶族舞曲 - Yao Zu Wu Qu

2008-05-29T00:17:00.001+08:00

映山红 - Ying Shan Hong

2008-05-28T23:48:00.001+08:00

夜来香 - Ye Lai Xiang

2008-05-28T23:30:00.001+08:00

月亮代表我的心 - Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin

2008-05-28T22:32:00.001+08:00

Aladdin Medley

2008-05-28T20:04:00.001+08:00

Cinderella Medley

2008-05-28T19:59:00.001+08:00

Interview for Radio Singapore International

2008-05-28T01:13:00.000+08:00

26th May 2008. Our first formal interview for an RSI program,

Oxy the 2nd violin was represented by the Bear.
"How exciting!" said the Bear.
"Ahh don't be too happy your never know what's coming next...", replied the Violist, who then attempted to pinch the Bear to deflate its enthusiasm.

Still, Bear was unfazed in her optimism, flaunting her Visitors Pass. Cellist looked at the a random anxious person sitting in front of her carrying a huge stack of files, and wondered if she should start feeling worried about something.

We passed through door after door, and walked down countless dimly lit corridors...

and emerged in the bright recording studio. Hand gestures, however many, could not substitute for coherent sentences and extensive CHINESE vocabulary, all of which deejay LKY had, which we did not. Darn!

There she sat worriedly thinking of the tremendous amount of editing work our half-past-six-Chinese would put her through, probably regretting her decision to get us on the show.

While the rest of us were struggling to keep our tongues untangled, Bear remained in a state of bliss because she did not have to say anything.

Violin 1 was distracted by the colourful consoles

And finally, after 55 minutes of speaking more Chinese than we ever did during quartet gatherings, it was over...

much to everyone's relief.

And then we went for drinks at the cold dimly lit canteen.

The End.

Little Mermaid Medley

2008-05-27T23:58:00.001+08:00

Pochahontas Medley

2008-05-27T23:57:00.001+08:00

Reflections (String Quartet)

2008-05-27T23:52:00.001+08:00

University of Malaya-NUS Golf Tournament

2008-05-13T14:30:00.003+08:00

Location: Orchard Hotel.
Other people: Dancers from the NUS Dance Ensemble and NUS Dance Synergy, most in bright bright colours unlike the boring black that we were made to wear, but then again, what is the new black now?

Us with Mr President! After the awkward handshakes and stumbling through the introductions trying not to get distracted by the endlessly flashing camera bulbs and the looming presence of the very large bodyguards, this picture was taken. And just as quickly as he arrived, he was gone, and we left for ichiban@esplanade. Again.

(Seriously, we should get them to sponsor us.)

T.H.E quartet with Olivia Ong

2008-05-13T14:26:00.004+08:00

Olivia Ong's voice features almost everytime we eat at ichiban@esplanade. That was how Violist was smitten with her voice and decided to watch her concourse performance. So the quartet turned up to support the Violist, and by some serendipitous incident ended up backstage outside Olivia's dressing room and ended up taking a photo her with Violin 1's camera, which is incidentally pink, like her shirt is.

Huayi 2008 @ esplanade

2008-02-26T19:04:00.008+08:00

Seriously.

Dreamily.

Purply.

Earnestly.

Playfully.

Simply Quartet.

T.H.E String Quartet at Esplanade Concourse (Huayi Festival)

2008-02-12T00:08:00.000+08:00

T.H.E String Quartet will be performing at Esplanade Concourse from 15-17 February 2008 at the following time-slots: 7.15pm-7.45pm/8.30pm-9.00pm/9.45pm-10.15pm. More details can be found on http://www.esplanade.com/.

analyse this

2008-01-29T22:51:00.000+08:00

It was another day after coaching, where we were plonked down on the endless couches of the tea party@6th avenue centre. (We wouldn't mind if someone paid us for free advertising but...)

And the venerable Dr Jon Cheah decides to psychoanalyse us while we were waiting for food to come.

"Draw a pig", says he.

But first we had to make sure to make sure that all four sheets of paper were of the same size.

"I don't know how to draw a pig." The second violinist proclaimed.

But stil we tried, and this is what we came up with.

The small pig on top, is DT the Violin 1's proud product. The pig it is sitting on top of is Jon's.

This is Oxy's pig. It is looking up.

This is Jeremy the violist's pig.

And finally the cellist's pig.

Results of the analysis will remain confidential.

Dear readers, in your spare time this Chinese New Year, as you chew through slabs of ba kwa (dried pork), and possibly recollect these doodlings, you are encouraged to give us feedback on what personality type you think the different pigs reflect.

childhood memories photos

2007-10-28T18:23:00.000+08:00

Surprisingly quite a lot of people came. Random drop bys and friends. If you look closely enough, you'll see Jem the violist in orange filming. His actions resulted in your humble narrator having to sign many many times on the clearance forms. (Of course, it is all for the Greater Good of the quartet, so nobody's complaining.)

The piano is so far away. Today was purple day. The day before was pink day. In case you're thinking our colour combination is a bit dubious, don't think too much. Bright colours are good for the mental health of children and us.

See, children are normally in bright colours. Unfortunately she didn't come on our pink day, if not she would have blended in perfectly and her squeaky shoes would have provided nice 'percussion'.

Pianist looking perfectly happy because she saw a Special Someone in the audience?

Dt the violinist looking amused in the 'why-you-say-that-i-am-so-going-to-kill-you-later-rarr!' way.

And Cellist, spouting random crap because she didn't watch much Disney stuff but still had to talk about things she didn't watch, and draw inspiration from youtube videos instead of the Real Thing. Which of course, the other two with Real Childhood watched.

Pink day! Not so much breast cancer awareness kind of pink, but more like kids in princess costumes kind of pink. But of course, no one in their right mind at our age will wear princess costumes despite the Disney theme. Especially not the Cellist.

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert LLP Cocktail Reception @ Asian Civilizations Museum

2007-10-19T10:54:00.000+08:00

Many many such signs on the way so we couldn't possibly get lost on the way even if we tried.

The nice and big hall was carpeted and we had a great view from the corner. (You can tell Narrator doesn't do picture descriptions very well. Even despite the years and years of composition and oral examinations in school. )

Cellist was conned into the picture.
"Ok stand there let me test the camera" says one Violinist.
How was Cellist to know that the picture would end up here.

Unpacking. Wonder if this comes anything close to Violist stripping the rifle. Well there are the steel strings, and there's the semi-large case that looks like a 'suspicious article'...

More people! There was supposed to be speech somewhere in the middle but it never materialised, thus...

Happy face! Which means more time to play nice stuff...

and take photos during breaks....

and a group shot with Guest Violist Melissa Liew, who sat next to Cellist in orchestra during the good old GreenBlackWhite JC days.

See how Guest Violist is considerably apart from the rest of us? That's because sometime in the near future, she is going to become a lawyer too and be the one standing around sipping wine while us starving musicians keep her entertained.

Already, the differences are showing.

(n.b. no offense, Melissa, this blog is all in good fun)

Childhood Memories!

2007-10-16T12:37:00.000+08:00

where have all the toys gone?

2007-07-26T10:30:00.000+08:00

This is our quartet mascot. It is a purple penguin. It lives in the Blue Van of Jon the Quartet Photographer

"Hey are you insulting our readers' intelligence?! Duh!"
"But but but... It looks like a duck what!"
"Are you sure? I think it's a platypus."

So the identity of our mascot is "Not Here Not There".

However, lest you think it must be very sad because of it's unknown heritage, it was soon adopted by Elmo and Ah Pui (Hokkien. Fatty) the Penguin. For a while they stayed on top of Jeremy's piano.

Soon, Not Here Not There returned to Blue Van.

Months passed.

During supper following the "In Search of The Light" concert, Jeremy gravely distributed his stuffed toys to everyone for safekeeping, before he went to the army. This was because our violist is a soft-hearted person who cannot bear the thought of his toys sleeping alone.

Elmo was super hyped about following Dt home. Ah Pui however was less than enthusiastic.

"What if I don't have food?" he woefully thought.

Before he could get an answer to that question, however, Ah Pui was rudely whisked away by Cellist and turned upside down. She was wondering how come Ah Pui was so fat and wanted to see if he could lose weight.

Unnamed Stinky yellow duck was with his new owner. She, however, was more interested in the menu, much to his disappointment. Jealously, he looked at Ah Pui and wished he was as fat so he could get more attention.

Elmo by this time had left the hands of Dt, because he is too cute and liable to get kidnapped at anytime.

"Wheee I can fly!" he says.
"Yeah right I'm going to make you drink lots and lots of water so your mouth won't open so big!" says Jon.

(The remaining photos have been censored so as not to offend any stuffed toy lovers' sensibilities. )

@rtikulation 2007

2007-07-21T21:33:00.000+08:00

(2nd Violin Xinyi and Violist Jeremy were playing for ACJC's Music Elective Program Concert last week.This is her first post!)

There, 10 years of music making. Kudos to the teachers, who've truly been an inspiration as I walk through this musical journey in JC, and even till today.

MEP Batch of 2003. :) Still loving music.

I had no idea how we did the Grainger in 3 weeks or less. Was amazing, and all thanks to Mr Ku's volunteer work, and all the encouragement we got. Thanks en and min for this cool opportunity to play with you ladies! :)

Oh, and Jeremy, have fun in NS. You'll be dearly missed during quartet. :)

bling bling

2007-07-21T00:30:00.000+08:00

20th July 2007, Friday, 2 pm. If it was 2 07 pm, or 20 07 hrs, it would have been completed the whole auspicious number thingy.

First time playing at Fort Canning. There were tons of ants on the floor, maybe it was the scented candles that they were burning, presumably to keep the mosquitoes away. The guy on the right is Philip, 17, oboeist from Paris Conservatory, and nephew of the groom. Your Humble Narrator thinks he has a cute accent.

And then the rains came.

The COMFORT cab we booked unfortunately never appeared.

Us and Joshua Bell and MPO in KL

2007-07-15T00:08:00.000+08:00

First ever quartet road trip to KL. Well it was supposed to be Hong Kong, in May, but that's another story. It's amazing how awake we look, considering the Grassland bus was freezing (it has cool tv). It is not called 草原快车 (trans. Grassland Fast Vehicle) for nothing; we reached KL at 4 plus a.m. after leaving Singapore at 2330 12th July.

So this is us at about 10 a.m. It is not easy finding things to do so early in the morning, so we parked ourselves at Times Square to sleep on the benches like homeless people. This was after we took the monorail (like Singapore's LRT) back and forth until we were indirectly chased out because we taking up space meant for the people who were gainfully employed and getting somewhere.

This is after the concert. Despite supposedly rushing off to take the bus back to Singapore, Oxy managed to sneak a shot with Joshua Bell, and leapt over the moon after that. See. She's a violinist. That explains the affinity. For those like Your Humble Narrator who don't really get the allure of the violin, we can be satisfied just watching how his hair flops around when he plays. He qualifies totally for a shampoo endorsement. His hair looked absolutely tanglefree, like if you put a comb through it it'll fall right through. Jealous already.

It is said 55 percent of communication is non-verbal. First Violin's body language says "Why am I here? I can't believe I'm doing this". Well actually, that is just Your Humble Narrator's interpretation of her body language. Your Humble Narrator bets that secretly she was going "Whee!". Because she is a violinist, after all.

Xinyi's Birthday

2007-07-05T10:20:00.000+08:00

It is quartet tradition to celebrate birthdays with food.

Ok ok maybe it's everyone's tradition to celebrate birthdays with food. It's Singapore after all. This is Tsubaki japanese restaurant at Goldhill Centre. They have this a la carte buffet thing going, except that the day we went they didn't have gyoza and oysters. That was kinda sneaky because who pays $40 + to eat tempura and handrolls and a bit of sashimi?!! Your Humble Narrator is reliving the feeling of being cheated.

But we are good actors and can enthusiastically pose for cameras, whatever the mood. Itadakimasu! Your Humble Narrator is suddenly hungry.

Birthday girl looks happy probably because she hasn't started eating the unagi handrolls yet. It failed the Quartet Test. Being frequent ichiban handroll eaters, comparison with our favourite place was inevitable. The seaweed was soggy and the unagi was as big as Your Humble Narrator's thumb, which isn't very big at all.

Left: What?! More photos? Stop already la..
Right: Hmph! You take me I take you!.

New hangout

2007-06-12T10:40:00.000+08:00

Max Brenner at Esplanade.

We were there the day after our Viva Violino concert, to re-borrow Disney scores for the esplanade Concourse performance in October (so hardworking eh.) We didn't want to pay 50 cents per book to renew them because we had close to 20 books. And besides, quartet fund is better spent on food. So while waiting for the librarians to shelve the books, this is how we entertained ourselves. Photo-whoring again.

Now you see it...

... now you don't. 6 plus bucks per cup and gone in less than an hour. We don't do the sitting around very well because we are consummate consumers.

"I take pretty pictures eh!"

"Whatever. Don't take my milk moustache though."

The end.

Viva Violino

2007-06-11T00:52:00.000+08:00

our concert photo! picture courtesy of firdaus =)

That's Mr Foo Say Ming's Students' concert. We played because the First Violin is his student and she decided, fortunately or unfortunately, to get us all to play too. Guess why the Second Violin (turned pianist) is grinning so happily before the concert?

It's because we were playing Dvorak's Piano quartet So she had the dubious honour of being the largest instrument in the quartet. Your Humble Narrator reckons she had quite a good time, seeing how she didn't need to lug instruments around, and constantly had perfect intonation. The Piano is always right. Always.

However. The downside of being a pianist is that you have so many more notes to play, which translates to more time spent practicing. Of course, that doesn't mean that the other instruments don't practice... *ahem*, but Cellist is making her slacking a bit obvious by lurking around reading the very entertaining program notes.

The classic violist Pout, never before captured on film, nor observed by fellow quartet mates until they saw this photo. What he was pouting at remains unknown. Your Humble Narrator would like to think he was NOT pouting at the Cellist, who was sitting in the direction of his pout. Curious readers might want to call him and ask about this mystic moment.

(This was taken during the rehearsal, and not the performance, thankfully!)

Squeezing in the last minute rehearsal before going onstage. No more slacking for now, no more wandering around spying on other items by other violinists. Leslie The Coach popped his friendly head in to say Hello and said he would be laughing at us from the circle seats. He is very encouraging that way.

(Of course, his post-concert comments were honestly encouraging.)

And this is what we were actually doing ON STAGE.

The Aftermath
With Mr Foo in Blue. Our item turned out fine, despite the (on hindsight) rather unauspicious Black and Blue getup. (Ah what superstitious crap.) Anyway it looks kind of strange how some of us are semi-doubled over. Maybe it's because there was too much good food.

Hmph the piano is getting too much attention. It's amazing how we still had the energy to smile, considering our legs behind the piano were contorted in the weirdest positions trying to get our heads just above the piano. (The things people do for photos!). And it was almost 9 pm (or was it past 9?) and we were hot and starving.

"Hot" as in.. physically hot i.e. needing aircon. We are not that shameless.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa Syndrome strikes again. (c.f. the NUS Chamber concert photos). Your Humble Narrator feels slightly disturbed by this photo because it seems to subtly reinforce the gendered notion that females are very nuah (lacking backbone). Whatever.
Your Humble Narrator is not very sane.

*Beautiful pictures by our official quartet photographer, Jon Cheah.

what we do before gigs

2007-05-04T09:41:00.000+08:00

Violin1 is happy because the room has aircon. Cellist is mugging Cosmopolitan magazine because she doesn't want to mug her notes anymore although exams are a week away.

Violin1 is wondering what exactly is so fascinating about Cosmo magazine. Viola is stoning. Cellist is caught in between but blissfully unaware.

The very nice pool that threatens to drown our instruments and scores if the wind blows just a bit too hard.

Smiling because the sun is still bright

The singing ceremony.

Danish Queen's Birthday Celebration

2007-05-01T21:16:00.000+08:00

She has a reason for looking this glum. Considering the latitude of Singapore is One degree North, the sun rises and sets very quickly. The picture was taken during the Danish Ambassador's speech and they were all taking time to sing their national anthem and Other Danish Songs, whilst we watch the sun set on our scores. You never know how important the sun is until it's not around.

This however, was taken when the sun was still shining. The thing about the sun though, is that everyone gets hot and sticky and it didn't help that the pool was right in front of us.

*Young people these days. Can't appreciate what they have. Tsk. *

Ah no. We can appreciate food. The food was awesome! satay potato wedges chocolate cake beef striploin sushi quiche. Very well fed we were...

Many thanks to the chief keeper of the ambassador's house! who was nice and obliging and gave us a room and water and insisted we stay for food. =)

Bangers and mash at coffeeclub@holland village

Where we all end up going after gigs or concerts or coaching. The freezing aircon is definitely a plus.

We do eat a lot huh.

cricket club clubhouse opening

2007-02-13T20:17:00.000+08:00

Only one photo, very kindly provided by the PR manager when she stumbled upon it recently. Darn the unglamness because it was taken when we were unsuspectingly playing.

(What's with the narcissism! Unglam then unglam. No one can be glam all the time right?)

What was remotely interesting about this gig was what happened before we played. We were hiding out in a room next to the little space that you see here. The room was huge and impeccably made up, because the SM who was the VIP was about to make his rounds touring the grounds. However, once we plunked ourselves there and started mugging suddenly we inevitably created this messy but habitable nest of books and jackets and bags.

And then he walked in with his entourage and we were all feeling like squashable insects so we sheepishly said "Hi".

"Hi" eh. Suddenly intelligence shrinks to negative points. Or maybe it's just how 'young people these days' are really casual with the greetings. I suppose we should stop making excuses for ourselves. But he was really cool about it and made a bit of small talk and said something along the lines of 'looking forward to hearing you all play later' and when he left the room we melted into our chairs and messy nest.

Post NAFA concert pigout

2007-01-23T18:48:00.000+08:00

free ad for fish and co.'s Seafood platter (I think.)
This blogger obviously wasn't eating something as gorgeously gargantuan as this. That privilege is reserved for...

DT the first violin
whose face says "Fish and Co. rocks!"

Oxy the 2nd violin
whose face says 'take then take lor, I'm hungry and eating...'

ET the cellist (Your Humble Blogger)
cannot believe she has been caught in the act of eating such fattening food

Jon WK Cheah the honorary member/photographer
whose face says "the horror, the calories!". Or maybe it says "Why has the camera been taken from me?!". Or maybe it's just "Oh no this is going to be a really unglam shot!"

Jem the violist is missing.
because he was being antisocial.

Nah. He had another rehearsal because violists are high in demand.

Oh and if you were wondering how come everyone was in purple, it's our unofficial new quartet colour. Pink is so yesterday. Purple is the new pink.

Celebrate December @ Esplanade Concourse

2007-01-20T23:42:00.000+08:00

Long overdue pictures of our longest performance at the Esplanade concourse. Long performance, long photo-processing time, long blogging time, it all adds up...

(Yeah right! We have wonderful excuses for tardiness..*sheepish grin*)

And the mic goes to...Jeremy the violist
Every concourse performance, it has sort of become an imperative for someone do Audience Interaction, where we introduce the pieces we're playing (or wake everyone up before they fall asleep when we play). However, as most of us are kinda shy (or act shy), Speaking Duty gets pushed around like some Pass the Parcel game. Of course, the guy, being the rose among the thorns, gets endowed with The Parcel.

So we get down to the playing business, and...

the turnout was pleasantly surprising!
Normally, the concourse crowd is way smaller, like about 20-30 people per set. We think it might have something to do with the very soft, and Garfield-attracting huge cushions near the stage (the boy in yellow is sitting on one!).

The violist is getting tired from all the talking, so the cellist props him up from the back with her bow. The 1st violin is too far away to prop him up, so she channels energy with her telepathic powers.

See the way the first violin's fingers are spread?
Dt's playing a harmonic! (whee..) and the cellist is smiling because she thinks harmonics are cute. The others are more normal so they are seriously focusing on the music.

Happy tappy feet

More serious playing shots. (yawn.)
This was quite the marathon concourse session. We had 3 sets to play for, presumably because more people would be wandering around the area as it was the eve of New Year's Eve. Major fight against lapses of concentration and rumbly stomachs.

So. The cellist tried to squirm out of Speaking Duty, with the excuse of nursing a hoarse voice, but failed. The 2nd violin is amused at the cellist's ability to amuse herself during Audience Interaction. Violin 1 and Viola are busy with looking through the next piece to make sure they don't miss the confusing 'repeat' signs.

Still playing.
(And doing the silent countdown to FOOD.)

T.H.E (leaning) quartet.
Notice how all the girls gravitate towards Jeremy the violist. One would think he should feel happy to be so priviledged, but his Botoxed smile says it all! hmph.

[ Dear reader, if you sympathise with the way Violist is being treated on this blog, rest assured we treat him very well in real life. (like giving him special service for his hair.) He's quite the willing sacrifice to up the entertainment value of each entry. I think.]

So it's finally over
(and we get to sit on the really comfortable cushions ourselves. Awesome!)

Oh and in case you were wondering who's the nice and obliging photographer who sits through most of our performances and takes gorgeous shots with his bazooka-lookalike camera, it's w.k.cheah,jon. - bird photographer with a blue mercedes van that has space for us to huddle at the back in the dark with our instruments.

NUS Chamber Concert

2007-01-11T12:49:00.000+08:00

Leslie and us! He actually stayed throughout to hear us play right at the end! Very touched..But actually we look so happy in this shot because he didn't disown us after the concert. Which means it went ok! (Ok maybe it went better than "okay". But modesty won't kill. =p)

How boring can our poses get! Violist just went for Botox so the smile doesn't come so easily. (kidding.)

Coffee Club@ Holland Village
The next favourite quartet hangout. (Favourite is Ichiban Boshi@esplanade) Provides for nice and quiet stone-out-time, post concert. This is us looking full and satisfied and sleepy and hyper at the same time.

Almost died of embarrassment standing on the steps of the aforementioned place. Blocking the way of the staff that couldn't possibly pass, getting weird looks from the few customers who were still around at that ungodly hour.

So after that hard work trying to get the shot, THE perfect shot where no one's face looks fat, unfortunately, the violist got tired keeping his eyes open and decided to get some shut eye. That's why this photo is blacked out. (kidding, again. But why take ourselves so seriously? No one died from taking the mickey out of themselves.)

Till the next time! (Which is after the NAFA Commuter Concert next Monday..)