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ACS (Independent) Philharmonic Orchestra, in collaboration with SAF MDC and Central Band

Chan Tze Law, conductor
Singapore Conference Hall

Friday, 09 March 2007, 8pm

Ma Hongye/Zheng Lu
Good News from Beijing Reaches the Border Villages

Gerald Finzi
Clarinet Concerto [III.Rondo]
Vincent Goh, clarinet

Chen Gang/He Zhanhao
Butterfly Lovers Concerto
Wang Ji Ying, pipa

Antonin Dvorak
Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95 ‘From the New World’

Saturday, 10 March 2007, 8pm

Ma Hongye/Zheng Lu
Good News from Beijing Reaches the Border Villages

Gerald Finzi
Clarinet Concerto [III.Rondo]
Vincent Goh, clarinet

Liu Tieshan/Ma Yue
Dance of the Yao People

Wu Houyuan
Red Plum Capriccio
Lai Du Jun, erhu

Antonin Dvorak
Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95 ‘From the New World’

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busy days.

-

oh Lord have mercy on me... so many times i've failed... yet your mercy remains.

i want to be free

sigh.

the weekend is an wicked illusion of time.

but its been a great weekend :)

some pre-sleep thoughts

sometimes the desire for tangible love, comfort and support results in neglecting the One who is the provider of all love, the Father who loves us most.

how we can start and end the day with Him but lose track of Him along the day.

alas, we are but mortal, not infallible, but imperfect. yet He chose to love us. how Great is our God.

Lord help me to focus on You, to seek first Your kingdom and righteousness.

Amen.

verse for the day

matthew 11:28-30

28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."


thanks yi.

sick.

i underestimated the task of inputing musical figures with Sibelius for EE.

it took about 2 hours for me to finish up 4 figures. i have plenty more to go. oh dear.

perhaps my inefficiency in working with Sibelius contributes to the problem. oh well.

but Copland's works has more complex scoring than usual, eg. complex meter, accidentals, accents, rhythms, and the like.

heh.

bit by bit i guess.

workload increasing by the day. and someone reminded me that maths portfolio coming. hm.

i look to You, Lord
Your love that never ends
Restores me again

unwell.

So now it's my turn. And Losh's. To fall sick :/

~

It's now time to let you go
to see you live the dreams
the dreams that I wish i could live
But never did suffice.

I wonder what our friendship's based on
Was it love or admiration?
Was it because you were all I wasn't
So knowing you gave me satisfaction?

I see you out there, living the life
That I was romanticising,
I couldn't be selfish; so I let you go
To see my dream, unfolding.

Sometimes it brings a smile to my heart
But sometimes it cuts like pain
To see you in the imaginary shoes
That I'll never fit into again.

So it's time to let you go
To see you soar above me
I'll struggle now but I learn somehow
To love you for you, wholeheartedly.

~

"The sky is always beautiful, but it's up to us to notice it." And so it is with people.

"When the ice is broken and misunderstandings are cleared, the healing will start." But is there such a thing as silent healing? I need to find it.

~

"Look to Me, and be saved..." - Isaiah 45:22

weekend.

the weekend is a sneaky thing, not to be trifled with.

it gives a false impression of time that one tends to take for granted.

and when it passes away, its too late.


why doesnt anyone post on ngeeee anymore :(


and i can't get myself started on the long list of weekend homework.

how pathetic.

gah.

watching tv.

bottle orchestra.

the funnest thing that happened today...

was after PE after hydrating ourselves with 100 plus. in the SAC, justin blew over the bottle opening to create a wave through a closed pipe. haha. and he made a sound! so there it begins. we were all creating different sounds with different volumes of water in the bottles. then we decide to make it tonal, so we tuned it by adjusting the amount of water in each bottle.

back in class, we made almost an octave range haha from an empty bottle to an almost filled one. we had 7 bottles and we played songs yay. i loved the Jesus loves me song that most would have sung in Sunday school. haha. the very first song that you'll learn when you're young. well back to the subject, it was very fun, though our harmonies were a little off because of the slightly off tuning of each interval. we kept the bottles in an empty locker. heheh. oh well. that was most memorable.

otherwise, today was a wake up call. for me to restart running again. because my run in a pathetic state. my pace was uber uber slow. heh. and the result of the conditioning exercises leaves me with an aching left shoulder. funny why its unbalanced. the aching, i mean. oh well. at least its growing stronger.

i shall go sleep soon. can't do any work in this state.

geetah.

the best deal i've ever gotten.

help. not again.

help.

Nobody knows, how weak I am
Better than You.
Nobody sees, all of my needs
Better than You.
And nobody has the power to change me
To what I was born to be.
Jesus be strong in my weakness
Empower me

Empower me
Like a rushing river flowing to the sea
Lord send your Holy Spirit flowing out through me
Till I'm living as Your child,
Victorious and free,
Send the power of Your love empower me.

Nobody's eyes, see through my soul
Better than Yours
Nobody's love, can make me whole
No love but Yours
And nobody has the power to lift me
To reach for eternity
Jesus break through all my defenses
Empower me

Empower me
Like a rushing river flowing to the sea
Lord send your Holy Spirit flowing out through me
Till I'm living as Your child,
Victorious and free,
Send the power of Your love empower me.

This is my cry.

ee.

come and celebrate with me
just cuz i finish ee
even though it is first draft
but one load off is big enough

yay.

today.

today.

whew.

yay.

whoo.

heh.

ngeh.

sian.

2.3k

the joy of giving.

She woke up that morning, and immediately set a resolution. In the comforting darkness of the early morn, and in the warmth of blankets, she resolved to abandon all selfish thought; to live her life not for herself, but for others.

And so she did so. At lunch time, she couldn't wait any longer. She wanted her best friend to hear the song she wrote; the song she wrote just for her. After all, her sadness yesterday inspired her to write it, solely because a comforting song might be all that she needed. As the phone rang, she cherished the selfless thought. The thought of making someone else's day a whole lot more endurable.

The words came out of her, just as the music flowed from the piano. She loved those blue chords, and secretly hoped her best friend had heard them and loved them too. In the midst of the noisiest of places, a special, pleasurable feeling of peace filled her; and it lingered long after the song was over. Seeing her best friend smile made her feel especially glad. It was like receiving an award from heaven. She had never thought that giving could feel so good - probably even better than receiving anything.

Her friend thanked her and left in a hurry, so she made her way home alone. But when she stepped out, everything seemed different. The sky was a bright blue, the breeze hurried happily over the green field. Friends were walking together and laughing; and even her loneliness did not seem so bad anymore. She thought about what she had just sung, and wondered if the lyrics applied to her as well. Up ahead in her mind, she saw that usual train of thought approaching her again. However, she stood up to them this time, and stopped herself. She stopped and said under her breath:
"Moving on."

~

(song for a friend)

At times like this, there are no answers
to feelings of love and loss;
so all I can do is to sing you a song
of comfort - cos I still love you.

I know its hard
I know its not easy
But its better to forget than to lose.
And when times get rough,
and the world is in blue;
just remember, this song's for you.

I know what it's like, I understand you -
the ache in your heart and soul.
But all I can give is a friendship of love
and joy to see you through.

I know its hard
I know its not easy
But its better to forget than to lose.
And when times get rough,
and the world is in blue;
just remember, this song's for you.

Just remember, this song's for you...


(ame, 9/1/07)

drudgery of ee.

my word count stands at 1800. pathetic. gah. still have loads more to analyse.

but anyway i happily declare that my monday night has been used productively to my satisfaction. i wrote 600 words in about 3 hours. not bad la. orchestral analysis + translate into words. tired out. its been a long monday.

looking forward to math and PE tomorrow. differentiation is starting to get harder by the day. its not the concept or formula, but the process of solving a long differentiation equation can be frustrating especially when you make careless mistakes you dont even realize. heh. thank God for the teacher man.

should be turning in soon. i liked pastor kenneth's message today. it seemed so long ago. seemed like he preached yesterday. maybe its just the monday thing. it was a simple passage. matthew 5:6 - 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled'. Amen. he repeated what i remember once in a BB camp when mr jarett kan shared. that God will draw close to you if you draw close to Him first. yep.

gah focused on ee and neglected my bit of homework today. oh well. on a brighter note, there's SL2 tomorrow! = free period = 1h40min break (including break). yay! do ee! hahahaha. oh well better get some sleep soon. dont want to fall asleep during lessons now, not this year. heh.

sleep!

Just a small thing to start the year.

"Come ye after me, and I will make ye fishers of men" Mark 1:17

Oh Lord, it is by Your grace alone. by your unfathomable grace.

weekend, school, food.

i keep lying to myself.

now i know better.

i tell myself i'll do this and that over the weekend and it's still undone. gah. maybe i'll start later. albeit late, but better than never right. yay there's math and physics tomorrow. fantastic. no sarcasm meant. haha. genuinely happy and looking forward to lessons. differentiation and electricity.

i have this thing about fried rice. i feel the standard is low when the cook uses the three cheapo elements, diced (peas carrots corn), which can be found sold in big packs in supermarkets. i just came back from some restaurant and they had that. i always think that good fried rice doesnt need those three, and will taste excellent. maybe i'm biased against peas (i dont really like them), but normally good tzi char (cook fry, literal translation, those stalls where you order dishes and they serve with rice and other fried dishes) stalls should have decent fried rice without those three elements. i think the best thing in the restaurant i just went (its in bras basah complex) was the chinese hot chrysanthemum tea. it was mildly sweet and nice and fragrant. i drank alot of it yay.

i had the joy of tasting good tzi char today at the makeshift chinatown market. the sweet and sour pork is excellent. crunchy on the outside, succulent on the inside. best i've tasted so far. there's this great deep fried tofu dish too which was fantastic. haha. but the thing is that there are so many tzi char stalls in that place you dont really know which is great. i didnt know which one my mum ordered from aha. oh well. pretty much all i have on food.

better start work soon.

which are you?

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of figuring and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In thefirst she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see.""Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity ... boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?" Think of this: Which am I?

Which are you?

K.O.

got home at midnight after cell after a hectic first week with little sleep.

anyway, life is good.

" "Come follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." "

- Matthew 4:19 (NIV)

reflecting on the first week.

The message that God sent to me this week was all about trust.

It all started out with an annual church meeting on tuesday, 2 Jan 2007. Pastor's devotion for that day was on Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust the Lord with all your heart, and lead not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. He explained that your life will be straightened out once u renew your faith in Him. I still can recall this (given my horrible memory) because God said it again to me the next day.

It was during assembly devotion that these verses were mentioned. And then, that morning's quiet time was about putting my faith in Him all over again; surrendering all things.

I guess its a message that I really need nowadays.

~

Well, at least the week's over and i need to say this: I REALLY REALLY REALLY miss you guys at orientation; esp. keith, doggie, cheryl, sze. I miss you all quite badly. You know this week has been only a little better than crap cos you guys weren't around...sob. Come back soon! And keith i'll have to see abt tt marriage proposal lol...but i can bake shortbread anytime.

Now i'm just dreaming that I'm driving a red sexy ferrari and my hair is flying with the wind; and i'm shaking my head to Good Love Is On the Way. You go girl.

and its the end of week 1.

'm beginning to love math.

haha. i'm surprised at myself too. i'm looking forward to physics and math lessons, which is pretty amazing. maybe its true that the teacher makes a whole lot of difference. and also if you can do all the practice questions in class, its a great morale booster though. we're re-learning differentiation all over again. yay. so fun.

today was a short day. weekend means lots of work to finish. hope i'm up to task. just had a long nap, a nice one i've never had for a long time. which means i wont be able to sleep so early tonight. hahaha. oh well. do work. yay.

whee.

God's gift of life.

i almost died just now. literally.

it was mostly my fault though, but it made me realize how precious life was, and made me ponder about the gift of life the God has granted us.

i was walking across a road to reach the bus stop on the other side. my earphones were on, and didnt see any cars. i thought it was all right to cross the road. i walked, and was half across, when i suddenly stopped short, and a white MPV-ish kinda car sped past right in front of me, right about barely a few centimetres short of knocking me off. i got a shock. i stood there a little stiff, watched the car drive pass, driver probably cursing and swearing at some idiot who didnt cross the road at the right time, and didnt look out for cars. that kinda car, going at that speed, could have easily killed me. wow. its a scary experience. then the whole way home on the bus i was just in thought.

how i would have just be gone there and then. then i pictured the aftermath, the scene that might have been. ambulance, blood, family in hospital. whoa. and i thank God for preserving my life by letting me stop there and then while that car sped past me, leaving me in shock, but nonetheless unscathed. Thank God. to all of you out there, watch the traffic before crossing a road, but more importantly, cherish life, and live it to the fullest. it shouldnt take you such an experience to realize that.

even though i'm not sure about my future, about where i'm headed after NS, about what course i'm going to apply for, i know its in His hands. that its all settled. whew. what a relief. for now i just have to focus on the here and now, and that is, IB.

on a lighter note, today was pretty boring, besides the fact that my replacement physics teacher this year is MR TERENCE CHIEW! yay! we are saved from impending doom. our class couldnt have been happier. the ray of hope shimmers ever brightly. other than that, its going to be a crazy term with all the deadlines for EVERYTHING. and here i am blogging heh. anyway, the other highlight was rehearsal. i'm starting to love dvorak9 more. cello sound must be zai. OH YES. there was MOULD growing on the cellos/basses. darn yucks. had to get toilet paper to clean it up and stuff. our guess was that the room was damp for some reason due to the rainy season, and somehow it started to grow. yuck. hopefully it'll stay dry now. otherwise today went pretty well.

so many things to do, so little time. how i miss the holidays, but well, doesnt everyone? haha. if i could turn back time, maybe i would do abit more of homework and slack less. but then again, maybe not. so it doesnt matter anyhow. hahaha.

its raining again. rawr.

and i'm off.

in a state of inertia.

apprehension, expectancy
dread, vivacity
longing, hurry
unsure, slowly.