TSO Preludes & My Birthday

My birthday is coming up! I'm going to be 9 years old soon!

My favourite birthday so far was when we had a duo from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra come to my school. (I was still going to a regular school then.)

Ed Hayes and Marie Gelinas played songs from all around the world. They are a part of the TSO Preludes program where they do musical presentations in schools. I don't remember the names of all of the songs but I do remember the Russian Sailor's Dance, Hava Nagila and Where Have All the Flowers Gone. 

It was really fun because we listened to good music and we got to play some percussion instruments. They had drums, shakers, rhythm sticks and even a rain stick. Some of them I had never even seen before.

This percussion instrument was shaped like a frog!


Some kids even got to play the percussion instruments while Ed and Marie played on cello and keyboard! That was cool!

Here is one of my favourite songs from the presentation:

A Jamaican Folk Song

Thank you so much Ed and Marie!!!
I really loved the presentation and I hope to see you again sometime. :-)

~~~

The TSO doen't offer the Preludes programme any more. :-(

Redemption Song - Playing for Change

Somebody sent me a link to this great video on youtube. It's Redemption Song and it's played by musicians all around the world! It's amazing.

Playing for Change's website is:
http://playingforchange.org/ 

For my Mom...

My Mom has been sick, so I taped this song for her. It's one of her favourites... It's "Watermark" by Enya and Nicky Ryan. I know it's not perfect, but I know she'll love it.

Today's Piano Tuning

Today we had our piano tuned again. I sat and listened while the piano technician was tuning.

I heard that it's hard for people with perfect pitch if they want to be a technician - but I'll still keep it in mind if I don't become a Conductor when I grow up.

My favourite part of the tuning is when it's all done and I get to play with it still open. It's so pretty!

My Grade 4 Exam Results

I finally got my grade 4 piano exam results!
I got 90%. That means I got first class honours with distinction!
I'm so happy!

Here's a link to the pieces I played for the exam.
http://www.joshdlee.blogspot.ca/2013/01/my-grade-4-rcm-exam-pieces.html

I might do another post with some of the other grade 4 songs that I like.

The TSO's 2013-2014 Season

Yesterday, I got to go to the unveiling of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's 2013-2014 season.

It will be Peter Oundjian's 10th anniversary with the TSO and they showed a cool video congratulating him. I wish I could congratulate him too!

There are a couple of things I'm excited about in the next season.

Rob Kapilow will be back with his Exposed: What Makes It Great concerts. We'll be looking at  Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Copland's "Appalachian Spring".

They will have a special performance for Chinese New Year with Yuja Wang on piano and conducted by Long Yu.They will have traditional Chinese and Western orchestral music. They're going to play Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Cirque de la Symphonie looks good too! They will have Khachaturian's Sabre Dance and some of my other favourites.

They will be doing "A Christmas Carol" as one of the Holiday concerts. Mom & Dad say the first time I went to the TSO it was to see "A Christmas Carol". They also did a version of Sleigh Ride that was originally by Liberace and that's when I fell in love with piano. It doesn't say that they'll do it again, but I'll be very happy if they do.

There are so many performances I'd like to go to but I can't list them all here.

To find out more about the TSO's 2013/2014 season, you can visit their website.
www.tso.ca

My Grade 4 Piano Exam

I had my Grade 4 piano exam today.

This morning, I woke up early and got ready to go to the RCM's Telus Centre. I love that building! They have the coolest, old instruments displayed there. The bistro is nice too.

Dad and I reached early for the exam and we waited together for a while. (Mom gets too nervous when I have exams so she didn't come.) I had to wait by myself outside the examination room for a bit too - that was boring.
I had 'butterflies' in my tummy.

The examiner was really nice. I don't know her name though. I did the scales first. I only remember doing A major even though I know I did more than that.

Then I played my studies. Study in Bb Major was OK but I had a problem with Avalanche. I thought I messed up on the last crescendo of Avalanche and I asked to start over. The examiner said I could from the second half. That was really nice of her and it helped me to relax a bit.

I think my repertoire songs were good. For List C, I did Schumann's Wild Horseman.

Of course my ear test was really good. Identifying the intervals is my favourite part of the exam. :-)

I'll let you know my exam results when I get them.

For now, it's time to just have some fun!
I'm going to play.....