Recent Events Archives - Page 5 of 24 - Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

Reflections from the Performer: Hanson’s Book 3 Recital

November 23, 2021 By Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

Although I was a bit worried and nervous before the book recital, but I also felt confident with practiced my recital pieces everyday. On the recital day, I felt more energy and confident when I saw my friends came to support me. I thought I performed my pieces smoothly throughout the book recital as I got many good comments from my family, friends and Ms Sonomi.

Reflections from the Performers: Book 1 Recital ~ Isabel and Chloe

November 22, 2021 By Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

Isabel and Chloe collaborated on their preparations, and performed their Book 1 Recital together…their very first recital! Here are their reflections on the experience.

from Chloe

I liked the Book – 1 Recital on Saturday, because I played everything correctly. (Expect for the beginning of “Song of the Wind”, because I thought it was “Perpetual Motion”!)But there was something I forgot to do – in the middle part of “Allegro”, I didn’t have eye contact with my partner Isabel… For the whole recital, at first I felt a little bit nervous, but after the first three pieces, I started to feel really confident.

from Isabel

I think that the recital had gone well in my opinion and at the recital I felt nervous and ecstatic and because this was my first recital ever and it had gone better than I had expected.

And I think when I practiced at home I felt more and more proud of myself after each practice and when I practiced I felt more and more confident about my solos and the other pieces, also I felt I was getting something out of each practice.

Reflections from the Performers: Viola! Book 2 ~ Yeh Joon, Linnaea and Aslan

November 22, 2021 By Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

Linnaea, Aslan and Yeh Joon worked together to prepare their Book 2 recital, starting from the beginning of the Fall Term. All of their efforts culminated in their performance on Saturday. Here are the performers’ reflections on the experience:

from Aslan

Over the course of the past few months i have been preparing for my book 2 recital and thought it went better than i thought as i didn’t mess up as much as i thought i would, I put a lot of effort into bochorreni minute as i couldn’t get the slurs to be fast enough or long enough and in the recital i executed it quite well. With the help of Linnea and Yeah Joon we got to play chorus from Judas maccabaeus in harmony which in my opinion sounded quite nice plus we also got to play musette as a harmony too. My three solo pieces are quite nice as i didn’t mess up as much as i did before and i remembered the trigger notes of D,D,B,B in Bourree. In the two grenadiers i thought i had great dynamics and showed the different moods of the piece. Although in witches dance i messed up a bit but i still kept on beat and continued playing the song. Twinkles were great. 🙂

from Yeh Joon

In this book2 recital, I felt more nervous than book 1 recital because they are harder pieces. One thing I enjoyed the most about this book recital was how we as a group collaborated well with one another. In my Gavotte from Mignon, I rushed the piece and my best piece was Long Long Ago. I learned that I should prepare more to make me feel better when preforming. Will remember this for next time.

from Linnaea

A Happy Halloween!

November 4, 2021 By Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

What a joy to be back at Stanley – almost two years after our last public performance! While we have been fortunate to have some “in person” performances – these have been limited to very small audiences comprised of immediate family members. It was so exciting to share our music and our costumes with an audience that included people we didn’t know at all.

There were lots of opportunities for the audience to join in the performance as well: singing, dancing, clapping…sometimes it seemed that the spooky sounds were happening in “surround sound”.

We are all excited to have more chances like this in the future.

Please enjoy some of the sights of our performance!

lower strings
pianists watching carefully
Two Grenadiers!
Everyone joined in Witches Dance
Pianists playing Gabby Ghost
French Folk Song
Ms Sonomi had a great costume!
Ms Susan’s first play-in in Hong Kong!
waiting…
SMAHK staff dressed for Halloween

Reflections from the Performers: Andrew and Cecilia, Book 6 Violin Recital

October 26, 2021 By Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

Cecilia and Andrew have unique perspectives on Book Recitals.

They were also paired for their Book 4/5 recital, originally scheduled during Spring Term, 2020. Because of the Pandemic, their plans changed numerous times. The vast majority of their preparation was held online. Their Spring Term, 2020 recital was eventually held in Fall Term, 2020…online from home with the joint pieces “performed” as Acapella videos. Book 4/5 is the first time a violin student performs a full concerto; for Cecilia and Andrew, this meant performing with an app doing the accompaniment!

One year later, they have had a very different preparation and performance experience for the in person Book 6 recital. Here are their reflections on the experience.

from Andrew

To finally be able to perform with one another in person with a live audience after collaborating with each other through videos, apps and zoom is a great experience and refresher. Practicing with each other in person allows us to communicate easier both in discussion and playing the violin together. Being able to perform the finished recital in person also creates a greater sense of accomplishment and allows us to share the achievements of our violin journey with others. As we rehearsed for our recital, it was quite difficult to get used to the formalities of an in person performance such as the paths to walk, when to bow and giving a que. I am very pleased with the final result although I still hoped that we could polish up the pieces a bit more. In conclusion, I enjoyed doing my Violin Book 6 Recital in person, collaborating with others and being able to share the results of our journey with others.

from Cecilia

This recital was definitely more memorable than the book 4-5 recital because it was in person, and I was able to play with Andrew together. We had a hard time practising together since it was so different, we had trouble communicating with one another, and we sometimes just start playing on our own, forgetting that we’re actually playing together. I felt a lot more anxious and scared since there were actual people in real life watching my performance, and I wasn’t really prepared for that due to the many recitals and performances I’ve had online. This recital was better than the last one because I got to really talk to my partner about things that we needed to work on. Although I made mistakes while playing, I really enjoyed this recital and I look forward to the next one.