Musical Inspiration

I've been fortunate enough to attend two music concerts in one week! Not rock concerts but more classical musiciky orchestral concerts at the Town Hall!

The first concert I attended was the Auckland Symphony Orchestra's 'Invitation to a Dance' concert in the Auckland Town Hall last Sunday afternoon. My brothers, mum and I went along with Cleo, a friend from our youth group who wanted to come along as her school orchestra is playing a few of the same pieces the orchestra would be playing at that concert. She plays percussion so she wanted to check it out. It was the first orchestral performance she was attending too! We also went with the Tan family (our family friends from church) and our mum went along with them, while I drove my brothers and Cleo in our car.

The concert was pretty cool. There were quite a few catchy pieces, and there were quite a few pieces that were accompanied by dancers (well then again the theme of the concert was dance music!). The orchestra performed 'Dance of the Comedians' which is a piece we've played on the accordion before. My favourite piece, which came as a surprise to me was Danzon No. 2 by Arturo Marquez! It was conducted by Peter Thomas, the orchestra's Associate Conductor, and also the Head of Music/conductor of Cleo's school orchestra! It was funny too because Jenny, this other girl in our youth group who is also the lead violinist of their school orchestra was in the audience down below and we heard her shout out loud when Peter Thomas first came on stage!

What was really off-putting about the performance however was the fact that we were surrounded by infants and young children! Now there's nothing wrong with them, but when you have one beside you who keeps squeeling as he tries to conduct, and one behind you who is trying to give her mum directions to the toilet, you can't exactly focus on the music!

We had a bit of trouble finding where we parked the car after the concert though, as we couldn't remember where the carpark was! I admit they were following me, which could've been a mistake. Aonghas soon guided us in the right direction.

On our way to the car though I came across Mischa, my friend from intermediate school who I haven't caught up with since! It was really cool actually talking to her in person this time! She was playing cello in the orchestra.

As for the second concert I attended, I have to say to be completely accurate, I didn't attend the WHOLE concert, just the last third of it. It was the University of Auckland Graduation Gala Concert, and Aonghas and I stayed behind at uni and were going to join with our parents and Hamish to attend the concert.

There was one slightly problem we weren't expecting though. When Aonghas and I got there, there was a queue forming from the upstairs entrance to the Town Hall all the way towards Burger King! We got in the queue and nearly made it to the entrance. Aonghas was trying to ring Hamish to find out where they were, and Hamish told him that they were on their way. Not too long after that a lady walked alongside the queue telling everyone the Town Hall was completely full and told us to come back next year (while the Crunchy Comedy Festival people were trying to get us to attend their shows)! We then got a text from Hamish saying they were sitting upstairs in the audience! They must've gotten in through the back way!

Aonghas and I were walking towards Burger King when we caught up with Winston (from the Tan family as mentioned above) who was originally planning on attending the concert with his family as well. His family were still looking for parking by the time the hall was full! We ended up waiting outside the doors for seats to become vacant though, and eventually we got a seat...for the last performance!

It was a bit of a shame as I just missed out on watching my pharmacy friend's older sister perform the flute. The last girl who performed piano though was pretty good. We were seated right at the back, and I'm sure I could hear a lady behind me snoring, while a lady in front of us was watching through binoculars!

The music was amazing nonetheless, and the great news - my friend's sister won the competition! Now I really wish I hadn't missed that performance!

Being able to attend these musical performances really motivates me to try get more into music. I really want to continue with music theory and eventually pass grade eight, but it's just time and uni getting in the way! Oh...and also I'm still tossing up between Royal Schools vs Trinity. I've been doing Royal Schools up till now but have heard Trinity is slightly easier for the higher theory grades. Any thoughts anyone?