Monday, March 17, 2008
flashback. / 2:30 AM
Since my last blog entry before the renovation was so long ago there's just
so much to update on that I don't even know where or when to begin.
I'm not even sure you guys want to know everything that has happened either.
Probably not.
But I will do my best to glance through a few notable events that happend
since I last checked in.
After May a few important things happened in Singapore before I flew off.
The An Evening With Friends concert with the ACJC Choir, the Dichterliebe concert in June,
my last recital in Ms Jeong's studio before leaving to study and of course the St Gabriels'
Choir concert at VCH all went pretty well and left me with pleasant memories to leave with.
After all the goodbyes and very precious farewell gifts it was time to leave for New York.
My parents came to see the school and the city and I tried my best to show them
around from what I could remember of the place.
The Manhattan School of Music is such an amazing place for musicians!
Almost everyone is really good at what they're doing and the teachers are needless to say
all world-class professionals. What an eye-opener.
The student community here is mostly really friendly and diverse.
I mean it's New York City! You can't walk around this place without seeing 5 different
people from different ethnic backgrounds here. It's great!
MSM is 40% International and I have friends from all over the world as well as the US.
I have of course a lot of Korean friends (which those of you who stalk my facebook
would have realised by now), but I also have friends from Taiwan, Japan, France, Greece,
Poland, Turkey, and many more. There are some Singaporeans around too.
How refreshing it is (sometimes) to relate to others with such different cultures and
thinking than your own.
Other than eating lots of great food around the city
and shopping rather excessively/needlessly, I've also watched about 8 different operas
at the Met including La Traviata, Otello (with Renee Fleming),
Lucia di Lammermoor (with Natalie Dessay), Macbeth, Aida,
Die Zauberflote (with Diana Damrau), and Romeo et Juliette (with Anna Netrebko)
among others. I loved every moment of it!
You can count on it that I'm going to watch a lot more! There were some that I missed.
I also caught a few musicals but not many. I saw Avenue Q which was funny and
watched Chicago with Albert starring Brian McKnight who was amazing at singing
but kind of didn't act the role well at all.
I also saw a concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and a few pop concerts,
including Jon Bon Jovi live in New Jersey's Prudential Center! Jonathan kind of died
in Singapore when he heard I was going to see the band and he couldn't.
Don't worry Jon I was singing along for you every step of the way.
What else can I say? Jonathan came over to New York over my Winter Break to
join me here and also go over with Albert and I to Vancouver to ski and holiday with
Enoch and his brother. That was a real party trip which I really enjoyed. A good break!
All the photographs from my Winter Break with Jon are on Facebook, which is sadly one
of the excuses I gave myself for not blogging because all the photographs were uploaded
on the net already! I'm just lazy I realise but at least I'm back now.
I did really well last semester in my academic courses which I can honestly only
thank God for his blessings and providence for me here.
My voice teacher Neil Rosenshein is such a great tenor and it's only by God's
grace that I am now his student. He has taught me so much here and my voice
has grown much over the last few months. I can only wait in excitement to see
what the following years training under and learning from him will bring!
I think that's already more than most of you want to read in one blog entry so I will
bring this post to a close. I just finished two weeks of Spring Break so it's back to
school tomorrow. I made my second trip to Boston during the break
but otherwise I more or less stayed in the City... Really enjoyed going to the
New England Aquarium to see the beautiful sea life and also met up with Lim Hui!
Cheers Lim Hui! Thanks for meeting up with us.
9 more weeks before I return to Singapore on the 20th of May to see
everyone again! New York and MSM are great and all but I really miss home too.
Here's a picture that I took just two days ago in a Japanese restaurant in
downtown Manhattan called Yokocho which is actually right opposite Albert's residence hall.
Yes it's rather 'emo'...
Alright thanks for reading the hasty update! I'll check in again soon.
(By the way some of the previous blog posts have white-coloured text and are not
visible against the new white background. I don't intend to go back to them and blacken
them all so I guess if you want to view them you should just select the text with your
mouse which should make them visible. Thanks.)
Ciao!
so much to update on that I don't even know where or when to begin.
I'm not even sure you guys want to know everything that has happened either.
Probably not.
But I will do my best to glance through a few notable events that happend
since I last checked in.
After May a few important things happened in Singapore before I flew off.
The An Evening With Friends concert with the ACJC Choir, the Dichterliebe concert in June,
my last recital in Ms Jeong's studio before leaving to study and of course the St Gabriels'
Choir concert at VCH all went pretty well and left me with pleasant memories to leave with.
After all the goodbyes and very precious farewell gifts it was time to leave for New York.
My parents came to see the school and the city and I tried my best to show them
around from what I could remember of the place.
The Manhattan School of Music is such an amazing place for musicians!
Almost everyone is really good at what they're doing and the teachers are needless to say
all world-class professionals. What an eye-opener.
The student community here is mostly really friendly and diverse.
I mean it's New York City! You can't walk around this place without seeing 5 different
people from different ethnic backgrounds here. It's great!
MSM is 40% International and I have friends from all over the world as well as the US.
I have of course a lot of Korean friends (which those of you who stalk my facebook
would have realised by now), but I also have friends from Taiwan, Japan, France, Greece,
Poland, Turkey, and many more. There are some Singaporeans around too.
How refreshing it is (sometimes) to relate to others with such different cultures and
thinking than your own.
Other than eating lots of great food around the city
and shopping rather excessively/needlessly, I've also watched about 8 different operas
at the Met including La Traviata, Otello (with Renee Fleming),
Lucia di Lammermoor (with Natalie Dessay), Macbeth, Aida,
Die Zauberflote (with Diana Damrau), and Romeo et Juliette (with Anna Netrebko)
among others. I loved every moment of it!
You can count on it that I'm going to watch a lot more! There were some that I missed.
I also caught a few musicals but not many. I saw Avenue Q which was funny and
watched Chicago with Albert starring Brian McKnight who was amazing at singing
but kind of didn't act the role well at all.
I also saw a concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and a few pop concerts,
including Jon Bon Jovi live in New Jersey's Prudential Center! Jonathan kind of died
in Singapore when he heard I was going to see the band and he couldn't.
Don't worry Jon I was singing along for you every step of the way.
What else can I say? Jonathan came over to New York over my Winter Break to
join me here and also go over with Albert and I to Vancouver to ski and holiday with
Enoch and his brother. That was a real party trip which I really enjoyed. A good break!
All the photographs from my Winter Break with Jon are on Facebook, which is sadly one
of the excuses I gave myself for not blogging because all the photographs were uploaded
on the net already! I'm just lazy I realise but at least I'm back now.
I did really well last semester in my academic courses which I can honestly only
thank God for his blessings and providence for me here.
My voice teacher Neil Rosenshein is such a great tenor and it's only by God's
grace that I am now his student. He has taught me so much here and my voice
has grown much over the last few months. I can only wait in excitement to see
what the following years training under and learning from him will bring!
I think that's already more than most of you want to read in one blog entry so I will
bring this post to a close. I just finished two weeks of Spring Break so it's back to
school tomorrow. I made my second trip to Boston during the break
but otherwise I more or less stayed in the City... Really enjoyed going to the
New England Aquarium to see the beautiful sea life and also met up with Lim Hui!
Cheers Lim Hui! Thanks for meeting up with us.
9 more weeks before I return to Singapore on the 20th of May to see
everyone again! New York and MSM are great and all but I really miss home too.
Here's a picture that I took just two days ago in a Japanese restaurant in
downtown Manhattan called Yokocho which is actually right opposite Albert's residence hall.
Yes it's rather 'emo'...
Alright thanks for reading the hasty update! I'll check in again soon.
(By the way some of the previous blog posts have white-coloured text and are not
visible against the new white background. I don't intend to go back to them and blacken
them all so I guess if you want to view them you should just select the text with your
mouse which should make them visible. Thanks.)
Ciao!
David Charles Tay