This installment of the KL Life is brought to you by all things musical! First: the show:
I hit the 3-month mark on my trip here (!!! I know !!!) and realized that I better make a list of things I still want to do and see here, cos time is a-marching!
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| The trees were (as always) lit up beautifully outside, making the evening feel extra festive. |
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| View of the poster for the concert, by the steps in the lobby which lead to the orchestra hall. Ironically, the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas hall is located inside the Petronas towers - same place I work! Funny coming back here on a Saturday night. |
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| Love this T-shirt! (Sold at the "stuff for sale" table upstairs. For the musically disinclined, it's the movement of a conductor's baton, in 4/4 time :) |
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| I posted a hashtag on FB based on this: #SpoiledInKL. I was able to, for $30 USD, to get a seat in the front box. It's hard to see with the perspective of this photo, but I was practically on top of the orchestra, in line with maybe the 5th row of seats on the floor. Honestly - it's the ONLY way to hear an orchestra - like you're practically in the middle of it, the sound is just SO good! |
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| The hall, while (relatively) not very big, is quite lovely and intimate. It's interesting - almost allof the audience looked to have Chinese or Japanese features (with some Westerners thrown in) - I guess classical music isn't really that popular in Malaysian culture? In looking it up, the classical music hall only opened in 1998. I wonder how it came about that, isolationist as they were, the Japanese in particular (though also Chinese and Koreans, I think) became such lovers of Western classical music? (I was reminded of all the little Asian kids competing against me in the piano competitions of my youth...) |
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| Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo (" 'Yankee Jew', the only Korean Jew, spelled 'Joo' ") |
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| They got the whole orchestra engaged in the amazingly musical and delightful silliness - they did several delightful mashaups - it must have been so much fun to play, and orchestra was quite good! The program said they consist of musicians of 24 nationalities - and I counted at least 4 "Matthew"s. |
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As both Igudesman and Joo, aside from being phenomenal virtuoso musicians and excellent comedians, are also composers, in the middle of each half they each performed (while simultaneously conducting the orchestra) one of their own compositions. Both were really very good with remarkable musicality! (I didn't get a pic at that point - only one of them was out during his own piece)
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| During intermission, I snapped a pic of this big sign over the front entrance - it did, in fact, move me! :) |
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I've never seen the entryway of the towers (which I go through every single day) from this vantage point before!
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| View from above of the floor of the entrance lobby - never noticed how cool it is when actually walking on it |
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| More shenanigans - I believe here the audience was being conducted (with clapping as our instrument). One of the delightful highlights was the "Ride of the Oy Veykyries" - a Klezmer-ified version of the familiar theme. |
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The boys finished with their amazing "Mozart Will Survive" mashup (totally worth a watch til the end) - epic piece of mash-upitude and comic talent
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That was a truly epic evening. I would highly recommend you go see these guys if ever you get a chance to!
Now, on a totally unrelated-but-through-music theme, I'd decided that as I still have 3 more months to go here and I've settled in nicely into home and work, I need to find a hobby or some fun way to occupy my free time. What better thing than to take advantage of the exchange rate and... take some music lessons?!?!
After some extensive research - there is no shortage of cool things in KL! - I decided to give a try to
Ouch Music Academy (depite - or because of? - the name). I've been wanting to learn to play the drums for a while, but it always felt daunting - and I know physically challenging (especially for an injured musician with repetitive stress injuries from years of piano). But rhythms, especially complex and syncopated one, so appeal to me, and the idea of being able to learn limb independence - playing different beats and rhythms with all 4 limbs - seems like a far-off dream. I've mastered it with my hands on piano, but the idea of adding the feet is just so cool... :)
But I've also always had this fantasy of being able to sing better, as a soloist rather than just a solid choral singer. Somehow, the idea of structured vocal lessons never appealed to me, but after hearing the really nice local band at
Savini's a month or two back, the fantasy was back.
After an agonizing week of "should I / shouldn't I" (SUCH a girl! haha) I just big the bullet and signed up a free 30-min into session for BOTH voice and drums - thinking I'll see what clicks, and go from there.
The school is located on the 10th floor of an office building just at the edge of one of the city's famous restaurant and bar streets, Changkat Bukit Bintang. It is a very
welcoming space - including their awesome greeter Pudgy - a very friendly and rather svelte bichon frise.
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| A sign hanging up in the studio |
I started with a voice lesson with Ushera, an absolutely amazing singer, who heads the school with her husband Ganesh, who is a terrific pianist. It was the perfect combination of new stuff to learn in a relaxed and low-pressure way.
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| I then had an intro for drums - which was just so much fun! |
Afterwards, in talking with Ushera, I made the decision on the spot to sign up for both sets of lessons! At 4 45-minute lessons a month at $20 USD ea (so $40 per week) this really is a remarkable opportunity to learn from amazing musicians at a low-stress price point. (For those who aren't familiar with US pricing, that's about 2-4 times less than what I'd expect to pay state-side - and would thus be unlikely to pursue it given that I'm not really "serious").
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| On the way out, Chalan Bukit Bintang gets blocked off to cars in the evening hours to become pedestrian-only. The barriers have tigers on them... :) |
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| Chalan Bukit Bintang at twilight - here you can mostly just see the middle of the street; on either side, the whole block is non-stop restaurants and bars, |
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| View into one of these, through a curtain of bamboo |
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| The following weekend, I was heading out to buy a pair of drumsticks, and saw a Buddhist monk walking down the street. Not a very common sight, and I knew Orny would enjoy it, so I snapped a pic |
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| KL is one of these cities, like Shanghai when I was there in 2010, that has amazing shiny new modern buildings, but then a few blocks away are what look like almost slums. This was on a short walk from the music store, about 3-4 blocks from the super glitzy Pavilion mall |
As I've been procrastinating getting this post up, I've just completed my 3rd set of lessons (including the initial intro) - and both are going great. Music really does make everything better.
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