we have no trumpet

A passing remark from someone,

(regarding our quartet)"Oh so you all are the ones the Tang Quartet thinks highly of?"

It was such an abrupt, out of the blue question that there was no appropriate response to it.She might have heard it from the first violin but Leslie's the one coaching us now and considering how (laughably) we played the last session, they might have changed their opinion all together but were just being nice.

I often wonder why Leslie bothers, after all, they get paid to coach the conservatory chamber groups, now they're off to Tanglewood (not the Singapore one)for the rest of the summer, we're just starting out, rather shakily, trying to get by with the bare minimum of intonation and trying to synchronise the much-stressed-upon Breathing. And at present our Haydn Emperor's pretty much in the dumps and eating out of the gutter.

(ok maybe it isn't that bad, but aren't people suppose to make something out of nothing in blogs?)

Is it even possible to live up to a non-existent reputation?

My cello teacher, Mrs Ilano, says,"Wow, Leslie is so kind!" and yes that quite about sums it up. It's really freaky during coaching because he echoes everything that Mrs Ilano says, and it's not just because he used to be her student. (Probably it's because I don't pay enough attention to what she says and so she haunts me from her various oracles!) But their teaching styles are really different: one is very patient and explains things really slowly, the other is loud, dynamic, doesn't mind jumping up and down, demanding, but both produce results.

All we are are a bunch of people who have some time to spare and want to make music together, which is not unlike other (probably better and more experienced) quartets around.

Then again, as characteristic of blog entries, this is another huge hype about nothing in particular. As my brother says, (another honourable mention!) the person in question probably said that because that was a Politically Correct and very PR thing to say, which was to be expected from someone like her, and it probably wasn't meant to stress us out or anything, but still.

Our violist/manager just called to say that someone from the production company is coming down during our next quartet rehearsal to hear our repertoire and pass us his composition for the NUS Commencement Dinner. The 'a la Bond' piece.

*sharp intake of breath. exhale. keep an open mind.*

Let's hope we won't get unceremoniously dumped after that spying session.