Today was the talent show day. Interestingly, the SSP GCSU astro program has a high concentration of talented performers and musicians. It made me wonder if being good at music has something to do with physics (e.g. Einstein playing violin and Feynman playing bongo drums). Here are some performance highlights I was able to obtain good photos for:
Michael N.’s Liebestraum no 3 (Love Dream) by Franz Liszt
Gwanpil’s magic card trick with Dr. Ice as a volunteer
Ian’s high-quality low budget drum performance
Dr. C’s “Nel blue dipinto di blu”
Aditya’s stand-up comedy
(from left to right ) Katie, Viktoria, and Isa’s jazz performance. Isa also had an amazing origami story show but the lighting was not ideal for photos.
Jean’s angelic singing of “Time to Say Goodbye”
After being robbed by the airline for a 140-dollar special checked bag ticket for my violin on the flight to Atlanta, I knew I had to play something in today’s talent show despite the 3-year hiatus from playing the violin. I had never been especially skilled with the instrument so I lost my interest after playing in an orchestra full of perfect pitch prodigies that practiced 4 hours per day. In addition, transitioning to boarding school life in the US made me lose many of my former hobbies, including playing the violin. Thus, the 5 weeks of consistent and inconsistent practice sessions on the piece “Howl’s Moving Castle” with my fellow trio musicians, Kal (flute) and Sara (violin), was like a “renaissance” of my life back in China as I continued to wreak havoc upon my fellow musicians with my out-of-tune notes and “chronic rush syndrome” (hence “Kal’s burning Castle”). Despite countless hours of practice, our performance was below the average quality of our practices but I guess things in real life don’t have perfect endings as they do in stories. Nevertheless, even if the performance was perfect, it would not have been more meaningful than the reconciliation with my former passion and the friends I made along the way. For this, I would like to thank Sara and Kal for keeping me on this wonderful journey (and for your infinite patience in tolerating my playing):
“Kal’s Burning Castle” with (from left to right) overqualified page flipper Alan, Kal, Jonathan, and Sara
-Jonathan
