This week's Meetup marked a special commemoration for all of us as we celebrate the 100th Pianovers Meetup! Every Pianover was invited to join in the celebration, and contribute towards the potluck dinner. And it was absolutely amazing to see so many Pianovers turn up! We want to thank everyone for taking the time to make this meetup a fantastic anniversary for all of us to remember!
Yong Meng brought mini cupcakes that had ThePiano.SG logo, #pianovers and other musical symbols as decorations on them. Elyn Goh also contributed the balloons which spelt out '100', with smaller base balloons underneath. These balloons were also used a backdrop for the photo booth. Because of the size of the balloons, it was an effort to transport them from the party stall all the way to our Meetup - thank you, Elyn Goh, for the fantastic balloons!
Junn Lim contributed an excellent earl grey cake, topped with Kit-Kat as black keys, with an acrylic base and backdrop customised with the #pianovers and ThePiano.SG logo together with the silhouette of a grand piano. How majestic!
Winny Tunardy also baked cupcakes, and a beautiful visual cake with 100 on top - both with musical decorations. What a splendid design!
Additionally, we want to thank Lim Ee Fong and May Ling for the pau and dim sum, Corrine Ying for the curry puffs, Gavin Koh for the nuggets and fishballs, Pek Siew Tin for the cashew nuts, Audrey Cheong for the excellent wine, Julia Goh for the delicious black pepper and honey roast chicken, William Yeo for the fried rice and rockmelon, Janice Liew and Jonathan Lam for the assorted drinks, Hiro and Kendrick Ong for the fried chicken, Goh Zensen for the pizzas, Gladdana for the zoodles and egg salad with Yuzu chia sauce, Albert for the fruits, Pauline Tan for the Nutella sticks, chocolate cookies and konnyaku chia seeds jelly and last but not least, Peter Prem for the tidbits and crackers. Thank you all for the delicious food!
The photo booth was both set up splendidly, and operated by our Pianover, Ng Mun Yee. Even the props for everyone to hold and pose at the photo booth were made by her! She also brought a small portable printer so that everyone can bring home the 4R prints. Thank you, Mun Yee! It was definitely fun to see everyone taking turns to take memorable shots.
It was great to see The Urban Park @ URA Centre filled up with Pianovers chatting and connecting as well as enjoying all the food. We all took a couple of group photos together with the decorations, cakes and cupcakes to commemorate this celebration. Because of all of you, this Pianovers Meetup #100 sets a new attendance record with a whopping total of 70+ Pianovers!
If you look closely at the group photos, located right at the back, you can see a love shape and a 100 formed by two Pianovers. How fun!
Thereafter, Yong Meng invited everyone back to the front and shared Pianovers's memoir as he traced through all the Meetups from #1 till the #100 through a slideshow. He also performed background music that went along with the slides as he chronicled the history of the Meetups with subtitles at the bottom.
The first Pianovers Meetup was on 31st July 2016, and since then, it has been 2 years and 3 months!
From the slideshow:
"You're surrounded by family, and friends here today at Pianovers Meetup. Not only has the piano brought all of you here at the same place, it has given all of us the chance to get to know each other, to celebrate music together, to be proponents of piano music, to appreciate each other, to discover the local talents among you, to support each other, to stand together, to create wonderful memories together, and to create miracles together!"
"We had a humble beginning. Today, we are the largest piano community in Singapore, because of you. Tomorrow, we will continue to give our very best, for the future of our local piano education, for our piano friends, for our children, for the promotion of piano music, and for the next generations.. because we are Pianovers!"
At the end of the slideshow, everyone gave a long applause as well as cheered. Everybody present felt the Pianovers spirit strongly and resonated with the Pianovers identity. Some of them even teared.
Then, Yong Meng thanked everyone present at the Meetup and rallied Pianovers to stay united as we will continue to grow our local piano community and make positive impacts - "We host the show, but you all light up the stage!" Once again, the Pianovers roared with another round of big applause.
It was time for an important announcement. Yong Meng shared with everyone that tickets to the upcoming Pianovers Recital 2018, on 28th December 2018 to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Pianovers Meetup, would be available for purchase from 9pm tonight, right after the Mini-recital ended.
The Pianovers Recital 2018 is a performance platform for aspiring pianists. Come and support the performances by these enthusiastic pianists! Ticket is $12 each. Free seating. Buy now!
Without further delay, let's get started on the Mini-recital. First was Gavin Koh. He performed Polka Italienne by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Composed in 1906, this beautiful melody was published in his Suite No. 2, Op. 17, which is a composition for two pianos. Sergei Rachmaninoff had possibly the largest hands in classical music, to the extent of being able to span up to 12 piano keys. In 1943, Rachmaninov was diagnosed with lung cancer which led him to be severely ill due to a lifetime of heavy smoking. What a sad ending to one of the greatest pianists in this lifetime!
Siew Tin then took her turn by performing three piano pieces, starting first with 为何梦见他 by 邱晨, 庭院深深 by 刘家昌 and 闪亮的日子 by 罗大佑. With these pieces, she hit her 100th piece performed at the Meetups. Congratulations to Siew Tin!! Even as an adult learner, she has continued to show us her passion and her consistent discipline to perform regularly at our Meetups. We are happy to hear her perform many Chinese pieces for us. In fact, she first performed at Meetup #16 on 13 November 2016, almost two years ago!
The next Pianover to perform was Kendrick Ong as he played his very own composition piece, Always Thinking of You. It is always nice to have a fellow Pianover, showing us his own composition. In fact, Kendrick shared with us that his composition befit the 100th anniversary celebration because the first part of his composition features a tick-tock style that resembles a metronome, which ThePiano.SG's logo is also based on.
Following Kendrick's footsteps was Erika Iishiba, who performed Allegro con spirito: 1st movt from Sonata in D, K. 311. This classical piece was composed in 1777 by Mozart, who was one of the talented pianists from the Classical era. Here's a fun fact - he started making music when he was five years old. Throughout his lifetime, Mozart wrote a total of 18 sonatas for solo piano, 6 four-hand sonatas and a "Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K448". In particular, K448 was used in the Mozart Effect study; a research conducted in 1993 in which listeners were tested in their spatial reasoning abilities after being exposed to this piece.
Eric Tian played You've Got a Friend In Me by Randy Newman. This music piece was used as the theme song for the 1995 Disney/Pixar animated film "Toy Story", and became a major musical component for its sequels, Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3 (2010), and also a musical leitmotif throughout the whole Toy Story film franchise.
After Eric's performance was Jeremy Foo, who performed Waltz (from Masquerade) by Aram Khachaturian. The Waltz was written in 1941 for the 'Masquerade' play. Known as a famous waltz in the symphonic suite with a total of five movements, Aram Khachaturian dedicated the waltz to the actress who played Nina.
Jonathan Lam took his turn by performing Eight Concert Etudes for Piano in E minor, Op. 40 No. 3 ‘Toccatina’ by Nikolai Kapustin, who was a Russian composer and pianist. Did you know that Kapustin was the teacher of Vladimir Horowitz, who was acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, his tone colour and the excitement induced by his performances?
Brandon Yeo played Blue Bells of Scotland by Dorothea Jordan, and a Russian Waltz. The former piece was published in 1801, and it's a well-known Scottish folk song. Joseph Haydn also wrote a piano trio accompaniment for it (Hob. XXXIa: 176).
After Brandon's turn, Mentari took the stage and performed Sonatina in A minor by Jiří Antonín Benda. He was a Czech composer, violinist and Kapellmeister of the Classical period. His most important contribution lies in the development of the German melodramas. This was a type of musical production for the stage which influenced Mozart. If you are not aware yet, Kapellmeister is a German word for a person who is in charge of music-making. The word is a composite that put together the roots Kapelle ("choir", "orchestra", or originally, "chapel") and Meister ("master").
Tammy Lee then performed Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel and Musette in D by Johann Sebastian Bach. Tammy is from Malaysia, and she came all the way to join us and delivered her debut performance! We hope to see her performing more often in future Meetups.
Chia I-Wen performed March of the Little Bears and When The Saints Go Marching In superbly. I-Wen first joined us in Pianovers Meetup #26 on 7 May 2017, and she has frequently been performing with us, and along the way, has made some friends here. It is incredible to see how our community is filled with laughter and fun from the youthful kids.
Next in line is Max Zheng, who performed Summer by Joe Hisaishi. "Summer" was the theme verse used in the 1999 Japanese movie “Kikujiro”, which featured a young boy looking for his mother during a long vacation. Besides "Summer", Joe Hisaishi also composed music for "Spirited Away" and "Kiki’s Delivery Service". He has been working closely with animator Hayao Miyazaki since 1984 and has composed all the musical numbers for Miyazaki’s films.
Last but not least, Xavier Hui played Impromptu in E flat Op. 90 No. 2 by Franz Schubert. His Impromptus contain eight compositions for solo piano. Composed in 1827, they were arranged into two sets of four pieces each. Set #1 was published when Schubert was alive and is known as Op. 90, and Set #2 was released after his death as Op. 142.
After the Mini-recital ended, Pianovers continued to take pictures with the decorations at the Photo Booth. At the same time, everyone continued to jam and chatted with one another while enjoying the last bits of the food.
Furthermore, enthusiastic performers were seen promptly purchasing the tickets for the Pianovers Recital when the clock struck 9pm. As a matter of fact, Siew Tin was delighted after she bought her ticket. We all look forward to having all the performers on the stage very soon! We also welcome your family, loved ones and friends to attend and celebrate your achievements at Pianovers Recital 2018.
As the Pianovers Meetup #100 comes to an end, we want to thank all of the Pianovers who helped out with disposing of the trash to ensure the venue is clean. But more importantly, we want to thank all of the Pianovers who have always been there supporting one another in many ways that we never could imagine for this community. This night was thoroughly enjoyable, and we hope to host more meetups in the future. See all of you in the next one!
