SJ50 - The Condors

On Saturday, 27 Feb 2016, my skyline sketches of Tokyo and Singapore were presented to the immediate past Ambassador Haruhisa Takeuchi from Embassy of Japan after the performance by The Condors to signify the close relationship between Embassy of Japan and Temasek Polytechnic and to celebrate SJ50.

 

Mid-Autumn Festival Celebrations

A very quick sketch as it was our turn to perform on stage for the mid-autumn festival celebrations on behalf of Braddell Heights Community Club. We moved there when Hwa Chong Alumni Building at Bukit Timah Road was demolished in July this year. I am a pipa player in the Chinese Orchestra formed by old schoolmates of more than 40 years when we studied at National Junior College, the only JC in the early 70s. When we formed the orchestra in 2008 or 2009, we were invited by Hwa Chong Alumni to use their music room every Sunday for practice. It is a way for old friends to meet and jam for fun!

No Monday blues

A wonderful Monday night spent with a few sketchers at Muffinry with the talented Mexican band. Certainly no Monday blues and we had so much fun eating, drinking and sketching!

musicians at the art museum

On 28 Jan, several modern and classic music groups were performing at the opening of the exhibition "Classic Contemporary" Contemporary Southeast Asian Art from the Singapore Art Museum Collection. The exhibition will end on 2 May.

shamisen

It is public holiday here in Singapore and salamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim friends.

I did not go out and sketch as I needed to spend my long weekend doing assessment at home. I also spent some time listening to shamisen on the Youtube. All the memories from the good old days kept surfacing in my thoughts. I was part of the Chinese Orchestra playing sanxian in the group of about 20 players.

Japanese shamisen derived from sanshin which has its roots in the Chinese sanxian. I was astonished how shamisen has modernised and flourished in Japan as compared to sanxian in China. Pipa, the instrument I am picking up now is definitely more popular than sanxian. Another significant difference is that cat or dog skin is used to cover its resonator in shamisen whilst snakeskin is used to cover its resonator in sanxian.

If you watch the performance by the Yoshida Brothers, you may think shamisen is way cooler than the electric guitar which is one of the most popular dream musical instruments of every modern youth. However, Hiromitsu Agatsuma is still my favourite.

Turkish composer Toygar Işıklı

my other sunday activity

I reconnected with some of my old friends from the college chinese orchestra last mid autumn festival. Some of them I have not met over 35 years! Very quickly we picked up old or bought new musical instructments and formed a group to practise our favourite pieces every sundays.