Tuesday, September 8, 2009 7:48 PM
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Hi everyone.
This is mainly for the sec 1 juniors, as a follow up of what was said during overtime just now.
As you know, Mr Sze has been really disappointed in us lately, due to lack of practice, as well as the attendance. We have a really important concert coming up in January, and frankly speaking, we are under-performing.
Yes, Mr Sze has been really nice to us, most of you have not seen the full potential of his rages, or how angry he can get. When I was in Sec 1, I feared him.
A hell lot, and for good reason.
When he screamed during rehearsals, he really screamed. He's walked out on us a few times, and he's even thrown furniture around, torn scores in the middle of recordings and told us to go home.
He's being nice to us, because he knows that if he is too strict and fierce towards us, a majority will fear him, and possibly hate him as well. That is not what he wants. He has feelings too, yes, he's made people cry before, I have cried as a result of his scoldings, but he has been doing this for our sake. Now, what I see, is that people are taking for granted his niceness, taking for granted his respect towards us.
He's given us the respect we wanted from him, but the real question is, are we giving him the respect he
deserves? Each time he walks into rehearsal, he ends up waiting for us to practice and figure out our notes, and some don't even bother with that. What happened to the spirit we felt during the SYF period?
Being in NYSE, is not about accumulating as many CCA points as possible - it is about discovering yourself, maturing, growing with your peers and batchmates under the care of your seniors and teachers, as well as developing a passion for music.
Yes, the sec 4s have just stepped down, all the more reason we must put in treble the effort we've been putting in thus far, to keep NYSE going, all of you have to take the initiative to simply pick up your instruments and practice.
Also, there have been many recent cases of people talking back to seniors, and scolding us because we try to correct your mistakes, it is really rude and disrespectful, especially if you treat whatever we say as crap, or roll your eyes at us when we speak.
We do not like to give pep talks, or talk to all of you in this manner, we are here to guide you along your journey in NYSE, as well as to help you. But please, if you haven't gotten the idea, this is your wake up call, you cannot depend on us to cover up for your every mistake or let them go by, because eventually, you are the ones who will be leading the ensemble.
Don't give Mr Sze a hard time, give your exco a hard time trying to get you to practice, your section leaders, seniors. Because every person matters in NYSE, if you don't do your part, it affects your section and eventually the ensemble as well.
Please don't make us seniors turn into naggy grannies, and take the initiative to
do your part.
It will make a huge difference (:
5:53 PM
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hey nyse!
i'm weiyu here, i just want to add on on what i said just now (: This post is mainly for the
sec ones though..
i have been neglecting strings practice for many weeks to prepare for exams. As you all know, i havent been a really good student during Sec 1, and this year is streaming year, that's why i wanted to put more effort into my academic this time.
I really hope that the juniors can learn to trust whatever the seniors say about Mr Sze, even though i havent been through the period of time when he was extremely fierce & mean, i believe them, cause why in the world will the seniors lie about such stuff?
I hope no one thinks that what i said just now is a joke, (although someone actually rolled her eyes after i spoke, you know who you are.)I hope that you all can use my experience so that you all wont have to go through what i went through.
Anw, the bottom line is: we all should not depend on "wake up calls" to "wake us up".
Strings can really make you become a better person, it can really make you mature, make you grow up. Strings can also give you countless of valuable lessons, but whether or not you become a better person, or whether or not these lessons help you grow, it all depends on if you want to heed the advices, it all depends on YOU.
Monday, August 3, 2009 8:53 PM
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Hello (:
I'm posting to keep the blog alive, but anyway:
Congrats to the new exco!
P: Eugenia
VP/CM: Tingwei
T: Jing Ting
L: Kailin
QM: Xu Yue
All the best for blocks!
Thursday, April 30, 2009 8:17 PM
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(Paulo Coelho)
But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.
(Theodore Roosevelt)
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
(Oprah Winfrey)
I don't believe in failure. It's not failure if you enjoyed the process.
(Barack Obama)
Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. it's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
(: CY
4:38 PM
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hello NYSE!
omg it's been cow years since i've posted here! okay i'm posting from my dead blogger account heh. anyway i just want to say that i'm really proud to be in NY strings. out of my 4 years in NYSE, this is the first time i felt the unity, the unbreakable bond, and closely knitted friendship in NYSE. and of course we suddenly grew much closer to Mr Sze and really, i think he is a fantastic conductor. After working with various conductors, I finally appreciate the strict discipline which he enforces on us. After all, though it sounds corny, it's really for our own good!
This SYF'09 has been really memorable. This has taught us that the ultimate result doesn't matter, it is simply a bonus. What matters most is our journey, and how Mr Sze feels about our playing. If he thinks we're a GWH standard, i feel that we are definitely a GWH ensemble. SYF is just another competition. In fact, it is a actually Singapore Youth Festival, a festival to celebrate in the name of music. Music has many interpretations, and as long as we know we are making music, that we are feeling it, then we have reached our goal.
Today's ensemble lunch was a really awesome one. The high energy level was truly felt by each and every one of us, and I'm sure this has changed everyone's attitude towards NYSE. For me, I suddenly look forward to doing things and making music with the ensemble. I know we have 2 weeks break from CCA, but i'm really counting down to the day when we resume our practice. We still have many exciting things to look forward to: Open house, CCA CIP, NY Festival of Arts, and EOY concert for some. I know some may dread open house, CIP, and even FOA. But think from another perspective- we get to make music together. Instead of brooding over the hours wasted on CIP and everything, think about the time we get to spend together, to truly enjoy our music. And this time there'll be less pressure because there'll be no panel of judges! It's just us and the music.
Now in school when i see everyone, it's like the Carnegie experience all over again. We've made new friendships, and strengthened the existing ones. I feel a sense of joy and closeness when I greet everyone in school. For me, i'll be cherishing CCA time from now until I step down. It's really a pity that this has to happen when I'm graduating, as i have less time left with the ensemble. But it's okay, i'm sure all seniors will come back often. :D
I'm sure all of us are proud to have two lovely teachers in charge, Mrs Ho and Mr Lee, to have a wonderful exco0809, and to be immensely proud to be under the baton of Mr Trevor Sze. (i see many of you have put that in your MSN names!)
so NYSE, i shall end off with a 'quote' from Mama Mia (or rather, ABBA) :
nyse, thank you for the music.lots of love, Ysabel.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 7:28 PM
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hey guys (;
omgosh its been a reallllly long while since i posted here. so well since tmr's our big day tada i shall say sth here ya?
our 10 months since we first got our syf scores- filled with happiness, frustration, worry, satisfaction, anxiety, confidence, anger, pleasure.
our 10 minutes on the syf stage tmr, make it a blast and return to nanyang with pride that we have done our best alright?
the same thing i said during ensemble today. trust in mr. sze, trust in your dear ensemblemates, trust in your sectionmates and lastly trust in yourself.
and a quote: "If you set out to live your dream, the world will conspire to make it happen" express a desire to bring out the music that plays in mr. sze's mind, make a conscious effort and it will happen(:
once again im
really proud to be tangled in (ny)strings and im quite sure im not the only one.
we've got zeh z power!
with love, shirlynn[:
Sunday, April 26, 2009 10:01 AM
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Hey NYSE(:
I guess all of us are already feeling the tension. 3 days. A mere 2 more rehearsals and we will be on stage, in front of the panel of judges, in front of Mrs Ho and Mr Lee, in front of our peers from different schools.
I just want to say, nothing is impossible. As long as we put in our utmost effort, we fear not. The faith that we will bring along with us, will tide us through together. No matter what happens on performance day, we stand together as a team, we face whatever happens together as a team.
At the end of day, what we really want to achieve is the satisfaction after playing our music, the satisfaction after our last G chord.
Ending off our last note together, we will exchange glances, with smiles of joy. Deep inside, we know we gave it our best and our 7 months worth of hard work have finally paid off. In the midst of the silence, we will enjoy the echo of our gmajor triad that fills the hall, knowing that all the sweats and tears, lunch sectionals were all worth it. We will look at Mr Sze, feeling grateful for accompanying us through this journey. We will stand facing the audience (even though it must not be a full-house one nor standing ovations), proud to be a member of Nanyang String Ensemble.
At this point of time, what we get doesn’t really matter anymore. We gave it our best last Thursday, and it was for the first time did Mr Sze praised us. “I agree, they are actually at the gold with honours standard already”. Mrs Ee too, said that if we didn’t get gwh, she have no idea what the judges are thinking. With smiles on their faces, we know we did it. We didn’t disappoint them and at the same time, we managed to play our fill. When we did our last run-through for the day, I could feel the strong passion amongst us, the belief and strong unity we have. For me, I thought that was enough. No matter what results we get this coming Wednesday, deep inside i know that NYSE has done it and what’s most important in music afterall is to enjoy and feel. As the saying goes, Music is the wine in the cup of silence. If a picture paints a thousand words, music paints a thousand pictures.
At the end of the day, what we want is to play our best, and at the same time, enjoy the hard work and music that we have been trying to create since 8 months ago. We will not only show, but touched the judges with our passion, our NYSE spirit.
We will walk off the stage with pride; we will leave the stage with no regrets.
If country music is three chords and the truth,
Our music is sixty-three hearts and one harmony.
Let’s start on the mark together and finish the last lap together.
Kimberlyn
