phew, what a weekend.

taken at the MIAC show at the international centre in sauga on sunday and monday

this weekend was hectic, but so fun. i was asked to play synths for a composition being played in a Special Gala Concert at the Living Arts Centre in Missisauga. it was a night to celebrate the dipomatic relations between japan and canada, as well as pay tribute to the great Canadian jazz pianist, Oscar Peterson. anyway, it was nice getting a chance to play with professional musicians (mark kelso - drums, the madawaska string quartet - strings) as well as Francis Li (the composer of the piece.) The piece, Winter Colours, had a kind of europop feel to it, which i thought sounded pretty cool. different, but cool. and it was fun to play - which made it even better. :)

the first half was mainly compositions from Yamaha students (from Canada, Japan and the US) as well as other musicians/pianists from around the Toronto area, but the second half was just...WOW. i met the jazz pianist, Hiromi Uehara, back in 1996 when we were both part of the Yamaha National JOC concert held at the Glenn Gould theatre in TO. she was amazing and blew me away then, but this weekend she made me wanna quit piano altogether. geeeez. so amazing. her style has definitely progressed and developed over the years and...wow. "Hiromi fuses jazz and classical with traditional Japanese music, and injects an element of techno funk with frequent helpings of electronic keyboards. Somehow, she makes it all jell—brilliantly." couldn't have said it any better. the cool thing is that she immediately recognized me as "Liz's sister". :P (apparently we look like twins?) and after telling her bassist, Tony Grey (who was also amazing), that Liz was a Berklee graduate from the same year as them, he realized that he knew her too, from being in some brazilian harmonies class together at berklee. haha. such famous, talented people knowing my sister! wooot! go liz! :D small world. crazy berklee kids. ;)

after the gala concert on saturday, i also played in 4 other mini concerts at the MIAC show held at the international centre on sunday and monday...and it was pretty great getting to talk to some of the other musicians that were there as well as seeing some people from the Yamaha Canada Music Head Office - they actually remembered me! i didn't even think that they knew who i was. :)

anyway, there was one thing that i learned in a big way this weekend:
the music world is frickin big. i knew it was big, but it is so much bigger than i originally thought. as with everything, connections are key.

olympic fever...

ah, so the olympics are here again and they're as exciting as ever! too bad canada isn't doing too great. (hopefully in the days to come, the canadian team will make me eat my words *crossing fingers*.)

so instead, i've been focusing on australia. their swim team is so impressive, but my favourite has to be ian thorpe. for me not the best to look at (haha), but he's definitely great at coming back at the end of races. gooooo thorpedo! AND he's an OCTO baby!!! (which is an added bonus. haha.):D

yay thorpedo!!! the 200m freestyle was great! loved every second of this race! yeeeeah! it was good swimming action. :D haha.

COME ON CANADA. we gotta get another medal. one bronze is just not good enough. :P

peaching picking pictures are up! yay fun times with adrienne, will, judy, ian and steph! click here for pics. :)

kangoojumps

during my lunch break last friday (i spent the day being an rcm theory proctor) i was sitting down on a bench by a waterfountain enjoying the nice weather when all of a sudden this guy gave me a flyer (which i realized after reading promoted the new revolutionary fitness industry product that he was wearing.) at first i thought they were rollerblades, but when i saw him bouncing away (like literally) i knew that they were something else. it was quite a sight, seeing a grown man bouncing along yonge st...

anyway, i checked out the site and they're actually supposed to be really beneficial for your health. plus, it looks fun! :P

new york pictures are up! click here to view them! :)

summer conference 2004

my church's summer conference has come and gone...again. i can't think back to a time when i haven't gone (though they weren't always held every year)...and since i've been going to etcbc my whole life, i've been to quite the number of summer conferences...and my have they changed. maybe it's me. or maybe a bit of both.

anyway despite the fact that we're all getting old (forget about staying up late, we were gone by 2-2:30am), this year was a good one. 5 hero messages (Kent Edwards rocked) and plenty of good times. :) from breaking almost all the rules with adrienne, moving jo's bed onto the desks in our room (good talking times!), and being "good samaritans" by cleaning egg crap off the carpet (haha. silly little girls.) to being one of the first few to hear "the news" ;), seeing joshers again (don't think he reads this, but it was nice seeing him nonetheless - haven't seen him since like high school.) and seeing anita again (yay! my first year laurier heroine!)...this summer conference has been a success.

oh! and i went peach picking! (i'll upload pictures soon hopefully.) :)

(wow. i use a lot of parentheses.) :P

such an eventful weekend. so much to think about and reflect upon...