Author: hautbois francais
Date: 2011-03-24 09:17
I am no stranger to E M'sia, I have roots from Kuching myself. The socio-political scene, viz Bumiputra policies have not changed since the Brits left. I am not surprised things are behind time in M'sia be it music or other things.
I am happy to see that there is conservatory now at NUS, for a comprehensive education in music, hence generating a pool of professional standard musicians like yourself.
Back in "ancient" days, we only had the ABRSM exams and depended on self teaching or a teacher who was not trained in the instrument but only gave u encouragement or some minimal guidance. Your school or teacher would enter u for the exams, at Yamaha studios at the time, and the examiners from UK, were not even trained in the instrument, conducted the exams. A real sad state of affairs....so in short, if u wanted some real training, u had to go to either Japan, UK, France, Germany or US.
Just curious. Is there admission criteria to the Conservatory ? ABRSM or audition, in addition to completing Secondary School or Pre-U or JC ? Sgp reqjuires paper for everything, so one cant just walk in and get admitted.
Your playing is of really of very high standard. The few that I knew then who were taking their ABRSM Grade 8 didnt even come close to what you have achieved.They bought reeds from Swee Lee Music (I think still exist today) that sounded quacky and horrible and never ever made any reeds, because nobody knew how or ever learnt it. And so called "pros" of the day, didnt have the sophistication of even using vibrato (or didnt know how) and advised against it. Times have changed and I am glad it has changed in "amazing" ways like u said. On another thread u talked about a Simon who is 18/19 and plays a mean Cor Anglais.....back then, no one played it so we had to import talent or relied on expats.
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