A holiday away from paradise

Most people, I daresay, imagine going on holiday as going somewhere to escape the daily routine, somewhere very different from their usual existence.

You can conjure up an image of sipping on an exotic cocktail at sunset in some mosquito-free tropical paradise. Or going on a ski holiday in the Swiss alps. Or a yoga holiday in the Himalayas.

A holiday is a place away from the hustle-bustle, far from the madding crowd.

When you work in a place as beautiful, clean, and uncrowded as the island of Maui, which has been voted the top traveller’s choice for 16 consecutive years by Conde Nast readers, it’s hard to imagine going anywhere for a holiday. Anywhere else would be “suboptimal” so to speak.

Where would I go on holiday if everyday is a holiday?

As I write, I am in an non-descript hotel in Taichung, Taiwan, on holiday. For the past 3 hours, I have been sitting on my single bed, reading articles on my iPad and listening to the heavy drops of rain and downpour.

Never mind the noise pollution, air pollution, and visual pollution (i.e. clutter). Urban traffic prevents a straight path on the sidewalk from the hotel to my destination.

But I am as happy as I can be.

Just yesterday, my friend in Taipei introduced me to the best eateries in her neighborhood. I was sad I couldn’t stay longer to sample them all. Before I left, we took photos of piano sheet music she’s collected over the years. [Bookmark this for a future blog post!]

In Taichung, the sunset market carried my favorite Chinese delicacies: pickled boneless chicken feet, pickled fish skin, green seaweed, steamed Shanghainese dumplings, home-made soya milk, and pearl bubble milk tea. Tomorrow we will feast on stir-fried eel. I count the number of meals I have left and hope I have enough time to digest each one before the next and that I won’t waste a meal opportunity on a bad choice.

It’s the contrast that we want between work and holiday. It’s also getting a distance from work to reflect upon life in a different environment, one in which you’re a temporary visitor.

Classic FM London in Maui

With internet radio, I can listen to practically any station in the world anywhere.

This morning I’m listening to one of my favourite stations — Classic FM. It’s the station that accompanied those years I lived in London, educated me the composers and their works that laid the foundation for my interest in classical music. I had Classic FM Radio on all the time — first as background music and then as a necessity to my daily life.

Later when I studied music history in Utrecht, Netherlands, I learned to appreciate how accessible the radio programmers made the music to the audience.

Today I am in my home in Maui — a sunny day like any other. The outdoor washing machine is on. I am indecisive about going swimming. The day is young. I switch on to Classic FM at 10 am HST: David Mellor’s special edition of St Patrick’s Day tribute. It ended with an orchestral arrangement of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”

Thereafter John Suchet presented Beethoven: The Man Revealed. His perspective was from that of Beethoven in love. Each time he fell in love, he wrote a piece. The stories behind the Moonlight Sonata, the Appassionata Sonata, and Fur Elise are simply fascinating.

Listening to Classic FM London in Hawaii makes me realise that it’s possible to have the best of both worlds.

I find myself doing my filing and my chores as background to active listening of Classic FM from London.

A day in the life of the blogmaiden

It was one of those long and winding days, waking up and on the phone while having a make-shift breakfast.

8 am – I thought there was enough time for my 9 am phone appointment with the policy expert in San Francisco.

Multi-tasking on the computer. iPhone.

Then an alert from my google-calendar — a conference call on sustainability. I had completely forgotten about it.

Headset – landline. Desktop. Brewing Hawaiian coffee. Multi-island conference-call and google doc. I was typing away. I wanted to leave by 10:45 am – but as usual, it got too late to be on time for yoga.

So I made a detour – and then made lunch at my mom’s. She wasn’t there but she left her freshly washed and picked greens on the counter for me. The pot that I thought was soup for the noodles I was making turned out to be freshly cooked sweet red bean dessert. I packed them for later.

I had to cancel my 1:30 pm appointment so I could be ready for the 2 pm. Several colleagues descended upon me at once. It was time for the electric vehicle exchange outside the new science building.

I had to empty my flash drive (or memory stick as they call it elsewhere) for the digital photography class. We had gone on a photo shoot last Saturday on the West Side — in quest of EV in paradise, or at least what it should be.

A voicemail from Kentucky. Who do I know there? I had completely overlooked his e-mail of 1st Feb!

Then I opened an e-mail from the State — an urgent request for me to read some extremely technical and legal document overnight and provide feedback.

By 4:30 pm I was spent.

I stayed another 30 minutes to get things printed for review tonight. Did I really want to do more work?

As I left campus, I reminded myself to always leave before it got dark — otherwise I’d feel resentful of giving my day away.

After dumping my mom’s plastics and newspaper at the recycling corner, I drove through the park and thought how best to spend the remaining sunset hours.

Did I want to read outside? Pick rucola from my little garden? Unpack the package from Boston?

In the end, I succumbed to my bed — completely exhausted from working around the clock these last 4 days.

But there was one more day left of this week.

Can I make it?

I had already prepared the test for my 14 piano students. I’m sure they will do well tomorrow afternoon. And then I’ll go through the Circle of Fifths and tell them about Catalyst String Quartet that will be visiting Maui on 27th February.

Before lunch, I will meet with the half-Dutch, half-Chinese host of the dinner party where I will play and talk about music for Chinese New Year of the Snake. A year ago I had researched the Year of the Dragon and the lyrics from the Song and Tang dynasties and presented a lecture/recital with a Chinese soprano. It was something I wanted to do again but simply too time-challenged this year to do one properly.

Will I have time to practise?

No. I have a 9 am meeting with my procurement officer on invoices, budgets, and travel requests.

At least I managed to swim laps in the outdoor pool and got some vitamin D in the tropical sun. That was my treat.

Art music in Maui: a critical mass of audience for sustainability

Art for art’s sake only may be sustainable in a big city like New York, London, or Amsterdam. But on Maui, where there are plenty of other things to do outdoors, to sit down and watch a concert indoors without coughing or speaking for 2 hours seems a sacrifice if you’re only here for a week.

But if you live on Maui, it’s another story.

What we need on Maui, an island of 727 square miles and population 158,000 with 2 to 3 million annual visitors a year, is a critical mass of an audience for art music. By “art music” I refer to anything from Renaissance to 21st century avant garde music, spanning most of what we know as “classical music.”

When I count the number of classical music concerts at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center (MACC), which is equivalent of the Carnegie Hall of New York City, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, and Royal Albert Hall of London, it averages one concert per month. And these concerts don’t get sold out either.

Every time I’ve gone to these concerts, I wondered to myself “where’s everybody?” How can they miss Dame Kiri Te Kanawa? How can they miss the San Francisco Pocket Opera? How can they miss the Van Cliburn winner?

How did Elton John sell out a concert and had to add another one the very next day? Elton John was classically trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

How did TedxMaui 2012 and 2013 fetch a full-house at the 1,200 seat Castle Theater at the MACC?

A critical mass can be created from a mailing list, the way Gordon Beal, the temptation of London, has done for art music, theatre, art exhibitions, and other events. He made it a “can’t miss” social event. You will not be lost. You will not be alone. You will not waste your time. His e-mails are sent early enough so you can decide if you want to go or not. His e-mails are specific enough so that you will know exactly what you’re getting into, what to wear, what to bring, what to expect.

One of our Monument House Concert Series fans said this of our house concerts: “I don’t need to bring anyone to your concerts. I can go alone because I know I will have a great time and great conversation.”

It’s not so at formal venues. Although the acoustics might be perfect, the performers exquisite, and the music awesome, you will be alone. You won’t interact with anyone else in the audience. There will be cliques — those long-time concert-goers who know each other and feel comfortable in each other’s presence. Unless you are like me, who enjoys going to concerts alone, most people, I daresay, are not like this.

So concert going becomes a social activity. For newcomers to Maui, it could be very attractive if there’s a group that welcomes you — and even better, pre-concert talks that explain the music, composers, and raison d’etre so you will appreciate it at a deeper level.

Tonight, I bring my first group — my 25 piano students and their guests to the Ebb & Flow Arts Concert at the MACC.

TEDxMaui 2013

I was introduced to TED.com a few years ago by a fellow Rotarian in the Netherlands. I’m convinced that it really is an idea worth spreading, and one that needs such a viral introduction at first. I probably would not have stumbled upon it had he not told me about it.

The value of videos on TED.com grows over time because it becomes a database of useful and inspiring presentations & performances all over the world, largely through TEDx. The way the presenters engage and empower the audience on topics that are timeless and yet timely is one reason why it will live on.

We performers have much to learn from its success.

TEDx are produced in different locations around the world. Maui started its own in 2012 with presenters somehow related to Maui or Hawaii.

On Sunday 13th January 2013, I attended the last 3 segments of the TEDxMaui 2013 production at the Castle Theatre of the Maui Arts and Cultural Center (MACC).

I was most impressed by the ability of certain speakers to convey a knowledge or skill that I had originally considered complicated in a way that made me learn and see the beauty of its simplicity. The elder explorer who taught the audience how to navigate the Pacific Ocean by the stars gave us a taste of that extraordinary craft of ancient Polynesians. The Hawaiian musician Mahala made us chuckle and laugh while he showed us the secrets of the slack key guitar, in particular, his view that each of the 6 strings represented a different instrument.

The lights were not off as typical of most performances. They were ON — because the audience was just as important as the performer(s).

Audience engagement is more important now than ever before.

My burning question was this: why was TEDxMaui able to attract a full-house at the 1,200 seat Castle Theater but not Dame Kiri Te Kanawa?

Reflecting on Christmas, in Maui

The last two weeks of the year have always served as goal posts, a.k.a. deadlines, a marathon that began 50 weeks ago that ended in a sprint. Every year, wherever I lived, I looked forward to those two weeks of stillness — a.k.a. peace on earth — a time to unwind, to stand still, and to stop.

Full stop.

In the madness to get there, I had set a deadline of Wednesday 12th day of the 12th month, this year of 2012 A.D. to finish a report. My colleagues wanted closure, and so did I. In the final moments, I waited till 3:15 pm, while the report was being “brewed” to perfection, and left for Roselani Place, an upscale residence for the elderly, to give a one hour Christmas Carol concert. The audience had already sat for nearly 30 minutes, having been told the concert was to begin at 3 pm instead of 3:30 pm as I had on my calendar.

Upon returning to the office, I was delighted to see that the report was ready for submission. 5 pm. SENT. I could now focus the remaining Thursday and Friday on clearing up, one final piano class, entering grades, and configuring the auto-responder for my well-deserved 2-week vacation.

The next deadline was 6:20 pm Kahului Airport to receive my childhood friend LL who had booked her first class return flight from Colorado as early as July. My cottage wasn’t “quite ready” but I had cleaned the floor and made it at least respectable, despite the clutter of unopened bills, previous drafts of reports, all piled in a criss-cross fashion, i.e. chaos.

Recap:

• Wed 12 Dec Report submission. LL arrives from Denver via LA.
• Thurs 13 Dec House-sitting appointment.
• Fri 14 Dec Last piano class. RB arrives from Boston, via Phoenix.
• Sat 15 Dec Swap Meet. Last visit to office.
• Sun 16 Dec Birthday barbecue in Kula.
• Mon 17 Dec Vacation begins. Drive to West Side of Maui.

….

Today I read of high surf advisory at the north shore. LL and RB went south instead, to catch some gentler waves while I cleared up the beautiful plantation house we’re to reconvene for a Christmas barbecue later on.

Before I get under the outdoor shower, let me pause for reflection.

I’m thinking of my friend Suntea in Colorado Springs, just a week before his 49th birthday, in hospital. I cannot imagine a worse place to be. Meanwhile I am here with my sister and mother who live nearby.

I want to thank all those who helped us reach our goals — RB pursuing his DMA in Boston and I reinventing myself in paradise. It’s hard to believe that we have actually achieved what we said we wanted to do in late 2010.

The future? Next steps? It’s time to make new goals.

Merry Christmas, all my friends, family, colleagues, neighbours, past and present!!

Writing workshop in Wailuku

Stroke after stroke, I find myself empowered with infinite energy, relentless to complete as many laps as I can in the half hour before the pool closes. The sun will soon disappear behind the old Wailuku mountains. Another Saturday will be gone.

After an entire day spent indoors except for a brief break for lunch, I should be tired but I am not.

Earlier this week I received an e-vite from my writing teacher of this past summer’s 3-day workshop “Writing across curriculum.” She was hosting a one day workshop for the author and teacher Rebecca Walker, whom she had spoken highly of a year ago. The workshop began, for me, when I clicked “yes” to the invitation. I started looking forward to it. I needed a writing workshop to combat my resistance to write.

At 9:30 am, I was the first to arrive. I drove past the house twice because there were no cars parked outside.

“Am I the only one?” I asked timidly.

Was I so desperate to get coaching on my writing that I said yes to attend an all day workshop on a Saturday, the only day this week that I did not have work commitments? When the others started arriving, I secretly started to panic.

I don’t know these women. I don’t know if I will ever meet them again. How could I afford the time to listen to their writing struggles when I have too many of my own?

There is something unnerving about sitting among strangers. In the last decade of organizing concerts, I have become accustomed to knowing everyone in the room. One of the tasks in my day job is organizing events. Again, I usually know everyone I invite. So here I was, squirming in my seat because I did not know anyone.

Rebecca Walker had not met most of the individuals before today. But she looked at ease. In fact, she exuded the kind of calmness and confidence of someone at peace with herself and her surroundings. She spoke to us as though she was speaking to each of us individually. One by one we introduced ourselves and where we were with our writings. She gave us writing exercises. We read what we wrote out loud. She commented and asked questions. We expressed ourselves. We found what we had in common with others.

In the space of six hours, I learned not only from my own writing but what others had to share. I discovered that when I finally got paid to write, I resisted and procrastinated. Yet, when I’m not paid to write, such as posting this blog, I would do it whole-heartedly. Where’s the catch?

At the end of the workshop, I asked about the spiral-bound document that was lying on the table: “The art of memoir with Rebecca Walker.”

“Is this a book you’re writing?”  No, it’s a week-long workshop Rebecca gives on Maui. The next one is scheduled for 4 to 11 January 2013.

Years ago, I had taken a week-long “writing from life” course in rural Devon through the Arvon Foundation. I thought that I had killed two birds with one stone: I took a writing course and I was able to go on holiday. It had such an effect on me that I blogged about it for 8 consecutive days and consciously noted to take another course on writing, maybe in some exotic location.

And so here I am.

In Maui.

The day-long workshop “Private Writing Workshop with Rebecca Walker” brought me back to that writing retreat in England. How far I have journeyed in 8 years and still not arrived.

Post-concert recordings

A CD arrived in the post about 4 weeks after the concert. Listening to it brought back memories of that action-packed, full-house evening. The guests started arriving more than an hour before the concert. Half-an hour before it began, the hall was full. Minutes before the concert, I saw the “reserved for pianists only” seats taken by two ladies who read the cards but ignored the request.

It was every concert producer’s dream: standing room only.

Perhaps it was the rigor of concert promotion effort or the success of previous year’s piano concert or both, the outcome was impressive. Nearly a month later, my hairdresser mentioned that she heard about this concert though she was not able to attend herself. One of her customers raved about it.

I was warned that seats would be taken early for the 7:30 pm concert at Maui Music Conservatory, on the second floor of the Queen Ka’ahumanu Mall in Kahului, the capital of Maui County. “Piano Synergy” was the name of this concert, which, for us 6 pianists, actually began 4 months earlier with Sunday afternoon group rehearsals.

On Saturday 14th July at 7:30 pm, Ebb & Flow Arts, the non-profit arts organization on Maui, presented that one-hour concert (without intermission) of original works for many pianos, including the premiere of a new piece it commissioned for this occasion.

The composer Thomas Osborne was not only present for this premiere but also played one of the parts: Piano 1. Aptly titled “Canyons,” it began with Piano 4, nearly always in forte or fortissimo and definitely always the loudest of all 4 pianos. Piano 3 echoed Piano 4 but slightly softer. I played Piano 2, even softer. Piano 1 was nearly always pianissimo. This method of imitation in terraced dynamics continues until an augmentation, a spacing out of the repeated passages. Listen below.

Canyons as performed by Beatrice Scorby, Robert Pollock, Anne Ku, and Thomas Osborne (mp3)

The last work to be performed that evening of the celebration of French independence on Bastille Day was none other than Darius Milhaud’s 4-piano work “Paris.” Wearing my dry-cleaned black silk dress purchased in Paris in summer of 2009, I stood up to introduce this 6-movement work. It was, without doubt, one that required the most study of all works selected for this concert.

“And now, for the piece d’ resistance, Paris, which is the raison d’etre for tonight!” There were French-speakers in the audience who were glad to help my pronunciation. Before each movement, I introduced that part of Paris and what to listen for. After Montmartre came L’isle St Louis. On a foggy day, you can hear the church bells of Notre Dame and nearby churches. Sometimes you can hear they are out of tune!

L’isle St Louis from Paris by Darius Milhaud (mp3)

Longchamp refers to the race courses. The composer chose a fugue to represent that. A fugue literally means a chase. You can hear it getting faster and more intense.

Longchamp from Paris by Darius Milhaud (mp3)

The recordings were made by John Messersmith for Ebb & Flow Arts.

Concert promotion by other media: Ebb & Flow Arts in Maui, Hawaii

Once upon a time, the concert was the talk of town. It’s the end result of all things. But nowadays there is too much competition for your attention — to0 many other things you can be doing, including staying at home and watching TV. To get people to come to a concert, you’d have to promote it.

Identify a concert’s unique selling points. Below is a photo of something quite rare: 4 pianists sitting at four grand pianos. It would catch anybody’s eye. This appeared in a free weekly paper that gets published on Thursdays — and just in time, too — the Thursday before the Saturday concert.

Pianists at rehearsal. Photo credit: Klazine Pollock

How to attract people to come to a concert? Mention the composers and repertoire, particularly if they are interesting and connects. In this case, there’s the premiere of a new piece written by a composer based in Honolulu, Thomas Osborne, who also teaches at University of Hawaii at Manoa. The date of the concert, 14th July 2012, also coincides with Bastille Day, celebrating French independence, hence a concert of music by French composers, including Darius Milhaud’s Paris.

Appeal to different audiences, including those who have access to television. The following 10 minute video clip was aired twice a day, every single day in the week of the concert on Channel 55, the 24/7 cable TV of University of Hawaii Maui College (UHMC).

Reach audiences via different avenues and media. On the Wednesday before the Piano Synergy concert, the following 25 minute clip was aired on local radio.

Kaio Radio: Ebb & Flow Arts (audio clip)

Besides local paper, TV, and radio promotions, there were also color posters, postcards, and local newspaper listings mentioning the forthcoming concerts.

What can we learn from this? While the musicians are busy practising, the concert organizer (producer) is busy letting as many people know about the concert as possible. These “previews” are important to help potential audience decide and anticipate. Here is a blog post anticipating the event.

It’s simply not enough to tell someone to come to a concert. It needs to reach all audiences in more than one way. Before doing so, one needs to think through what appeals, what attracts, what is relevant.

Canyons by Thomas Osborne

We six pianists first met on Sunday 4th March 2012 in Ruth Murata’s Maui Music Conservatory. Ebb & Flow Arts had commissioned a new piece for 4 pianos. As time marched on, we got anxious if we’d get the score in time to study individually and then rehearse as a group.

As with all new music, the approach is to first scan it, assess the difficulty and amount of time required to study it. We’d identify the challenging areas and spend more time studying them than the rest. We’d use a metronome to ensure we keep to a steady beat.

When we got together to rehearse on subsequent Sunday afternoons, we’d notice that the music for 4 pianos was quite different from the single score we were given to study. After studying Milhaud’s Paris, Busby’s Four!, Depue’s 16 Pawns, and two piano works, we learned towards the end of May, that Honolulu-based composer Thomas Osborne’s new work was ready.

When I first looked at “Canyons” I didn’t know what to make of it. The mp3 recording sounded extremely exciting though. I was willing to give it a chance. I became one of the pianists committed to studying it for premiere on 14th July. Robert Pollock, the founder and director of Ebb & Flow Arts, planned for us three pianists to rehearse and the last 3 rehearsals with the composer as the 4th pianist.

“Canyons” plays on the term canons. It uses imitation and terraced dynamics to produce the kind of echo effect you can hear in a canyon. The first pianist to play is Piano 4 — loud. The next pianist — Piano 3 — is slightly less loud. These dynamic levels are to be kept throughout the piece.

Canyons by Thomas Osborne, page 1

Robert Pollock and I discussed this and other works on Kaoi Radio recently.

Here’s the 25 minute audio clip.

Tonight’s concert is FREE — and expected to draw a standing-room only audience. My only regret is that we get to perform each piece just once — tonight.

Piano Synergy! Concert, 14th July 2012 at 7:30 pm at the Maui Music Conservatory, 2nd floor of the very centrally located Queen Ka’ahumanu Shopping Mall in Kahului, on Maui, Hawaii. We begin with a work of John Cage and end with Darius Milhaud’s Paris.

The highlight of the evening will surely be Thomas Osborne’s “Canyons.”

Canyons by Thomas Osborne bars 84 to 87