The Seah Suite

CMC Round 2

They did it! They both qualified for the national final which will be in Vancouver at the beginning of July.

Elliott started very confidently with an amazing performance of a Capricietto by Nölck and then followed with a well rehearsed Bréval Concertino. Even though he was sick and a bit of the underdog in his category, he gave it all and was rewarded for it.

Ben followed his brother's footsteps by performing beautifully the first two movements of a Corelli Sonata and followed with a very entertaining piece by Potstock titled Sarasate.

We are so proud of our little musicians, there are no words to describe the joy we feel that they have both made it through to the next and final round. They have put so much work into preparing for today's round, this last week alone they practised over 25 hours!

It's far from being over though as the rest of the week will be busy. Next Sunday, the boys will have their first "double performance" day with a chamber music competition in the morning and an orchestra concert in the afternoon.

The boys need to continue to work hard on all their repertoire and we will start working on planning and preparing a wonderful trip to Vancouver!

Première ronde CMC

C'est aujourd'hui qu'à débuté l'aventure CMC 2015 des garçons. En fait, ce n'est pas tout à fait vrai. Elle a commencé il y a 9 mois, lors de la sélection des pièces pour le concours. 

Les garçons, fidèles à leurs habitudes, ont travaillé avec sérieux, passion et acharnement pour préparer tout leur répertoire. Le niveau de leurs pièces est de plus en plus élevé et nos deux musiciens ont eu des hauts et des bas au cours des derniers mois. Le concours de musique du Canada est un concours très exigeant qui demande une grande rigueur et un répertoire varié pour chacune des rondes. Ben et Elliott désiraient avant tout s'amuser, s'améliorer et se dépasser et gardaient bien sûr espoir d'accéder à la ronde provinciale. 

Nos musiciens ont une fois de plus atteint leurs objectifs. Benjamin et Elliott ont présenté chacun une étude et une pièce et se sont illustrés par leur musicalité et leur excellente préparation. Ils étaient tous les deux très excités lorsqu'ils ont entendu leurs noms comme finalistes à la ronde provinciale. Les célébrations ont été de courte durée puisque la prochaine ronde se tiendra dans 18 jours à Montréal! Pas de repos pour les frères Seah, ils sont déjà au boulot pour travailler le répertoire du prochain tour.

Un gros merci à nos merveilleux professeurs pour les heures de travail et les bons conseils et un merci particulier à notre extraordinaire pianiste, Caroline, avec qui nous avons beaucoup de plaisir à travailler.

La suite dans 18 jours!

A night to remember!

This week we received an email from a mother at the orchestra who plays violin with the MSO. She offered us discount tickets to go see Alisa Weilerstein, an amazing cellist. Elliott and I saw her in concert a few years back and we were so taken by her play, I remember we talked about it for days.

Ann got us a loge to the left of the stage, right above the orchestra. What a treat! It was so interesting to watch from where we were as so much happens on stage that you don't necessarily see when you are far away facing the orchestra. On top of it all, Elliott had the best of views to watch Alisa's technique.

At some point we realized that we knew 5 musicians in the orchestra. We thought it was not bad for ordinary people like us!

The best part of the evening came when Ann took us all backstage to go meet the famous cellist. Elliott was so excited I thought he was going to pass out. I haven't seen Elliott speechless many times before. She was so wonderful and friendly. She signed his CD and took the time to chat with him and ask him what repertoire he was working on. We were all so mesmerized, we forgot to ask her to take a picture with Elliott!

Backstage we also had the chance to chat with Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the MSO. We met him at Christmas at the Westmount Orchestra concert and I was surprised to see that he remembered the boys quite well. 

Below is the picture of our proud little cellist, holding a precious CD signed by a wonderful musician. Thank you Ann for offering us this unforgettable experience. This truly was, a night to remember!