Last night, our favourite client invited us to an evening of classical repertoire by the extremely talented pianist
Bobby Chen who serenaded us with compositions by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Chopin and Schubert.
I've always loved Classical music because I've always loved all cultural products from the classical and Renaissance period - the music, the architecture, the art, the thinkers. Although I'm a fan, admittedly I should be more hardworking when it comes to studying music and composers from this period. I sometimes fall asleep :)
But anyway, my point is. Bobby Chen is one of the most un-famous famous Malaysian pianist in the world. Why so? Because he is famous. But not so in Malaysia. To be honest, I've never heard of his name before last night. Well, you can't blame me because he's been living abroad since 11. At 8, I don't know him yet.
I thought to myself: Another great Malaysian, got away from this country. What pity. But little did I know that Bobby Chen was working on a project called the
Yehudi Menuhin Music course for Malaysian Music Proteges. This course aims to create an environment whereby talented local piano students can benefit from world class musical teaching, lectures and concerts so that they can come home and inspire their peer to pursue their music inclination and fight tooth and nail for their passion. Yea, I agree with Bobby. It's sad that so many of us 'let go' once we reached a certain age. We stop our Karate classes, we stop our ballet lessons, we stop our piano practices because we've stopped going to lower secondary school. Or high school. Or primary school. Because we've stopped school. Sigh. Imagine all the talents we lost just because learning a new skill was a parent's wish and less of a personal desire. Then why bother?
So what I absolutely love about this project of Mr. Chen is even though he is so faraway, he is doing something he can for the future generation of our nation. I think that is highly commendable and hopefully it will inspire many other overseas Malaysians to do the same. I've stopped asking people to come back because I am seriously feeling the crap of our government right now. I don't know which is worse - we're becoming more intelligent or the government is deteriorating with age. But it's just an awesome effort to do what one can to help our little ones. People ask me whether I get tired talking about this like a broken record. Well, I tell them back, do you get tired of eating? Or sleeping? Or breathing? Do you get tired of doing something you know it's absolutely necessary for growth? So the answer is, no I'm not tired and I will continue to lobby until the government topples! Okay, or change :)
Now, if only this course wasn't meant only for the highly fortunate few. Music can turn misery into joy if only everyone and I mean everyone is given an equal chance...
Sweet.
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