Joanne Yeoh, the famous violinist strutting her stuff
It was truly the longest day for me. Woke up before 6, travelled to City Harvest Sunway with Army of Three for the 1st ever Starmaker Malaysian Revival Songwriting Competition, which the band was playing for, and I had to take pics. I took a few hundred pics, check out some of it here, and the rest at Armyofthree’s site.
Anyways, the day started with practices, reruns, practices etc. It was a little boring at first, just taking pics and listening to the music. It was quite amazing, the standard some of these guys come with. It’s a songwriting competition for revival and even patriotic songs, and some of the singers and the songs were really really good.
Anyways, there were so many people, I couldn’t possibly meet all. But there was one song, Come to Stay, which I thought was really great, touching and meaningful. So, I decided to talk to the writer, Ms Joanna Yun, and tell her so. We got talking and I found out that she came all the way from Penang (what a heart..) to join this, and she’s also a lecturer in Penang. She was such a sweet lady, talking to her, so gentle in spirit. 😛 We ended up taking pics together and hoping to keep in touch.
Amy and Jane performing Joanna Yun’s Song Come to Stay
Anyways, I actually thought she might win, of coz I found out later, it wasn’t to be. In fact, the champion went to the sweet little girl, Teh Ju-Ping from Subang, only 18.
So after loitering a while, Ps A decided to put me to good use. I had to write a Press Release! So I was brought to the office, (fancy working in some other church’s office) and given a PC to type the Press Release on. It was really weird, having to write about something that hasn’t happened yet. Anyways, it does feel weird to work on someone else’s table, someone I don’t even know, in someone else’s office. It probably won’t happen in my office 😛
Army of Three performing
So, after my job was done, I was back to photographing. The show then started and I get to go in for free, telling the usher I was press. The press seat was like 5 rows from the stage, pretty bad view. I had to jump seat and sit in the VIP seat to get a decent view. In fact, I really wanted to sit on the stage steps, coz even in the most front seat, with the dark lightings, it was superbly hard to catch a good pic.
I was most impressed with Joanne Yeoh on the violin. The PA people screwed up and put her track too early, in fact I thought the PA people were pretty bad. Even in the opening ceremony with the dance, they also put the multimedia show and song way too early, even after numerous practices! Blah. And many times, they just had no idea which video clip goes to which performance. Aside from that, their camera crew and lightings were fantastic.
Edmund Smith performed too, the first time I heard the man sing.
He was really different, dramatic, but very amazing vocals as well. It was in one word, captivating!
Boy, by the time I got back, it was about 8pm. It was a really long day, a great experience nonetheless. Surely, next year’s event will be bigger and better.