Minor Celebrity Status

#1 was a tall, quiet young man with glasses and somewhat greasy hair. A 4th year student of Mathematics, he will be starting his Ph.D in America next fall at NYU.

#2 was a smiling girl with glasses. A 4th year in EE, she's admittedly a bit awkward but very cute.

To be completely frank, #3 annoys me. A scrawny sophomore with a swift stride and poor posture, #3 is a math major and a suckup to #1.

#4 was me.

About two weeks ago, I met with some of the music faculty here at DUT. After hearing me give a passably good performance of Ravel's Une barque sur l'ocean (1 hour of frantic practice the night before, 1/2 hour of practice that morning), they decided to hold a concert for me, giving me exactly 10 days to prepare my repertoire of 2 Ravel + 1 Chopin, the latter of which I have not touched in 2 years. I was apparently the "star" of the show playing more pieces and longer pieces than #1, #2, and #3.

I was asked to submit a few photographs of myself for the posters. Expecting a perfunctory 8.5 x 11 sheet of monochromatic advertisement, I mindlessly sent off three former facebook profile pictures of not particularly high resolution. This is what they actually made:

It was probably 4 feet tall at least.

A closeup of a smaller version plastered around campus.

According to these posters, the concert was a joint MIT/DUT effort held in honor of the 10 year anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China. Xiao Xiao, the star of the show, is a student at MIT, is female (they felt the need to specify that as a result of my highly gender-ambiguous picture), was born in Nanjing, and has studied piano for 15 years. I was actually born in Beijing and have played for 16.

A few hours before the concert, I headed over to the recital hall to try out the piano. A bunch of students were there, peeling back sticky paper to reveal the sign to be displayed on the back wall of the stage.

I helped peel for a little bit because I was not allowed to warm up until 2 hours before the concert. It was fun.

#1 opened the concert with Chopin's "Ocean" etude and the b minor Scherzo. For all the hype I've heard from #3 about him, his performance was mostly disappointing. #1 actually had some potential for musicality. I could hear semblances of subtlety it in his phrasing. Unfortunately, he did not possess the proper technique to handle the Scherzo. His "Ocean" waves rolled far too slowly with far too many flotsams of wrong notes.

Like me, #2 started the piano when she was just 4 years old. Despite having quit piano for two years, #2 still had a superb musical sense. Her first piece, a traditional Chinese composition transcribed for piano, had a lovely, light touch, perfect for the atmosphere. Her second piece, however, showed the wear of her long hiatus on her technique. A shame, really. She would have played it beautifully in her peak.

During the two hours of practice before the concert, #3 was constantly urging #1 to practice more so that he can give a magnificent opening. Whenever #1 practiced, #3 would make "helpful" commentary. #3's own playing was cheap pyrotechnics in the worst sense. His accuracy was decent, finger technique tolerable, but his musicality terrible enough to make me hate Chopin for the duration of his performance.

My own playing was mostly unsatisfactory. I can make plenty of excuses to compensate including my poorly selected dress, which limited arm movement, the strange action of the piano, the flashing lights, the distracting audience, and my lack of warmup due to #3's inability to grasp that the recital was mostly for me (not #1). Still, the audience seemed to have liked it enough (or pretended to out of politeness). Some people gave me a nice bouquet of flowers and had me take pictures with them.

During the concert. Note the perfectly peeled letters behind me.

The performers, crew, and the professor who gave introductions.

My flowers are now arranged in 4 ex-water bottles on my windowsill. I also gave some to Ben, who enjoys pretty flowers.

Finally, here are some former recordings of the pieces I played:
Scherzo No.3 by Chopin
Alborada del gracioso and
Une barque sur l'ocean by Ravel