SYF Closing Ceremony

Hi Pipa Liuqin,

We had our rehearsals for the closing ceremony today. It has been a long day for all of you, so much waiting, so much standing, so much of wasting time. All the best to those of you having tests this week also, hope you are able to cope well with co pracs, any problems with ur revision, zhunsong and i can help you. Liuqiners, rmb ur order for lining up, benedict, yz, pingxi and then kenneth. If you think the chair is quite low, like i do, u can unscrew the liuqin stand a bit so that ur liuqin is higher. If your palms are sweaty, let me know, i'll bring tissue paper. If your hands easy cold, maybe u can put ur hands inside ur pockets i help u hold ur liuqin, then before going onto stage then u take back ur liuqin. If u feel ur hands not 'seasoned' yet, then practise before we go to the backstage as warm up.

Tmr co starts at 4pm as usual, be early. Pingxi u will have to change ur yixian. Kenneth, hope you can come, get well soon. Benedict, tmr treat it as a real performance, try to play everything with no mistakes, i know you can play everything perfectly one, just that sometimes u too nervous or ur hand not warmed up yet. Pipa, today's rehearsal u all were good, dynamics for gada were good, rythm for kentucky was better than dazu, keep it up. Chiuyin was especially clear, i could hear him from my seat haha, but pipa must still play louder esp kentucky got some pipa solo parts. This week going to be quite tiring for everyone, but give ur best, it's really rare to get this opportunity. Put in more taifeng on that day, make sure u lift ur hands the way we agreed on in xiaozu. Hopefully you all will be able to go overseas for concert next year.

Three more days and it's all over, freedom. No more extra prac, no more forcing u all to practise liuqin or pipa, no more forcing to bring back ur instruments, or forcing u to come for co all the time. Quite sad. I still rmb the time i was asking nigel to come over to liuqin. Liuqiners, perform well for the concert, so that my promise to nigel will be fulfilled. And everyone, it's our last performance together. Jiayou!!

Yao Zhang