Hello – it’s me again.
These past two months have been incredibly hectic; completing all-important coursework in time plus the usual academic stuff though as a musician, having to balance daily practise and weekly lessons too.
I do hope you had a restful Winter break – I rounded up the year accompanying a congregation at St John’s Deptford, with some of the traditional hymns with some of my own repertoire included too, all as part of a year’s end thanksgiving service. Happy New Year, and more recently, Chinese New Year too!
Now, I guess you’re all here for the all important musician’s extract – what exactly has Ricky been doing these past few months? Quite a lot I must say. What can only be summarised as some amazing music-making experiences with talents across the world.
Virtual projects are key at the moment for young musicians like me – fantastic ways for us to network with other young musicians in the world as we all continue to see the world sail into an ever-expansive digitalised era. A friend recommended me to join Karanet’s Army – a friendly community of musicians from every continent. And as always, as it seems to me, I will always come across a musician with mutual friends somehow. And the conversation – just talking to each other about our shared experiences as musicians; what repertoire we’ve covered! Whether it’s the Reinecke Ballade or the Poulenc Sonata, talking to fellow flautists is always great. You can watch our virtual performance of Shostakovich’s stunning Waltz No. 2 here. Plus, we would love to have you join! Expand your circle!
Through joining Karanet’s Army, I was introduced to the Reddit Symphony Orchestra – an even larger community of musicians across the world! Please enjoy our performance of Debussy’s La fille aux cheveux de lin.
This very week has seen me participate in a collaborative music-making project with the Guildhall Creative Orchestra, directed by Detta Danford and Natasha Zielazinski. We had the privilege to work with puppet artist Oliver James Hymans and compose some great music based on his work.
What I have loved so much with this, as well as with the previous GCO project, is the creative freedom that Detta and Natasha promoted – allowing us young musicians to really blossom our individual musical identities and share them with the world! Heed my choice of the word ‘facilitate‘, not ‘dictate‘. Sometimes, I have felt that creative orchestra projects similar to this have taken too much a formulaic approach, with the course leaders scaffolding the projects.
The musicians I got to work with were of diverse musical backgrounds; we had an electric guitarist, several flutes, two pianists, electronic musicians… all in all, I had a great time working with these talented individuals who I am sure I will cross paths with in my music career in the years to come! If you would like to participate in a future project, do let me know and I will keep you updated with as of when the applications for the next project comes out!
Finally, this Monday also saw me perform in a woodwind masterclass led by Karen Jones, principal flautist of both the London Chamber Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia (programme attached here). Coincidentally, I also watched a masterclass of hers a few weeks prior with Musical Orbit – they are fantastic ways for you to get to know other instruments you may not be so familiar with, or even strengthen your knowledge on a particular topic like producing an even tone or facilitating double tonguing in the upper register, just to name some examples.
Junior Trinity have opened this term’s masterclasses to the public to observe – I definitely recommend signing up for as many as possible and making the most of this valuable opportunity! More details can be found by reading the programme notes attached.
Now I hope all of you keep well – in terms of what the future holds, none of us can be certain. I just hope that I can soon return to making live music (Zoom just isn’t the same…). I will have some more exciting developments regarding competitions and all to announce later on, but for now, stay tuned! For a light-hearted musical surprise, click here.
RICKY TAING 