Note: I did a very very nice write up earlier but blogdrive decided to be kurang ajar and deleted everything I typed. So this will have to do.

For too long, students who aspire to become professional musicians have always faced criticism, dismissing their ambitions as being impractical and whimsical. Therefore, many of us who once had that dream to make music, either gave it up for a mainstream profession, pursuing degrees in "safer" professions which would yield hopefully, "profitable" returns, or resort to being a weekend "in house" musicians in the comfort of our homes.

The remaining few who stayed true to their passion, armed with the determination to excel as a professional in music, performed with their heart and soul last Saturday in the Flavours of Pop "n" Jazz Concert organised by IMH Academy, Kuching. I witnessed for myself, a group of close knit music students pursuing a common goal that night---to bring the best of their music talents on stage, to mesmerise the audience with what they do best.

Ben, a fellow blogger and also a music student at IMH, was one of the performers for the evening. This post is dedicated to him. May you succeed in your studies and make Sarawak proud of our very own home grown Ben-nessa-Mae. :)

Tickets were sold out for the concert (I received this info from Ben after the concert), which is the most enthralling part for a performer. Standing up there on the stage facing a sea of enthusiastic, receptive audience who love you is the ultimate dream of any performer on stage.

I enjoyed the concert very much albeit being more of a classical music fan. The MCs cum drummers, Sam and David did a good job communicating with the audience and the show moved on very smoothly, without hiccups or prolonged pauses in between programmes.

Ben of course, had his girl fans (and boys too) screaming for more when he emerged looking suave in a black shirt and slacks, complete with a striking reddish orange tie. (What happened to your red shirt Ben?) He performed "Red Hot" by Vanessa Mae, accompanied by his coursemates on the keyboard, drums, bass guitars etc.

The concert was divided into two parts-first part being pop and rock, with Adrian and Christine on vocals (born performers I daresay), Ben and Tze Chow on violins, Sam and David alternating on drums (lil bro said Sam was very composed, I'd take his word for it since he used to be a drummer back in his heydays), Chung Yi (much better looking version of Jay Chou) and Swee Joo (Korean movie star lookalike) on bass guitars,(they later performed "Power" by Marcus Miller and I loved it), Benzie (pardon the spelling) and Kenny on electric guitars, Bern (electric guitar--who got the audience all excited with his rendition of "sape" in the middle of his performance for one of his songs) and Raenai and another student on cello. And of course, we must not forget Charlie's Angels-Kathy, Michelle and Crystal on keyboards and clavinova. Marvin, the mastermind behind the concert was the main keyboardist for the evening.

One thing I noticed about the whole performance was that every student was given an opportunity to showcase their talents--truly a team effort. Some students not only played intruments but also sang, demonstrating their versatility.

The concert ended on a high note with Adrian leading the crowd with "Can't get my eyes off you". Everybody had a wonderful time.

Sin Chiew has a full page coverage on this concert--check out today's paper.

Here are some pics from the concert:

An overview of the stage before the concert started.

Ben and Swee Joo.

Christine and Adrian doing a duet.

Ben performing "RED HOT"-sans the red shirt his counterpart decided to adorn of course.

Marvin on keyboard.

Chung Yi and Swee Joo performing Marcus Miller's "Power".

Adrian on trumpet.

Grand finale with all the performers on stage.

Apologies if not everyone is in the pics... my camera wasn't too co-operative and half of the pics came out blurry.

This post is dedicated to CJD, my dear friend who was so kind to fetch me from the airport, let me bunk in her house, took me out for lunch, and basically, making me feel just at home :). This is for you.

Quoted from www.top-hat-restaurants.com:

"Top Hat is in one of the Kuala Lumpur's older and swankier neighbourhoods, hardby the Kuala Lumpur City Centre and Petronas Twin Towers.

It is housed in one of the few remaining grand mansions still extant in the city, with a large garden of angsana trees, overgrown with heliconias.

The restaurant, at once relaxed and stylish, soothing and classic has a distinctive air of a more gracious and graceful past.

The dishes, cakes and desserts of Top Hat are created by the restaurant's team of innovative young chefs. The chefs place a premium on food that intrigues, but above all that tastes good.

The menu is changed every 3 months.

It includes classic Western dishes with a subtle touch of Asian flavours. For starters, a variety of soups and salads are always on the menu. Succulent seafood platters, spice encrusted rack of lamb, grilled rib-eye steak, panfried halibut and seafood pastas are standard favourites as main courses.

The chefs also present local Malaysian Nyonya dishes: Top Hats (a signature starter and locally known as kueh pie tee), laksa and a variety of sambals and curries are regularly featured.

For desserts, the restaurant offers home-made delights such as ice creams, bread and butter pudding, crumbles, a rich variety of cakes and local Malaysian desserts like cendol, ondeh-ondeh, pulut hitam. Customers often order the cakes to take home.

The restaurant's innovative menu is complemented by one of Kuala Lumpur's most extensive cellars of carefully selected wines. With over 200 old and new world labels, there is a wine to match the customer's food choice and budget.

Top Hat has devoted a section of the restaurant to celebrate and enjoy the noble grape. Top Hat's resident wine expert and buyer will also arrange wine tastings.

For cigar aficionados, a discreet room is available for enjoying a fine Cuban with after dinner drinks."

Located in the heart of KL city and housed in a double-storey colonial style bungalow, Top Hat restaurant offers patrons a fine dining experience in a classic environment. Aunty Maria, CJ's mom and owner of the restaurant makes everybody feel right at home with her charming personality. She brings the restaurant to life, literally.

CJ suggested that we have lunch at Top Hat on Tuesday, which I readily agreed. It was a good opportunity for the both of us to catch up on old times. :)

Here are some pictures which I took of Top Hat during lunch while waiting for the food to arrive.

An overview of the exterior of Top Hat.

A view of part of the interior.

The appetising cake counter... delicious stuff I tell you...

For private functions, consider using the Antique Bar.

The wine room offers a dazzling selection of wines to cater to your taste.

Currently the major highlight of Top Hat is the weekly jazz performance at Top Room. For more information, please check out Top Room's blog at http://thetoproom.blogspot.com .

Here's a view of Top Room (located on the 1st floor of the restaurant)

Lovely isn't it?

And here's a promotional poster of the event:

Early birds who book by Thursday get one free drink! :D

For lunch, I chose nyonya laksa... this is Grandma's secret recipe...

This is devilishly good stuff I tell you. Yummy!!!

It comes with a set of Top Hats, the flagship dish of Top Hat restaurant. Lovely.

The taukehnio's daughter had the seafood noodles. I tried some of it, and it gets the thumbs up from me!

For dessert, I had the Signature Tiramisu in Strawberry Sauce. This is Australian tiramisu, which is different from Italian tiramisu. Sorry ah HI, my friend says this beats the tiramisu at Alexis wor. :) One word for this tiramisu... Heavenly!

Dining at Top Hat is always a wonderful experience. If you do drop by KL, don't forget to go to Top Hat Restaurant and savour the good food they have to offer... you will not be dissappointed.

location map of Top Hat Restaurant.

Opening Hours: Everyday (Including Sundays and Public Holidays)

Check out their website for more information.

Meet Lyana, a little girl with a big personality.

"Jie jie, ke yi bu yao flash mar? Deng xia wo de yan jing bu neng kai." (Sis, can you not use flash? Later my eyes won't open.

"Jie jie, ni hen piao liang ar!" (Sis, you are very pretty)

"Jie jie, wo bei shan zi jing gei ni ting." (I recite the chinese poem for you to hear)

"Jie jie, ni she me shi hou hui jia?" (when are you going home?)

And the heartache moment when she said bye bye to me, as I saw her off at her school. :(

all smiles for the camera... without flash, as I promised. ;)

all ready for school... giving the camera her megawatt smile. Muaks!

She speaks English, French and Mandarin. Her dad is French, her mom Chinese. We hit it off like old friends the moment we met.

I miss her now....

I was away for a short trip to KL and Penang earlier this week for official business. "Business" aside, I have to admit that I had a wonderful time. I met up with my elder brother, who is currently calling KL home for the time being, and my best buddy in university, CJ, who was so kind to fetch me at the airport on an early Sunday morning! We spent quality time together (albeit in her car most of the time, :P--traffic jam in KL lar, what were you thinking? ;)

I will divide my write up into three parts--first part being my overview of the whole trip in KL, together with loads of pictures. Second part will be solely dedicated to promoting Top Hat restaurant, which is owned by Mrs Maria Danker, lovely mom of my dear friend CJ. Ever since I came back from the UK, Top Hat restaurant has served as a crucial meeting place for Archangel, CJ and myself whenever I go to KL. I've always enjoyed the quaint ambience Top Hat has to offer, and quality of food at Top Hat is second to none. The menu changes every three months. I shall elaborate more on the second part of this post. The third part will be dedicated to my brief stint in Penang, where I fell in love. With who, you ask? Hhehe... I shall let you know.

Part 1- Kuala Lumpur

I arrived in KL on Sunday morning and was whisked off to my brother's place, courtesy of CJ who came all the way from her house! She's so sweet. Met up with my elder brother (who looked a tad thinner... must be starving himself silly) and we headed off to KL for some "serious" business. (I.e. sampling food, buying stuff and generally playing tourist for the day).

First stop-Alor Street (did I get the spelling right?)

Of course, before we start walking ourselves silly, we have to fill up right? Even cars won't move without gas. So we headed off to Alor Street (behind Imperial Hotel).

Still don't know where it is? Well here's a picture:

And this is what I had:

Char Siew Noodles

Looks very nice, but I found the char siew (bbq pork) to be a tad too sweet for my liking.

Basically we just walked around Bukit Bintang area... he talking about life in general and me taking photos like a Korean tourist.

Purple flowers which caught my attention...

Samsung promotional booth..

Took the KL monorail to Berjaya Times Square and admired in awe at the roller coaster (which looked like it would go on forever)

There were some boys who thought they would make a Malaysian version of Brokeback mountain...

Everything going for RM10! No I didn't get anything... not until lil bro sponsors my Marie France lipo job...

The interior deco of Sungai Wang Plaza...

Attended a dinner at Corus Hotel which was held in honour of a member of Lincoln's Inn Alumni Association, Malaysia, who was recently appointed as a Minister in the Prime Minister's Department of the Government of Malaysia. It was good. :)

On Monday, I didn't leave my brother's house until 11am--says a lot about the fine wine I had during the dinner the evening before (CJ complained that I had one drink too many).

Anyway... I had a sudden craving for Nando's chicken. Don't ask me why...

So I went.

And I ordered...

A not so brave chicken.

This branch of Nando's (at Jalan Sultan Ismail, the street next to Petaling Street) brings back a lot of fond memories. This was the so-called cool hang out place for collge students who were on a tight budget (read--poor!) hahah. So digging into the "not so brave" chicken, I felt like I was a college student once more, sitting at the same table I always did...

Bliss is the word.

That's it for Part 1!!

The Sarawak Music Society organised "A Taste of Europe", a Soprano and Piano Recital by Marie Vassiliou and Loo Bang Hean on 21.4.2006 at the Sarawak Tourism Complex, Kuching. I was lucky enough to get tickets at the door, as I only found out about the recital yesterday morning. Tickets were such a steal at only RM20.

I count my blessings as I know I would have regretted it had I not made it for the recital. Marie Vassiliou's voice was beautiful. She had grace and poise... and mesmerised her audience with her charismatic performance. She exuded confidence and determination... even with such a small audience, she did not compromise on the quality of her performance. I have to say.. it was a shame that not much publicity was generated for the event. Many classical music lovers would have loved to attend this concert.

More information on Marie Vassiliou and Loo Bang Hean can be found here. Briefly, Marie Vassiliou was born in Hertfordshire of Greek-Welsh heritage. Loo Bang Hean hails from Ipoh. Both performers have won numerous awards--please read the excerpts below.

Exerpts taken from Sarawak Music Society's Website:

MARIE VASSILIOU was born in Hertfordshire of Greek-Welsh heritage. She studied Viola and Singing at the Royal College of Music, where she won numerous prizes including the Tagore Gold Medal as outstanding student of her year.

She has sung in most major concert venues in the UK (including The Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall), under conductors including Martyn Brabbins, Sir Andrew Davis, Vernon Handley, Wayne Marshall and Sir David Willcocks, and has broadcast on Radio 3, Classic FM and Radio France. She has an extensive oratorio and concert repertoire and has recently returned from a triumphant debut recital in Zurich (‘Freunde des Liedes’) for which she was critically acclaimed.

In opera she has worked in Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the USA. Her roles include: Desdemona, Gilda, Leila, Micaela, Anne Trulove, Tosca, Violetta; Foreign Princess (Rusalka), Maliella (Jewels of the Madonna), Miss Jessel (Turn of the Screw). Contemporary roles include: Belisa (The Nightingale’s to Blame by Simon Holt; Vienna, Austrian premiere), Desiree (Jago by Mike Westbrook, world premiere, role written for her).

As a baroque singer she has made four CDs with Janiculum and appeared in the Palermo Scarlatti Festival, Eisenstadt Haydn Festival and on tour in Japan with the Purcell Quartet. Handelian operatic roles include: Emira (Siroe), Il Pastor Fido (title role), Poppea (Agrippina) and Theodora (title role).

Miss Vassiliou has especially established herself as a gifted interpreter of contemporary music and has performed as solo soprano with Composer’s Ensemble, Continuum Ensemble, Contemporary Consort, Endymion and The Philharmonia.

She has given premieres of works by Dutilleux, Tippett, Judith Weir & Mike Westbrook and world premieres of works written especially for her by Richard Chew, Anthony Gilbert and Kenneth Hesketh.

Engagements have included: Tippett’s ‘The Heart’s Assurance’ (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival; also Poland premiere at the Wratislavia Cantans Festival), Julian Anderson’s ‘Sea Drift’ (BBC Proms season), Anthony Gilbert’s ‘Beastly Jingles’ (Royal Festival Hall with The Philharmonia) and Gilbert’s ‘Long White Moonlight’ (Purcell Room with the Endymion Ensemble). Anthony Gilbert has just completed a song cycle, Encantos, written especially for Miss Vassiliou and the Endymion Ensemble, which will be performed next year.

Later this year she will be performing the role of Florence Nightingale (from Richard Chew’s opera, Mary Seacole) at the Linbury Studio, Covent Garden.

LOO BANG HEAN won the First Malaysian National Mozart Piano Competition in 1987. Following his success in the LRSM performing diploma in the same year, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music awarded him a four year scholarship to study piano at the Royal College of Music (RCM), London.

In England, Bang Hean studied the piano with Yonty Solomon, John Blakely and Dennis Lee.  He has won numerous prizes at the RCM.  He was invited to appear in a Royal Gala Evening at St. James's Palace attended by Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.  With the awards from the Anthony Saltmarsh Prize and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, he spent a year studying the Piano with the Hungarian tutor Professor Ilonka Deskers in Milan, Italy.

Back in Malaysia, Bang Hean appears regularly in solo recitals, chamber concerts and concerto performances.  A frequent guest soloist of the National Symphony Orchestra in concerto performances.  As a keen supporter of local music talents, he and fellow pianist Ng Chong Lim and soprano Cecilia Yap pioneered a series of concerts aimed at providing young musicians the experience of public performing.  His recent concerts include a series of two-piano recitals with Ng Chong Lim and a performance of Grieg's Piano Concerto with the Penang State Symphony Orchestra.

I really appreciated the fact that Ms Marie took the trouble to give an introduction on her repertoire enumerated on the programme. It was akin to a music appreciation lesson-- with a lovely performance to boot. I was very very impressed.

There was an opportunity for the audience to interact with Marie and Bang Hean at the end of the concert. I found both Marie and Bang Hean to be extremely friendly and approachable musicians...true professionals in their own right. I just hope the audience's applause gave them the recognition that they so truly deserve.

Here's an overview of the concert program and Ms Marie's introduction for each composition:~

A Taste of Europe:

By Purcell, Henry (England)

Come Ye all Songsters

Music for a While

Sweeter than Roses                             

By Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (Austria)-

An Chole (a shepherd declaring his love for his lover)

Als Luise (A lady who is burning the love letters from her unfaithful lover)

By Ralph Vaughan Williams (England)

The Sky above the roof (Composed in 1908 in French and translated to English, depicts the ambience of a hot summer's day)

Silent Noon (song of two lovers lying on the grass)

By Ravel, Maurice (France)

Cinq Melodies Populaires Grecques

-A combination of 5 Greek folk songs, Ravel completed the piano accompaniment in 36 hours. The five songs consisted of the following-

a) A Greek  Pheasant on the day of his wedding

b) Song of a religious ceremony, with a church feel

c) A Masculine song, where the man sings " Look at my pistols and my swords etc"

d) An ethereal song

e) A happy, nonsensical song

INTERVAL

Chopin, Frederic (Poland)

Andante spianato & Grand Polonaise Op. 22- performed by Loo Bang Hean

Chopin composed this piece when he was about 21. (Gosh! what was I doing when I was 21...)

By Sibelius, Jean (Finland)

Flickan kon ifron sin elsklings mote-A dialouge between mother and daughter which starts off on a humourous note

Demanten pa Marssnon

Varen flyktar hastigt

Var det en drom

Italian Composers

L’alba separa della notte l’ombra                                Tosti
Sole e Amore                                                               Puccini
La Danza                                                                      Rossini

And here are some pictures I took during and after the concert. Enjoy!

This is an overview of the concert hall at Sarawak Tourism Complex (the old courthouse, entrance at the first right turning after Little Lebanon. Note the "starry night" effect of the lights on the ceiling. Lovely isn't it?

Miss Marie Vassiliou serenading the audience with her powerful voice, accompanied by Loo Bang Hean on piano. Absolutely divine.

Loo Bang Hean performing Andante spianato & Grand Polonaise Op. 22. Flawless performance. I loved it.

And the two stars of the night up close. May I present to you, Mr Loo Bang Hean and Miss Marie Vassiliou.

Thank you, Marie and Bang Hean, for giving us such a wonderful performance. I hope to see you again soon.