oops, i failed to mention all this..!

So, two days before I left, I went to the AYO concert at the Perth Concert Hall, which was part of the Perth International Arts Festival (which opened two days before that).
I've heard so much about AYO and the National Music Camp, and Cameron Hill was the soloist with AYO (playing the Stravinsky violin concerto) that it was so worth paying however much the tickets were!
What an amazing sound.
They played Shostakovich's Festive Overture Op. 96 (we played this in the Combined Anglican Schools Orchestra one year, it's such a fantastic piece!), Cameron played the Stravinskly, and then the second half was Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, selections from Suite 1 and 2.
It was a wonderful concert.
And such a sight..! Cameron, the orchestra, and conductor...(where to begin with all that..?!)
It was awesome to see some Melbourne Con people - it was kinda weird, because I was at home, in Perth, and there they were, but I knew them from Melbourne...how odd! But very cool.
Thanks to Beat for organising tickets - thanks for coming with me and all :D

The Prokofiev was pretty cool (even though all of it was actually really cool, just that this piece gets special mention, because..well, I'll explain...).
There were two bits that were especially funky....
1) There was one particular moment where I suddenly noticed the horns had lifted their instruments such that they managed to get better projection. Totally cool.
2) Another particular moment had the orchestra playing in rhythmic unison of dramatic force, except for the horns, who, all five of them, stood up to play this awesome (equally dramatic) melody in unison! Wonderful :)

And more about concerting...
I went to the MSO concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl last night with a few MSS committee members and a bunch of con freshers. It was part of the activities that MSS was running and it was a good way to introduce freshers to seeing more concerts, and for them to write concert reports! (which we could sign off on..!) It turned out to be lots of fun, with some old friends, some new friends, and meeting some other old friends who met us there, whom I didn't even know were coming! But lots of fun. There were quite a few "Do I know you?"'s around, from past times in country Victorian towns..! :) Very funny and very cool.....there was one guy, a pianist, from Bought, and I was like, "I know people who used to live in Bought!", including Sam. And this guy knows Sam - their sisters were very good friends! This pianist was just so cute hehe :P

Anyway, so it was a good concert :) Well, apart from you know, about 10 000 in the crowd, a picnic atmosphere (not a bad thing, but I guess that attracts a different audience demographic to the concert hall), threatening clouds and a weird sound system...! But it was an enjoyable time. I got to meet con freshers (as well as today, on Mentor Day, though only four rocked up, but they were nice!) and hang out with them and get to know them a bit :) Very fun!

So, today was Mentor Day at uni. In the morning, we had training. Which was good, and most amusing at times. I didn't realise how many in-jokes we have..! But what fun it is!
Bought M&Ms, still have some, but all my other friends have probably been the biggest consumers of them, probably after me haha :P
Ran into quite a few people at the Con, which was lots of fun!
The Monday 10am tute has basically filled up - by far, we are the most popular class the quickest..!
Also went around uni today, in the break between training and the actual Mentoring time (I was at uni all day today..!) and checked out the Clubs and Societies stalls and tents on campus. Saw a few more friends around, signed up for CU (the $2 fee...!) as well as for a few things like 85 Broads (no charge, very good!). So I think I had a fairly successful day, although I was (and am!) INCREDIBLY tired.., probably because I didn't have an afternoon nap at all haha.

Anyway, there will be a few photos from MSO (very few....didn't take any of the fireworks because my camera batteries ran out...)