By the time the exam day arrived,I felt fully prepared! All the exams were conducted in the auditorium and piano rooms at the main Gloriamus building. My exam was in the auditorium. The students had to prepare a photocopy of each piece that we play for the examiners. From the number of photocopies we prepare, you can then deduce how many examiners would be there in your level. The number of pieces we play for our exams and the number of examiners vary for the different levels. We will give the photocopies to the examiners before we start playing the pieces.
After I registered, all I had to do was wait, wait, wait, as the last student a level below me was still having her exam. Waiting is always the worst part of exams, as my nervousness just piled up one upon the other. My wait was so long though, that I became numb when I was called to enter the examination room.
Usually, when I play in exams or competitions, my fingers would shake due to nervousness. Strangely though, when I started playing my pieces my hands didn’t shake and I felt calm and relaxed. My hands gave away though towards the end of the exam and they shook, but I was able to finish my exam with hardly any mistakes.
Several weeks later, it was announced on the course's bulletin board that I got first rank (as usual), for both the flute and piano examinations. Thus, I was invited to perform in my school’s Year End Concert. The Year End Concert is part of Gloriamus’ yearly activity, in which the students who have achieved first, second, and third ranks in the exams are invited to perform one of their best exam songs chosen by the judges. Lucky for me, I was to play my favourite song out of all my exam songs, which is the Fantasie Impromptu. At the end of the concert, there will be an award ceremony. Those who performed in the concert will receive a certificate and trophy for achieving first, second, and third ranks; and those who receive high scores in the music theory exam would also receive their theory certificates on that day. There would be an ensemble performance too, where the students would perform 2 songs: "Dari Sabang Sampai Merauke" and "Carol of the Bells". I would also be playing flute in the ensemble with 2 other flutists. There would also be a Guzheng performance by two musicians who were invited by the school. Everyone was invited to come to the concert and watch if they want to as the purpose of this concert was to motivate other students who hadn't achieved any ranks yet.On the day of the concert though, I also had a piano competition in CDE Open Piano Competition. My category was scheduled around the same time as my scheduled concert performance.
Joining this competition was a pact that I made with my teacher. When I requested Fantasie Impromptu months before the Gloriamus exam to my teacher,I expected my teacher to deny my request, as I thought it was still too hard for me because it's known to be an advanced song. To my surprise, she accepted it, but with the condition that I join the competition. As I really liked and wanted to play Fantasie Impromptu, I agreed immediately. Originally, I didn't want to join the competition as I would've just had my exam and didn't want to feel the nervousness of performing perfectly again.
For the competition, I play in the category Advance A. I'm only required to play one song of my choice. I decided to use one of my exam songs so that I won't have to do double work. My first choice was Fantasie Impromptu, but then I changed my mind and decided on Sinfonia 12 by Bach instead. Why?The total pages of the Sinfonia is only around a quarter of the total pages of Fantasie Impromptu, so I would spend less time on stage playing Sinfonia than playing the Fantasie Impromptu.
Because I had to play in both the concert and the competition, I had to make several trips back and forth from the hotel where the competition was held and the concert auditorium. Luckily, the auditorium and the hotel were not so far from each other. It only took around 15 minutes to get from one place to the other.
First, I went to the competition. I was the last one to play in my category. I had to wait for the previous category to finish so I had to wait pretty long. I was a little bit nervous while waiting for my category to start. It got worse when I was finally called and asked to sit in the participants' chairs. I was supposed to compete against 9 other participants, but one didn't come.
As I listened to the other competitors performing, I realized that the piano quality wasn’t sharp and clear. I didn't like it very much. When it was my time to perform, I put all my focus on my music, ignoring all the distractions around me and just on playing all that I’ve practised and learned. I was able to play well, with hardly any mistakes.
After I finished my piece, I didn’t get any time to cool down. I rushed immediately to the concert hall for my school’s Year End Performance. The concert was divided into two sessions with intermissions ensemble and Guzheng performance in between. The first session was for piano performances and the second session was for all other instruments. I was supposed to perform Fantasie Impromptu at the end of the first session, but I didn’t arrive in time. I had to skip my piano performance and play my flute ensemble pieces: "Dari Sabang Sampai Merauke" and "Carol of the Bells".
I was kind of disappointed that I couldn't perform the Fantasie Impromptu in the first session because the first session was attended by pianists. I had practised it so much that I really wanted to perform my favourite song perfectly in front of other pianists, who would understand the music better.
After the Ensemble’s Performance, it was time for the award ceremony. The MC called the students to get on the stage and stand in a row according to their exam categories. A teacher will then distribute the trophies one by one to the students while the MC called out the student’s name and what rank the student got. I stood at the very end of the row. I was waiting for my awards to come, but it didn't! The MC didn't even mention me. She had forgotten about me! Luckily, the teacher who gave the awards noticed me and asked the MC for my awards. The MC apologized and said that I didn't perform before so she thought that I didn't come.
While waiting for the second session to start,the Guzheng performers practised on stage. They were the first to perform. I didn't know if they performed in the first session because I wasn't present and the ensemble performance was the last performance in the first session. I'm glad that I got a chance to see them perform.
The Guzheng performance was great! They played two songs and one of them was a church song. It was interesting to hear a western song being performed with a traditional Chinese instrument. There were 2 Guzheng players, so they played the song like a duet. They looked very graceful while playing with their hands flowing back and forth the strings. The sound that the Guzheng made is similar to plucked string instruments, but even more clear and vibrating. Once in a while the players would play several strings very quickly to make trills, which sounded beautiful.
After the Guzheng performance, I had to hurry backstage because next was another ensemble performance.After the performance, I was rescheduled to play Fantasie Impromptu and then my flute piece.
I was nervous playing Fantasie Impromptu and my fingers shook while playing it, but I was able to play it well. The only thing I regretted from that performance was that I coughed when I was around 2 bars away from finishing the song. I held it since I was halfway through the last page but it slipped out just nearing the ending where I was playing softly and calmly because I was about to wrap up the song. So you can imagine how loud the cough sounded. It totally spoiled the performance for me.
My flute performance wasn't as good as my piano one as I was even more nervous now. My playing wasn't stable and the notes didn't come out clear. I also didn't play out the character of my song well. It was supposed to be a fun song, but I didn't play as happy and upbeat as the song should be. With the end of my flute performance and thus I completed all the performances of the day. I only need to wait for competition results and award collections.
The certificate and trophy for achieving first rank on my flute exam will be given out after the second session’s performances are over. Thus, there was still some extra time so I went back to the piano competition to see how I did. Before the winners were announced, the MC promoted the sponsors who sponsored the competition and the music school that held the competition. One of the judges also gave advice and tips on piano performing. I wasn't nervous while waiting, but to avoid getting nervous if the MC talked too long, I played games on my dad's phone. Luckily, I didn't get nervous.
Finally, it was time for my category to go up stage. Those who won will be called to step forward. I didn't expect much, I just hoped for at least getting the 3rd win. Lo and behold, I won 1st place. Other than getting a trophy; I got a voucher, a book, and some prize money.
Now that the CDE Open Piano Competition had officially ended, I went back to Gloriamus for the awards sessions. Once again, I was called up to the stage and the teachers distributed the certificate and trophy for those who achieved ranking on their musical instruments examination. This time I wasn’t forgotten. Yayy!
I felt really happy that I got to perform my favorite song, Fantasie Impromptu, and on top of that, I won first place in the CDE Open Piano Competition.
The one on the left and middle are my first rank trophies and the one on the right is the competition trophy.
This is one of the songs that I played in the ensemble.
For now, this is my last music trophy, because I am no longer interested in participating in competitions and Gloriamus exam because the practise sessions take up too much of my time and I would like to use my time for exploring other things. Doing many concerts and competitions are all like training me to become a piano performer, but that's not my goal. I hope you understand!
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