31 October 2024

I’m writing this blog at Hamilton Airport. We’re about to fly to Invercargill for our next concert. I had some trouble with my excess baggage because of all the dresses in my bag, but we are fine now!

Last night was really fun. We had an amazing concert at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts.
I could see the reactions of the audience and I got to play an encore session which was Schön Rosmarin by Fritz Kreisler. My mom was sitting at the back and saw these two women who were really happy because they recognised the song. That kind of made my night.
It’s a special piece to me. I played it a year ago for an event and I wanted to bring it back to the recital.

It’s really amazing playing with Jeongwhan too, because whatever I do he responds so well. We’d never met before but I feel like I’ve been playing with him for such a long time. You don’t have to worry about playing together, it just happens.

My tour so far has been great.

When I got to Auckland I toured the city a lot. I had the time before the Mozart Concerto with the Auckland Phil, so every morning I woke up to go to a different cafe. The brunches are really nice and the oysters are so fresh everywhere I go, and I just like walking down through the city a lot.

Our first concert was Palmerston North. It was at a church and the audience were great. We appreciated they came to see us even though it was raining and a little gloomy.

We drove to Napier the next day. My Mum was driving and after a two hours we stopped at a cafe to rest and there were three tiny puppies. We were petting them. They were really cute and the owner was also really stylish.

My highlight so far has been our workshop at Napier Girls High School. It reminded me of when I was in high school and I really liked seeing the girls playing instruments,
and they were all really sweet.

After the private lessons, Jeongwhan and I approached a clarinet trio and a string quintet, and they were all really nice. I remembered there was a game I looked forward to in music class. Sometimes my music teacher let us finish class early so we could play musical chairs. So I suggested we play it before we leave.

They were all really excited and got the chairs set up really fast. Jeongwhan played cute piano pieces, and it was a really fun experience to see them laughing and playing musical chairs.

That night some of the girls came to the concert and cheered us on! It warmed my heart.

Our next concerts are in the South Island and we’re looking forward to that.