picture (L-R): Felice, David, Stina, Ryan, Marimikel, Mike, Michelle, Margaux, me
With just 2 official rehearsals, loads of disagreements with the dept chair and 2 unofficial practices, we pulled of this year's event. It was a good experience, i have to say - not really from the performance point of view, but from the communication point of view. The event has brought the harpists another knit tighter. 
I'm glad that I took part in this year's event, cos my ears are beginning to open more and my mind is beginning to understand more of the theories of harmony.
Our repertoire is pretty well balanced. Each one of us had to play at least one classical piece (there were 6 pcs), 2 standard jazz tunes, with a concluding 5-part jazz tune, St. Thomas (right pix).
David (bass) and Ryan (drummer) were great. All of us made a couple of mistakes here and there for our classical pieces, but hey... this is Berklee! heehee... our jazz tunes were rock... well... more solid than our classical pieces.
Stina (Sweden) teamed with Michelle (N.Carolina) to play 'Solar' (Miles Davis) and 'Sweet Lorraine' (Cliff Burwell), I teamed with Margaux (Monaco) to play 'Stop it!' (Matt Marvuglio, dad of the bassist, who is also a dean of Berklee) and 'Softly, as in a morning sunrise' (Sigmund Romberg).
For my solo piece, I played Handel's Harp Concerto in Bb (1st movement).
All in all, i don't deny that the concert was boring, as compared to the other concerts you attend in Berklee. However, the beauty of the sound projection from the harp happen to be its disadvantage too. We are but students who are here to learn how to play jazz harp. So the arrangements were kept to minimal and simple.
Having said that, we did modulate 'Stop it!' twice! And it was pretty satisfying, especially on the harp. We started the piece with A min (120bpm) -> Bb min (5 pedals up) -> B min (5 pedals back, 2 pedals down). I'd love to do that again!
Duet with Margaux and the boys
As mentioned earlier, relationships among harpists improved, partly due to the unity found in preparing for this concert. Relationship between Felice (my harp teacher) and me has improved tremendously too. I dunno whether has this got to do with me not taking the harp lab. But well, at least now she's teaching me more stuff during private lessons. She is now more open to discuss more jazz techniques and ideas with me, something which I was trying to fight for the whole of last semester.
Looking back, maybe I was a little too impatient. I dunno. Everyone deserves the benefit of doubt. Anyway, I'm more prepared this semester, as I have better understanding of what's going on - theoratically/melodically/harmonically. Probably that's why she offered to incorporate some jazz materials into my private instruction. Great! And on top of that, I can sit in the harp lab for no credits and no pressure!
Well, back to the concert, after putting the harps back into the room upstairs (all 4 of them), we proceeded to Woody's. Sounds like we love Woody's. It's our 2nd time meeting, and both times we met here. They have good wood baked pizzas and you can smell the burning wood from afar...
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