About “Earth Beat” (1 Oct 2017)
This year the Kinta Valley Symphonic Society (KVSS) will be holding an annual concert very different from what we had before. It is a celebration and a dedication to the Earth that we are living in and the Nature that is surrounding us. More often than not we always take the beauty of Nature for granted because it is too easily accessible in the form of what we see and experience in our daily lives that we do not care much about it. Take for example, the lovely hills surrounding Kinta Valley, the beautiful sea and beaches that we have, the lush greenery and trees that we see everywhere, the air that we breathe in etc. But we spoil it all by destroying the hills, polluting the sea, chopping down trees indiscriminately, killing wildlife etc.
If we love our living planet so much and we wish that our future generations live in a clean and healthy world we need to do something now to protect Mother Earth from deteriorating. KVSS therefore wishes to do its bit in sharing the beauty of the Earth through music and creating awareness to the public that protecting our Earth from further contamination is of utmost importance. We are blessed with Nature to be appreciated, not to be spoilt.
In this concert the Kinta Valley Wind Orchestra (KVWO) will be performing under the baton of guest conductor Mr Eric Lee, Artistic Director of Philharmonic Winds of Malaysia (PWM), Kuala Lumpur. Also conducting is KVSS’ very own student conductor, Mr Aaron Chin. Preparation was underway since June. Considered a huge orchestra with 61 performers and 2 conductors, KVWO is joining forces with PWM. There will be 48 players from KVWO, 12 professionals from PWM and one from KLPac Orchestra.
The programme for this concert, carefully selected by Eric is inspired by Nature as can be seen by the titles such as To Be Vivid Stars, Vesuvius, Mayday Medley and others. The reasons for Eric’s choice of the repertoire are:
1) Eric uses this opportunity to blend music and sounds for exploratory purposes so that the audience will gain a different experience listening to band music.
2) All the pieces chosen are new and have never before been performed by KVWO which give the players a sense of freshness
3) These high calibre works are challenging for the performers in terms of style, tonality, dynamics and rhythm. This new challenge will enhance their musical knowledge and propel them to new heights.
Earth Beat highlights that there is an intimate connection between the beauty of music and that of Nature. The uniqueness of this concert lies in the sense that the audience have to visualize and interprete the colours of Nature through listening. It will be a whole brand new experience for most as the music involved is not the usual kind of band music.
Aaron believes that no school bands or music groups have ever performed a 2-hour long concert that comprises music written based on true natural phenomena as in Versuvius. This concert also shows how much the orchestra has grown over the years.
The objectives of organizing this concert are:
1) to raise funds to support KVSS programmes for 2017-2018
2) to promote an appreciation of symphonic band music in Kinta Valley and beyond
3) to support Visit Perak Year 2017
4) to contribute towards making Ipoh a city known for its performing arts
Annual fund-raising concerts are usually held to meet the expenses of running the society and to push through our objectives. As such we would like to appeal to generous sponsors to support the society’s mission to bring music and the arts to residents of Ipoh.
For tickets and enquiries, interested parties may call 010-307 0360 or 012-506 2313.
