English Blog

Duo Recital at FUMCPasadena on Sat.May 11 at 2pm 5/8/13 May 8, 2013

My husband and cellist, David Garrett, and I have been performing our annual recitals at First United Methodist Church of Pasadena for the last several years. We called ourselves as The Belrose Duo. Mainly, we like to perform duo repertoire, but also we like to help the music program at FUMC. A free-will offering at the […]

A Movie “From Up on Poppy Hill” 5/2/13 May 2, 2013

I have not seen Hayao Miyazaki’s animation movies for a while, and was very excited to see it. Yes, it was much more than I expected. I am still feeling home sick, and nostalgie. The movie is set in Yokohama, a port town, in 1963, when Japan was growing, and the people looked forward for […]

A Movie “To The Wonder” 4/21/13 April 21, 2013

When I saw the names in the cast (Javier Bardem and Ben Affleck) of “To The Wonder” I thought I can’t miss this movie. Well.. I was wrong. It has lots of beautiful scenes, but I don’t think it is a movie. I felt as if I was watching many segments of Calvin Klein’s commercials. […]

András Schiff “Bach Project No. 2” French Suites and French Overture 4/21/13 April 21, 2013

I still clearly remember Sir. Schiff’s epic concerts on Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier Books. 1 and 2 from the last October. This time, he came back to Disney Hall with Bach’s 6 French Suites and French Overture. He performed all 6 suites as a set in a first half. How can he keep that deep focus on the […]

A Movie “Renoir” 4/8/13 April 8, 2013

It is truly a beautiful movie, especially scenes in French Riviera and colorful and stylish costumes for actresses. The costumes may not be exactly period designs, but I loved them! “Renoir”, directed by Gilles Bourdos, is set in 1915 during WWI. The drama is about the story around a famous impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and […]

A Trip to France…. 4/3/13 April 3, 2013

After the concert on Beethoven’s piano concerto, youtube link http://youtu.be/8UvdTE1YEpw, I took a week off from Occidental College to fly to France! I have not done a real trip without performances for a long time, and it was so good to do. No worry to find a piano to practice, no worry to have memory […]

A Movie “Hava Nagira” 3/18/13 March 18, 2013

It is about recent 150 years of history in Jewish culture and community around the famous song “Hava Nagira”. It is documentary and very funny! Most everyone has heard this song in some occasions even non-Jewish people like me. The movie tells us the journey of Jewish people across the generations all over the world, especially settlers […]

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58, with Pasadena Community Orchestra 3/10/13 March 10, 2013

I will be performing this beautiful concerto with Pasadena Community Orchestra on Friday March 15 at 8pm. The venue will be at First Church of the Nazarene, 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91107. (www.pcomusic.org) Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, was premiered in March of 1807 at a private concert […]

My 5th “Goldberg Variations” Performance 2/23/13 February 24, 2013

I performed Goldberg Variations for the 5th time this afternoon for Brand Library Music Series. I have to admit I still get pretty nervous before the performance of Goldberg. Mainly, I start thinking about “Memory Slip” even though I have done without any memory slip for the last 4 performances. Oh well, that is the […]

Bach and Beethoven, and new semester at school 1/30/13 January 30, 2013

I decided to bring back “J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations” in this spring, and have been reworking it. This time, I won’t use any pedal so I needed to rethink about the fingerings. Now I really enjoy playing Bach without pedal, and actually I can’t imagine to use it again. The sound is so pure and […]