| 12th Guitar Camp 2010 |
| Monday, 17 January 2011 15:21 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Documenting the camp in photos This year’s guitar camp is different in that, we had to book a different hotel as we were beaten off in the booking of Shahzan's Inn. Puncak Inn was the alternative as we had a look at it last year and thought that it might be good. After all, the manager at Puncak Inn knew us well as she was managing our camp at Shahzan's Inn before. The hotel was faiirly new and the rooms did not have a musty smell but the water heating system had problems. There were complaints of having to shower with cold water!!! This hotel is ill-equipped to handle such a large group, grappling to provide us with the necessary facilities. The shower problem we highlighted was never resolved. The most unhappy part was the food! To quote some examples: the chicken was really tough, the fish was not fresh, the vegetables were badly cooked, and worst of all was - there was not enough food to go round! Being buffet-styled, there should be plenty of choices but sadly, that was not the case. As the hotel does not have a ballroom and the hotel manages (I presume) the Fraser's Hill Community Centre, we held all our activities there. We had requested for hot water to make drinks and we got it, but the hot water became cold very quickly as it was not provided in an electrical container that could reboil the water automatically. Our previous hotel provided such a facility, which speaks a lot for the hotel! It is too bad that the manager was not able to look into this little request despite having managed our camp 3 to 4 times before! Our President had to step in to make complaints to the manager and ended up quarelling with the cook! The cook had overheard the complaints and didn't like his 'culinary skill' criticized. First and foremost, 'customers are always right' is a maxim that people in the services industry have no choice but to accept. If they are not able to provide the service, then they will have to put up with the complaints that will come from dissatisfied customers. Unfortunely, the manager said that they had tried their best and that we were too demanding, instead of apologising and improving themselves!!! Excuse me, this is a resort! How does Fraser's Hill hope to be a world-class holiday resort with this sort of service!? The only two good points noted for this hotel (besides having rooms that are not musty) are: 1. the Community Centre Hall has superb acoustics and is excellent for holding our concert. 2. The atmoshere and picturesque environment are really enticing. Day 1
1. The buses arrive at Fraser's Hill 2. Is committee member Ong Peng Yang practicing Tai Chi in the middle of the road? 3. Wait... he is not! He is actually diverting traffic, for the safety of our participants. 4. Campers claiming their luggage, ready to start a wonderful camp. 5. Our artiste-in-resident, Alessio Monti, greets everyone with this gesture and said:" This mathematics equation printed on my T-shirt predicts that this camp will be AWESOME!"
Once the campers settled down, we started registration.
6. Here, the campers collect their name tags, programme booklet and T-Shirt. 7. For some reasons I fail to understand, the campers seem afraid of me, refusing to line up at my counter! They line up only at Ernest's counter for registration. 8. I have to put on my friendliest face and say "Please register here, I will not hurt you!" 9. Finally, they laid their trust in me and the registration went on smoothly and quickly without any incident. 10. These girls are happy to get their camp booklet. After registration, Mr. Simon Cheong, the President of CGS, gave a welcoming speech and introduced both our artistes-in-residence, Pongpat Pongpradit (Thailand) and Alessio Monti (Italy).
11. Simon briefed the campers on the rules and regulations of the camp. 12. This looks like an international peace agreement signing ceremony...ha! ha! 13. Alessio Monti saying hello. 14. Pongpat Pongpradit's turn to address the campers.
After a pleasant bus ride from Kuala Lumpur, registration cum briefing done and luggage all stored away in their rooms, the hungry campers are served lunch.
15-17. Campers having lunch in this nice open air cafeteria. 18. Alessio is wondering why the food tray is empty...!? Evidence of inefficiency as well as poor judgment in catering for us! 19. Pongpat thinks the food is great but we beg to differ. Well, there is a high possibility that Pongpat's taste buds could be 'spoilt' by his love for super spicy food - chillies and lots of it! Wow, he eats chiili api like we would eat lettuce!
Now it is time to get acquainted with one other in an ice-breaking session. For the first game, the campers are given descriptions of people such as "Visited Japan before" or "Winner of a guitar competition" and they have to find campers who fit the descriptions. Prizes are given to the first three campers who complete the task in the shortest time.
20-25. Campers hard at work... 26. Simon is very upset that he has to give away his favorite potato chips. 27-28. Our artistes-in-residence give away prizes to the winners.
Next, we have a warm and happy hand-holding activity.
29-31. Everybody is smiling. For now...
...until it turns into an arm-twisting nightmare. Muawhahahah!
32-34. Look at the mess! 35-36. It is a sense of accomplishment and joy when they finally get unentangled... Even the group that had almost given up, went at it again sportingly and completed the exercise! It is exhilarating to see such sportsmanship with no sour puss attitude around. Great campers and a great start! We spotted this latest fashion craze at the camp - tying a tissue box over your stomach! Not only does it look cool, but you never have to look for tissue paper whenever you need one - unfortunately, no tissue paper in the box! Only a small hole ...and a ping pong ball.
37-40. Campers having fun with this tissue box game...they have to get rid of the ping pong ball dropped into the box, as quickly as they can! 41. This camper said to me "Look! Now my tummy is as big as yours!"
Next, an unfortunate incident occurs...!
42. Mrs Evelyn Cheong gave each committee member a Savarez paper bag to go shopping for tidbits...or so we thought. 43-45. Suddenly... the campers start shooting cottonbuds (used as darts) at the committee members! This is outrageous! 46. The committee members have no choice but to use the paper bags to defend themselves.
After the 'attack' on the committee members, each group leader receives the paper bag filled with tidbits as prizes despite their 'acts of aggression' earlier... The ice-breaking session ends and hopefully with everyone being at ease with each other, if not, as with all our camps, they will by the time the camp ends on the third day.
47-52. Committee members giving out prizes to the group leaders.
Play time is over, now it is 'play guitar time'. First we have master classes with out artistes-in-residence. Pongpat handlled the beginner students while Alessio took the intermediate and advance students. The following day's master class saw a swap with Pongpat giving master class to the intermediate and advance students while Alessio took the beginners. In this way, every participant benefited from both our artistes-in-residence.
53-62. Master class with Pongpat Pongpradit.
63-71. Master class with Alessio Monti
After the master classes, we had our ensemble practice. Campers are divided into severals groups and each group has to give an ensemble performance at the end of the camp. Making music is never a solitary activity, it is important to play with others and share experiences. CGS committee members and our artistes-in-residence are assigned to guide the ensemble practice.
72-95. Everyone is hard at work, after they find their own cozy corner with their teachers in order to practice away. The first day's highlight is the evening recital given by our artiste-in-residence, Pongpat Pongpradit.
96. Our emcee for the night, Ernest Thomas. 97-100. Pongpat's recital Day 2 For the first time since 2005, we had an outdoor activity this year. We took the campers for an early morning walk, taking advantage of the fresh air, chilly weather with verdant greenery all around us in Fraser's Hill.
101. Campers gathering outside the community hall before the walk starts. This early morning walk session has taken over last year's 'guitarobics'. 102-104. Lovely tropical rainforest. 105-107. Campers showing 'gang' signs to the cameraman! 108. This dump truck seems to be following us on our walk. 110-111. At the end of the walk, it is time for our group photo session. We have nice flowers to enhance our photos, much to the nature lovers' delight! 112-113. We have a short break for tea after the group photo session. The hotel served us exotic food: invisible curry puffs! There were so few curry puffs that our photographer could not even get a glimpse of it. And, the coffee was lousy!
Following this are the master classes with out artistes-in-residence. This time Alessio took the beginner students while Pongpat handled the intermediate and advance students.
114-123. Alession's master class with the beginners group.
124-130. Pongpat's master class with the intermediate and advance students.
After the master classes, Simon gave a talk on the classical guitar in general as well as an interactive question-and-answer session.
131-133. Q&A session with Simon Cheong
It is time for the campers' solo performance. As I had mention earlier, making music is never a solitary activity. Giving a performance is the only way to share your music with other people. You can only learn how to perform by performing, there is no shortcut. Kudos to these young people for sharing their music with us!
134-157. Campers' solo performances.
After the student's concert, it is the committee members' turn to conduct workshops for beginners, intermediate and advance students.
158. I am in charge of the beginner group's workshop, together with Lee Ji Xuan and Chuah Yeong Chin. This looks like an auction going on, "The next item ...is this wonderful classical guitar, the starting price is RM8,000!" 159 "Sold! For RM16,888 to that gentleman!" 160. Beginner's workshop.
161-163. Ong Peng Yang is in charge of the intermediate group's workshop...
164-166. ...and Simon Cheong is in charge of the advance group's workshop.
Alessio Monti gave an amazing performance at the end of the second day of the camp.
167. Alessio showing off his newly acquired batik shirt. 168-171. Alessio Monti's performance.
Day 3 This is the final day of the camp and it is time to celebrate music together. The day started with 3 solo performances by the campers. Then, all the campers got into their groups and gave us wonderful ensemble performances made possible by the hardwork and effort they put into their practices the past 2 days..
172-174. Solo performances by Christopher Cheong, Chuah Ken Ny and Jeremy Cheong. 175-231. This is the highlight of our camp - the ensemble performances.
Each camper is presented with a certificate of participation in this camp, along with a 'guaranteed' lucky draw. We gave out various items including guitar strings, T-shirts, caps and books. The grand prize was a classical guitar, much to the delight of the winner!
232-238. Chuah Yeong Chin presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 239-244. Low Kean Soon presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 245-251. Ong Peng Yang presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 252-258. Ernest Thomas presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 259-265. Lee Ji Xuan presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 266-272. See Sew Hong presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 273-279. Leong Yee Hoo presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 280-286. Evelyn Cheong presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 287-290. Simon Cheong presenting certificates and lucky draw prizes to campers. 291. Artiste-in-residence Pongpat Pongpradit presenting certificate and lucky draw prize to this little camper. 292. Artiste-in-residence Alessio Monti presenting the grand prize to this lucky camper.
Classical Guitar Society Malaysia is very thankful to our artistes-in-residence for sharing their expertise with us and helping us make this camp a great success.
293. Simon presenting a token of appreciation to our artiste-in-residence Pongpat Pongpradit. 294. Simon presenting a token of appreciation to our artiste-in-residence Alessio Monti. 295. Simon Cheong, Pongpat Pongpradit and Alessio Monti. 296. CGS committee members and artistes-in-residence.
Before departure, campers take the last opportunity to take photos with new friends and seek artiste-in-residents autographs.
See you at CGS International Guitar Festival & Camp 2011!
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| Last Updated on Friday, 25 March 2011 20:41 |
