CGS International Guitar Festival & Camp 2013

'Guitars & Recorder'

Photos  & write-up uploaded

CGS International Guitar Festival & Camp 2013

An account by Simon Cheong

Part 2

GUITARS & RECORDER

a concert featuring

Duo Nihz – Booby & Sanna Rootveld (Holland),

Chuah Yeong Chin (Malaysia) and Tolgahan Cogulu (Turkey)

8.00 p.m., 4 December 2013

The Gardens Theatre, Level 6, The Gardens North Tower, Mid-Valley City

Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur

I always write this Wednesday concert as part 2 when it is actually the third part of this festival. The second part of the festival has always been masterclasses for our members and those who are not able to make it for the camp...well, anyway....

With the outstanding performance of Pavel Steidl, what have we in store for this second part of the festival & camp? Well... we presented the guitar from a totally different perspective. Did the audience expect anything like this? Well, some feedback by audience who does not play the guitar was - wow! I didn’t know that the guitar could be played like that and we really enjoyed the concert! Even for those whose does play the guitar, it was an eye opener!

Here are some shots of the concert.

Presenting the concert was our MC for the night, Miss Wo Su Woan.

Representing Malaysia was Chuah Yeong Chin.

Here is a pleasant surprise for the audience – have they ever seen or heard such a guitar? A Microtonal Guitar! What is a microtonal guitar? The tonal system which most music developed in the history of music depended mainly on the tone and semitone. Here, the microtonal guitar explores sounds that does not conform to just tones and semitones but any other which is called microtones! Indian music (and Chinese) music has lots of microtones and here we have Dr. Tolgahan Cogulu presenting to us Turkish music.

It was really great for the audience to hear live sounds from a guitar which has more than six strings and frets that seems haphazardly placed, more so, the microtones which is no longer an everyday affair with tones and semitones ruling supreme in most music. Some were caught up with the gimmicky use of the plastic handheld fan hitting the strings, a novel idea as with using spoons, toothpicks and what not in modern compositions in search of new sounds.

Well, the audience enjoyed themselves...

After the interval, came another surprise. This time, it is the recorder and guitar! The recorder is an instrument most of us Malaysians know as an instrument that our primary school going children uses in their music classes. You know...that plastic made instrument that is very cheap and produces horrible sounds (oops! my apologies...my opinion...)! (I still have one or two that belongs to my sons and tucked away in their toys chest somewhere in the house – I still keep some of their toys for memories!). Here, Sanna van Elst, an expert recorder player shows how a ‘real’ recorder is played and the different kinds of recorders there are and with what lovely tones it produces.

Well, a recorder and a guitar! As with normal expectations, one will expect two properly dress performers presenting good music with no frills...all serious stuff! Nope! That is not all you will get but theatre in it as well!

Duo Nihz has their name Nihz meaning not dressed in black, have them coming out in their favourite colour...here are quite a few shots of them.

Sanna plays the guitar too!!! And Bobby is forced to blow into Sanna’s recorder!

Did you notice the different recorders Sanna has played on? With theatre mixed in, a bit of acting and a bit of storytelling, all in all created a great performance and the audience had a wonderful experience and enjoyed themselves as feedback tells us.

As the concert ends, the formalities of showing our appreciation takes precedence...

Pavel Steidl, our honoured guest, was invited to present a bouquet to the Malaysian, Chuah Yeong Chin and then, the Society’s President, Mr Simon Cheong, made presentations to Dr. Tolgahan Cogulu and then to Duo Nihz, Bobby and Sanna.

I must admit the bouquet presented is beautiful and quite a few years now did we managed to get sponsorship for these flowers from  Mr. Timur Temukuev, Director of Turistos Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd. We would like to take this opportunity to thank him and to say how much we appreciate his sponsorship of the bouquets.

Autograph time...

Here is Bobby & Sanna taking a shot with the ophans. Every year the Society does its part by inviting the underprivileged to its concerts.

One final photo of our MC with the Society’s President and his wife.

Completing the second (ahem! third) part of CGS International Guitar Festival & Camp 2014, we will now look forward to the *third (ahem! fifth) and final part - the camp coming Friday to Sunday!

*Once again, the camp is the final part of the festival but not the third and ... also, not the fourth! Actually, the fourth part of this festival has always been - a free day! NO!...it is a day we show our guests Malaysia and we usually take them to our historical town - Malacca! not forgetting Twin Towers and if possible Batu Caves!