Fritz Quartet at Icon Village

Today marks our last day performing at Icon Village as part of the opening ceremony of the shopping centre. It has been an interesting experience for us, trying to play louder than the music blaring from the shopping centre's sound system, as well as trying to be heard over the sounds of traffic, and even the occasional hammering from the renovation.

Tze Chuan

Bingling

Nora from Star Mission Services for being such a great person to work with! Our thanks (and love!)

A big thank you to the tech crew and special mention to Edmund for his professional assistance and easygoing personality.

Fritz Quartet at Grand Hyatt Singapore

Tuesday 28th August
PricewaterhouseCoopers Dinner

The Fritz Quartet was invited to perform for PricewaterhouseCoopers' dinner, held at Grand Hyatt Singapore, Sir Stamford Room. We had performed for PricewaterhouseCoopers previously and we were honored to be invited again. The dinner was hosted by Mr Gautam Banerjee (PwC Singapore Executive Chairman) and the Guest of Honor was Mrs Lim Hwee Hua (Minister Of State for Finance and Transport).

We started off the evening with Grieg's "Morning" from Peer Gynt Suite as the guests mingled at the cocktail area. Half an hour flew by, and the guests streamed into the main ballroom, signalling the start of dinner.

While speeches were being presented, we lounged at the sofas outside the ballroom, waiting to go on stage.

Bingling poses for the camera

Tze Chuan and Johnny decided to switch their instruments

Looks of intense concentration on their faces

Max (with his viola bow, pointing at the PricewaterhouseCoopers sign at the back) and Tze Chuan (with Johnny's cello, which acts as a really good prop).

While the first course was served, we proceeded on stage. Special thanks to the Grand Hyatt Hotel staff, who did a marvellous job of setting up the mics for us. Meanwhile, the projector in the room was showing photographs taken earlier in the cocktail session. It was quite surreal seeing our faces beamed to the whole room!

We ended off the night with a rendition of Bengawan Solo, which was well received by the guests.

Special thanks to Yvonne and Cami from PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as staff from Grand Hyatt.

Fritz Quartet at Raffles Hotel

Wedding Reception

The Fritz Quartet was invited to perform at the wedding of Dionne and Matthew, held at the Raffles Hotel Singapore. This was made possible through the recommendation of Marilyn Goh, sister of a close friend of mine, Matthew Goh.

We reached at 4.15pm, and we were met by Peter Williams, who directed us to our places in front of the East India Room.

The setup (very comfortable chairs too)

Guests, taken against the back drop of Raffles Hotel

Guests, and more guests! (Dionne the pretty bride seen in the background)

Lucky Johnny.

Photo Courtesy KC Wong from GreymatterPhotography

We ended our last set with an encore request of the first movement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as the guests streamed into the East India Room for dinner.

We took our last photograph of the day with the camera perched (precariously) on a roll of masking tape before dispersing at 6.30pm-- the guys needed rest for the Marathon on Sunday, while I was off to catch a SSO concert.

-Tze Chuan

Post Wedding Compliments:
"Hearing you strike up after the ceremony, though, was one of my favourite moments of the day, and we were both very happy with your performance and the discretion with which you set up and left - I wouldn't hesitate to recommend you to friends."-- Matthew

Fritz Quartet at Icon Village

The Fritz Quartet will be performing at Icon Village (outside Gelare) on the following dates:

10th August (Fri) 6pm-8pm
22nd August (Wed) 12pm-2pm
30th August (Thurs) 12pm-2pm

Do drop by and lend us your support!

:)

The address:
12 Gopeng Street
Singapore 078877

Nearest MRT station: Tanjong Pagar MRT (Exit A)

Hope to see you there!

Musical Experience with Corrinne May

3rd August (Friday)

One can almost call it de ja vu.

It was Bingling's and my third time playing for Corrinne May’s concert. The first was in February 2006 at the National University Cultural Centre, followed by her Christmas concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall in December 2006. The latest concert by Corrinne May on 03 August 2007 brings her back to National University Cultural Centre for the second time, featuring songs from her new album Beautiful Seed as well as familiar favorites from her other albums Safe In A Crazy World and Fly Away.

We had two rehearsals prior to her actual performance. As her newest album Beautiful Seed was not yet on sale in the music stores of Singapore, Bingling and I were pretty excited to be the first privileged few people in Singapore to listen and perform her music compositions. We were not disappointed. The new songs bear the signature of Corrinne, sentimental, nostalgic, fun, and original. Since the cds were on pre-release sale on the concert day itself, both of us wasted no time to purchase a copy each and have Corrinne May autograph it personally!

It was definitely great fun working for the concert. This is especially so as majority of the musicians performed in the previous two concerts, which makes this concert like a reunion. Even though there are one or two new first-timers, everyone knew everyone in one-way or another.

Another sold out concert of a 1700 strong crowd and a 4½ hour wait to get cds signed by Corrinne May stands testament to Corrinne May’s talent and overwhelming success.

Bingling and Me

Max