Fritz Quartet at Grand Hyatt Hotel (Ballroom 2)

11 November

Today, the Fritz Quartet performed for the wedding of Jessica and Lyonnel at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. We arrived slightly earlier to rehearse the march-in, as well as to finalise where we would be situated for the evening.

We started our first set at 5.30pm when the guests were arriving, followed by Barcarolle for the processional at 6pm. Trumpet Voluntary was the recessional piece.

While the couple was busy taking photographs, we shifted our stands and music to the area outside the ballroom, where there would be a cocktail reception before dinner. Jessica had specially requested in our previous correspondences, for us to play Boccherini's Minuet, whihc we also included in our set list. After the piece, Jessica came over to us and said "you guys sound 20 times better than the recording!". Awwwww. :)

Compliments from Jessica:
Thanks for the lovely music. If I could do this all over again, I am very certain that I will still want the Fritz Quartet to perform for my wedding. haha... It was simply magical marching in to the tune of Barcarolle (LIVE no less!!!). Love the recessional piece too. Only regret is that I am unable to freeze those moments. (...) I had to go back to the suite to wait for the dinner to start. BUT I got to listen to Boccherini's Minuet!! haha which I think I requested for you guys to play. I enjoyed it totally!! LAPPED IT UP. (...) Overall, I love the stuff which you guys did. VERY happy that I got u guys. Really. I would definitely recommend you guys to anyone who wants GOOD live music for their wedding.

Thanks Jessica and Lyonnel, for inviting us to be part of your special occasion. And thanks as well for specially giving us a whole box of cakes and puffs as well as drinks for refreshments! :)

Members of the Wedding Party!

Fritz Quartet Goes Alternative

Fritz Quartet at Fullerton Hotel

15 September 2007

Today, Wei Ting and Ling Fung threw a lavish wedding dinner at the Fullerton Hotel Grand Ballroom. Being engaged twice by the same couple within a span of a few days, meant that we got to see many familiar faces, whom we had met earlier in the week at Chijmes. It certainly felt like we were performing for friends! It was a really great feeling.

We were engaged to play 1 set for the cocktail reception and 2 sets for the dinner.

After our first set outside the ballroom, where the cocktail reception was held, we shifted back into the ballroom for the next 2 sets. Kudos to the hotel staff who led us back into the ballroom through the kitchen maze to avoid disturbing the guests. We couldn't have found our way on our own.

As we were situated in front of the two VIP tables, our initial worries were that we might be too loud, but there were no complaints. In fact, much of the applause came from the VIP tables!
In addition, several guests came up to us in the course of the evening to express their compliments.

Once again, we had a table to ourselves, which we shared with the photographers.

The above photographs are courtesy of Adrian from Avenue 8. Thanks Adrian!

To Wei Ting and Ling Fung, our thanks to you for your hospitality- even taking time amidst the Yam Sengs to check if we were doing alright and if we needed anything. It has been great performing for your wedding dinners and getting to know you two. :)

Compliments:
"Everything was very good for both evenings in my opinion. Just thought you might like to know."- Wei Ting

Fritz Quartet at Chijmes Hall

13 September 2007
Today, the Fritz Quartet performed for the wedding of Wei Ting and Ling Fung. They had decided to engage us for their wedding after watching our performance at the Esplanade Concourse in May.

After a whole series of emails and phonecalls spanning from May-September, we finally met on the day itself. It was a much looked forward to meeting. The first violinist had injured her knee and was hobbling around (not exactly very glamourous) but it wasn't about to deter the spirit of the quartet. We were situated on the stage, where we played all 3 sets for the night. Our first set began as guests streamed in. Lingfung walked down the aisle accompanied by us playing Pachelbel's Canon in D.

It was an enjoyable experience playing for the guests, who showed their appreciation with warm applause. We also loved the acoustics of the hall! It was also a really sweet and thoughtful gesture of Wei Ting and Ling Fung to set aside a table for us. Playing 3 sets on an empty stomach can be quite painful , so we were really glad that dinner was provided for us!

Fritz Quartet at Tanjong Pagar Community Centre

1st September 2007
Repertoire:

Dvorak String Quartet Op. 96 "American" (Last movement)
Bengawan Solo
Ye Lai Xiang


Today, the Fritz Quartet was invited to perform for the National Day Concert, held at the Tanjong Pagar Community Centre. The Guest-of-Honor for the evening was Associate Professor Koo Tsai Kee, Minister of State for Ministry of Defence.

It was indeed a great pleasure to work again with Mr Chua Beng Koon, whom we had worked with last year at the Spottiswoode Park National Day Roadshow.


Our thanks to the Cab Auntie who patiently navigated her way around until we spotted the sign.

Tze Chuan and Johnny waylays Bingling while she is trimming her nails (Haha!)

Yes, we had a whole room to ourselves!!!

Dinner was provided for us too-- YUMMY. A hand sneakily reaches out for the burgers.

We managed to capture a picture of the audience from the 2nd level of the multi-purpose hall, prior to the arrival of the Guest-of-Honour.

The performance went smoothly as planned and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We were initially worried that the Dvorak String Quartet might not have been well-received due to its relative obscurity compared to famous tunes like The Entertainer etc, but the audience lapped it up enthusiastically with their warm applause.

A big THANK YOU to Mr Chua Beng Koon for all your kind gestures in ensuring that we were fed, cool (yes, an air-conditioned holding area, and soundproof too!) and very happy (we didn't have to worry about all the technicalities)!

Our thanks as well to the sound and stage crew for prepping the stage for us, as well as the kind student helpers who ushered us to our places (from stage to room)

Compliments from Mr Chua Beng Koon:
Dear Tze Chuan,
It was indeed our pleasure working with your quartet. The audience enjoyed your performance very much.

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!

Fritz Quartet at PricewaterhouseCoopers Event

21 June 2007

This evening, the Fritz Quartet was invited to perform at the Retirement Dinner of Mr Phillip Tan from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Important guests included CEOs from various companies as well as a member of parliament. This event was held at the Garden Suite of The Oriental Singapore.

Beautiful!

Angie from PWC had generously arranged dinner for us, so it meant that we had energy to play later on in the evening! Thanks Angie. We also got a private room to ourselves to have our dinner. And it had a marvellous view too.

We were engaged for 2 sets, with the first set consisting of mostly classical tunes such as Schubert's Marche Militaire and Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz. For the second set, we played largely Chinese oldies, as requested.

For this event, we roped in Zhangyi, a close friend of the quartet, to guest play with us. Meanwhile, Bingling, our 2nd violinist, decided that she wanted to play the viola during our set break.

We were all rather amused.

Response to our evening's performance was good, and we are glad that we had made a difference to the evening. A big thank you to Angie Chua from PricewaterhouseCoopers for being a marvellous organiser, as well as the staff from The Oriental for rendering assistance.

"we enjoyed the music and will look out for more opportunities to work together again" --Compliments from Angie

Birthday Party

2nd June

Today, the Fritz Quartet was invited to play for a private party held at the residence of Patrick and Linda Brookshaw. The theme for the night was "casual" which meant, YES!!!! JEANS!! for us!! We were welcomed warmly upon our arrival and we started our first set at 7.30pm. The neighbours and friends applauded after each song, and we enjoyed ourselves tremendously playing for the guests. We also found out that Patrick was a musician himself!

Mid-song, we got a request to play the birthday song. It was only then that we found out that it was Patrick's birthday!

Happy birthday Patrick!

Tze Chuan, Max and Johnny
still looking fresh after 2 sets

"will be using you lovely people again"- Patrick via sms

"Many thanks again for the excellent performance on Saturday evening . We thoroughly enjoyed it" - Linda via email

Random

Our cases

Apart from the curious stares we attract when people see us carrying our instruments in restaurants (and taking up space), we also get a fair share of attention when they see us on the train. In fact, en route to and fro rehearsals or performances, we have been stopped several times by concerned MRT staff, who are curious as to what our cases contain.

Especially Johnny.

We are friendly people though, so do say hi to us when you do spot us!

Anyway, we took a break from rehearsals on a Sunday night and met up for dinner, without our instruments.


From left: Wanyee (music arranger), Bing Ling, Johnny, Tze Chuan, Max

We also managed to get our hands on a live! recording of our performances at the Esplanade Concourse.

Finally, we are glad to announce that short clips of our performance at the Esplanade are up on our website.

Do check them out here.

29 May 2007

The Fritz Quartet was involved in a National Day videoshoot which took place at Connor Green at the Botanical Gardens. We had done photoshoots before, but not videoshoots, with a director yelling ACTION! so it was quite a novel experience.

We had a makeup artiste to assist us in our makeup, and she did a great job, as can be seen in the photos. Many joggers also stopped by to catch the filming in progress.

It was really hot and we were all baking under the afternoon heat. Of course, wearing black didn't help matters!

Max and Tze Chuan sharing a brief respite under the shade

waiting for instructions from the director

Tze Chuan and Bing Ling during a break.
(We caught the director on film! Hurrah!)

The flowergirls and boys were highly entertained by Max and his viola

We had to leave immediately after shooting wrapped up, so we didn't get a chance to mingle with the rest of the cast. Nevertheless it was an interesting experience for us! Thanks to Janelle from Full House Communications.

We took a cab to Tanglin Mall for dinner and it was such great relief to feel the cool breeze of the air-con from the shopping mall! We had just enough time to grab a quick bite before heading to our next event-- a private party hosted by Mr & Mrs Ab Meijer at their house.

It was again, an outdoor event, but thank goodness for the air-con that Mr Meijer kindly allowed out from his room!

the dinner setting prior to the arrival of guests

We played for 2 sets, and received kind compliments from the guests. Our attempt to leave quietly was thwarted when the guests applauded to show their appreciation as we wrapped up our last piece! Mr Meijer also informed us that he enjoyed our performance. Our thanks to Jasmine for coordinating the event.

It only occurred to us to take a photograph after we had kept all our instruments. But it is ok. We love our cases too.