Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra at the National Theatre in Yangon.
Being total groupies - photo opp with some of the fantastic hip hop artists at the event on Saturday night!
First, I have to gush about how happy I am about surviving last week. It was rather stressful, as it was my first full week working as an assistant volleyball coach. I was a bit worried about the time commitment, since I will be practicing with them four days a week (including Saturday mornings). I am absolutely loving it so far. I think it helps that it is very different from my elementary music gig. I work with the girls on JV and Varsity, and it's been fun working with high school kids. They are on such a different level. It's also a nice perk that I get to travel with them to a tournament in Hong Kong at the end of next month too! :-) In addition to that, my usual workload, plus my first week in my new grad class, things were busy. Friday culminated in a half day for professional development. I actually presented to the secondary teachers and specialists. I was super nervous; presenting to a group of teachers is hard. We are a critical crowd. But I had a blast doing my presentation: It was a topic that I am particularly passionate about, the teachers engaged in AMAZING discussion, and I got lots of really encouraging feedback! I was over the moon - and completely exhausted - by Friday afternoon.
Screen shot of a shoutout from my secondary principal in his weekly newsletter update. Hopefully that means I did something right!
Friday night I had tickets (they were FREE!) to see the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. There was a major breakdown in communication and I had a bad experience with a cab driver, so I was a bit frazzled by the time I arrived at the National Theatre. Luckily, I made it in time to pick up my ticket and I had pretty great seat mates (the other music teacher, Katherine, and her partner, John). I settled in to my seat and got ready to enjoy the evening.
In the frazzled state I was in, I forgot to snap a picture of the front of the National Theatre. This was the best I could get on my way out of the concert.
Going up the steps to the main entrance
Inside - stairway up to the balcony
Headed to my seat - they had ushers and everything!
The seats were very good, especially considering they were free! (We're not going to count the very expensive taxi ride I took to get there.)
Beautiful decor on the balconies. Apparently they have done a lot of work recently to the inside of the theatre. I was told there was previously a "bat and bird situation" going on inside the theatre!
Ready for the concert to begin!
They serve a full concession stand here. It was very funny to me how many people were eating and drinking during the performance, much like a movie theatre.
These were the air conditioners (referred to here in Yangon as "air cons"). There were eight of them. For the entire theatre. I was a sweaty, sweaty mess by the end of the concert. But I am slowly starting to learn that the sweatier I get, the more fun I seem to be having.
According to the program notes and the emcees for the evening, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra is comprised of more than 90 musicians. They are currently on a 3-city tour in Myanmar as a symbol of friendship with the country. Yangon was the first stop, and then they were moving on to Mandalay and then the capital city of Naypyidaw. The Goethe Institute put this concert on, and I heard a great deal of chatter that this was the first time Yangon has seen a concert like this in... well, possibly ever. It was really exciting to be a part of it. When I accepted this teaching position, I knew I would be giving up a lot of things. One of the biggest things for me was the fact that I would not be able to see live music in any sort of capacity - classical, Broadway, or popular - while living here. Imagine my surprise when I got the email about this event! I must say, it was quite a different experience here. It is not surprising that the concert etiquette is different here than it is in the States.
Emcees for the event
As seen in the previous photo, people were eating a drinking a variety of rather interesting food and drink. There were also emcees for the event. They talked a LOT. The welcome message was over 30 minutes long! The woman spoke in English, and the man translated into Burmese, I believe. There were also other very important people from the Goethe Institute who spoke to the audience. The emcees were so very entertaining. They said things like, "The next round..." and "You will be entertained with..." They also came out between pieces and read the program to us. Overall, they probably lengthened the concert by almost an hour. I think a lot of Westerners in the audience were annoyed by it, but I found it endearing. (Also, I REALLY wanted to know if they were commentating for the cameras that were everywhere. Do you think they were saying things like, "Oh, look at the bowing in the second violins! Interesting choices"?)
The concert order was also changed from what was printed in the program, but I enjoyed every bit of it. The concert opened and closed with Myanmar and Thai traditional music that had been arranged for a Western orchestra, though they added quite a bit of local instruments to the percussion section. I absolutely adored the Myanmar and Thai traditional folk music. I noticed that many people in the audience were singing along. Apparently one part of the Myanmar music was commemorating the area called Bagan, which is full of ancient temples. I thought this was very fitting, considering much of Bagan was damaged in the earthquake that happened last week. The Thai music was called "Sathukarn", which is sacred ceremonial music to welcome sacred beings and spirit teachers to ceremonies. These pieces were arranged in Western textures and tone colors, but you could definitely hear the authentic sounds of the respective countries. I heard lots of audience members comment that it sounded like music from The King and I or Kung Fu Panda. I guess it depends on your cultural connections!
Sandwiched in between the traditional music was Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73 in E-flat Major, "Emperor." The pianist was a German man named Oliver Kern, and I love his interpretation. It still had the light feeling of classical music with enough Romantic flare (think rubato and dynamics) to keep it interesting, beautiful, and appropriate. He was also a great deal of fun to watch. He looked like he was enjoying himself.
Oliver Kern taking a bow with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor, Gudni A. Emilson
After the Beethoven concerto, there was an intermission. The emcees came out and spoke some more, but I was dying for water. I braved the crowd, which reminded me of scenes in movies filmed in the New York Stock Exchange. There wasn't really a queue system; it was every man and woman for themselves! That is somewhat typical around here though. By the time I managed to elbow my way to the front of the line, they were out of water. I would have paid so much money for a water at that point. But there was none to buy. My choices were "Burma" - an energy drink with a flame on the front - or Sprite. I chose the one that I didn't think would make my heart stop. I returned to my seat for the remainder of the concert. Many people left during intermission, probably because they were hot and it was getting late. The emcees came out and read more of the program to us, and then the orchestra played Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in e minor. The brass absolutely came ALIVE in this part of the program. Time really seemed to fly, and I felt much less uncomfortable in my seat. The conductor made beautiful musical choices, and the orchestra sounded really good. People clapped in between movements, but honestly, that happens in many U.S. concerts as well! There were phones ringing and people answering them, but overall I was completely thrilled with the cultural experience. Just when I thought the concert was over, the conductor came back out onstage. He was joined this time by eight beautiful women dressed in purple. They closed the concert with a final Myanmar traditional piece, and they added local percussionists and dancers. The drums sounded similar to talking drums, and the dancers did beautiful movements with their hand shapes and the rest of their bodies. It was so very satisfying to feed the artist within me, not matter how tired I was on a Friday night!
Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra and traditional Myanmar dancers, closing the concert in a beautiful way
Saturday was also very busy for me. I had volleyball practice with the team in the morning, and then I worked at a choir retreat all afternoon with the other music teacher. I was pretty exhausted by late afternoon, so when my friend asked me to accompany her to meet up with a friend-of-a-friend, I hesitated at first. I decided that I did need to eat dinner, so I would join them. I am so glad I did. We had such a random, interesting night! It turns out her friend was with a group of ex-pats at happy hour on a rooftop downtown. They all had very interesting stories. One guy was in business, another worked for the Myanmar Times, and all of them were very well-traveled. It's funny, because I used to think I was well-traveled. And the more people I meet here, the more I realize how much of the world I have yet to see. I have time though.
My friend's friend had dinner plans, but the other ex-pats invited us to join them at a Mexican restaurant. We decided to go because we were quite hungry. When we were leaving, they invited us to some sort of Burmese rap event at a different rooftop. We were so intrigued, we had to go check it out. When we got to the rooftop bar, they asked for 7,000 kyats (pronounced "chats" - the Myanmar currency). My knee-jerk reaction was filled with attitude because I don't pay to get into bars and clubs, but then I remembered that this was supposed to be some sort of special event. I looked at it as a ticket price (and really, it was only like $7 USD). I am so thrilled that we stayed. It was probably my favorite night I've had thus far in my adventure in Myanmar.
View of the stage
Dance floor in front of the stage, with a cool graffiti wall
View from the balconey on the other side of the dance floor - that's Shwedagon Pagoda, probably Yangon's most iconic pagoda. The picture does it absolutely no justice.
I couldn't get over this view!
Before the artists came on the stage, they had a well-known DJ spinning from Thailand. He played this amazing mix of house music and old school hip hop. When the event began, there were a variety of artists that came out and performed. I could obviously not understand any of it because it was all in Burmese, but it didn't matter. I couldn't stop dancing because the energy was AMAZING!
The German guy who rapped in Burmese
Three killer rappers from Myanmar - the guy in the center was wearing a Brooklyn shirt!
When the concert was over, the DJ spun more music. It was so much fun to hear such a variety of music in one night, let alone one weekend. My friend and I were total groupies and got a picture with the trio and the German guy (pictured at the top of this post). It was also really interesting because we met a ton of Western ex-pats. Yangon is a very international place. We met people from the UK and Northern Ireland, the States, Ukraine, France, Italy, and more. We bumped into a guy from Colombia that we had previously made friends with a trivia night. My friend bumped into someone that she used to know when she lived in Bangkok. Everyone seems to know everyone in this ex-pat community, and if they don't know you, they come talk to you. There were also a lot of interesting local Burmese people that I talked to as well. I love meeting new people and hearing about the different paths that brought them here. I am also falling in love with the views of Shwedagon. It reminds me of my time in New York City. I met so many interesting people in my time there, and I am fortunate enough to still be friends with many of them. Also, I lived in NYC for five years, and to this day, every time I see the Empire State Building I smile because it makes my heart happy. I think that's what Shwedagon will be for me here.
A dance-y, sweaty night obviously measures how much fun we had. And that pagoda...
Next weekend, weather permitting, I hope to explore that beautiful pagoda. I am so grateful for the memories I've already made and the experiences thus far. I also can't describe how happy I am that I had such an interesting musical weekend! Until next time friends... Ta ta! (way of saying "Goodbye" in Myanmar)
Love, love, love!
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