I guess that most families have an occupation that most of the family go into. For example, my uncle Jim is an architect, as is his eldest son, and his brother and wife (ok, the last two stretch the point in being landscape architects - but close enough).
And those of you who have suffered my company for long enough to learn about my family will know that I am unique in not being an academic (ok - so my elder brother isn't actually employed in a university, but he does have a PhD from Cambridge). Mind you, with an alphabet soup expanding to MEng (Hons) CEng MICE MIEAust, I don't feel all that left out when it comes to letters after my name.
Another such family would be the Lim family, whose Generation Y has returned (with one exception) from various music degrees in various corners of the world. The Dodgess and I are unaware of a GYL who hasn't followed in the evergreen Lim Yau's (father to two of GYL) in becoming a professional musician. Even their spouses or boy/girl friends are musicians. And they are all distinctly on the over-achieving side.
Lim Chun, for example, is a violist. His CV includes the viola solo for Strauss' Don Quixote - the cellist - a Yo Yo Ma - you may have heard of him. Lim Yan is a pianist whose ability is enough to play all the Beethoven concertos, spread over 3 concerts in 3 days (I'll let you know how it goes next year). Veda Lin was appointed Principal Oboe of an orchestra in Madeira, Sub-Principal for one in Kuala Lumpur, and a guest of one in Germany. As I said, on the over-achieving side.
GYL decided to put on a reunion concert last month - it was so popular they sold the Esplanade Recital Studio out twice. And they followed up with a Mozart Recital last night.
The fact I preferred the reunion is more a reflection of the quality of that night, and that there was more variety of music. Lim Yan and his wife fought over a piano in Poulenc's Sonata for Four Hands - probably one of the (deliberately) funniest performances ever. At the Mozart they played another 4 hand sonata, and whilst the music was good, I was more taken with the contrast between the couple's styles - she was very prim and proper, a perfect posture, with her back a text book S, and not a hair out of place. He was kind of slumped over the piano, and is the kind of gent who buy black trainers to avoid the awkward situation of having forgotten his black shoes for a concert.
Similarly Veda Lin's oboe playing. In the reunion there was a startling piece of Jazz (introduced in the programme as a 'rare opportunity for oboeists to feel extra cool'). A revelatory piece in every way. In the Mozart, whilst the playing was as dignified controlled as ever, it was somehow restrained.
And the Mozart didn't have the contrast - the Reunion also featured some Bach, with programme notes that are perhaps only trumped by the Dodgess' own notes in their love of musicology. The Mozart had two pieces by Beethoven, but whilst a nice performance, it wasn't played with quite the same smile as Beethoven's Eyeglass Duet in the Reunion.
I have at times heard it said by families who do things together that the remarkable thing is not so much the quality, but the fact that they still do things together at all. With the GYL, the same is true - with such quality, their talents are in demand all around the world. Yet they choose to do things together here in Singapore; they choose to play in their father's (or uncle's) orchestra, put on concerts such as last night's Mozart and last month's reunion, and in doing so, vastly improve the musical life of the likes of me!
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