September 28, 2019 - The Concert

So we arrived. A quick dress rehearsal went eerily well. Claire and I had worked out the program order, and we were ready to go. Sometimes last-minuteness keeps everyone on their toes, and adds to the thrill.

The Indonesian restaurant down the street, Kasih, donated the most delicious food for all the musicians. (This was my favorite restaurant in all of LA, now closed.) Jonathan Sacdalan is always the one who says the most gracious thank you whenever we bring in food. Ivy Duong, a volunteer at the LEAP gala, was doing all the last minute loose ends that I forgot -- like picking up posters and alphabetizing tickets. My mom and dad had spent the afternoon folding programs.

(A funny note about my parents. I always tell them to fold a certain number because they like to help. They always fold 1/3 the amount I tell them, and that ends up being enough. They don't get that I believe if they would fold the full amount, we would have a full house.)

Nancy led the summer LEAP fellows she bought tickets for, help with set up and tear down and transition to the after party. And my friends Jonathan and Nitya, who usually help me clean up, were instead tasked with leading the audience to the reception venue, and I realized I was short two pairs of hands post concert.

A stack of programs for the Inception concert.

We had a very legit plan that included a pre-show.

7:00 pm - Panel. Kevork Andonian, who was not playing the concert, was in the audience, and joined as the representative mentor spontaneously. This turned out to be a really good idea for the students because they were able to shake out their nerves.

Akira leads a panel discussion on stage with Kevork, Jayleen, Chris, and Luis. Everyone is dressed formally.

7:30 pm - Molina and Caroline play a 15 minute set of Flamenco guitar. They kick Adrian, Thwe, and Kristen off the stage while they were setting up cameras, which is why we only have one angle of footage.

Molina and Caroline rehearse their Flamenco guitar piece backstage.

7:45 - Terence Young was scheduled to play a 15 minute set. Tom Hiel joined him. Of course we weren't ready to go at 8:00, so they ended up doing close to a 30 minute playlist.

Tom Hiel plays piano for electric cellist Terence Young at the Inception pre-show.

8:15ish - Downbeat. Christopher Lee kicks us off with his "Tower of Babel"

Christopher plays piano with violinst Emer, cellist Jeness, and clarinetist Jonathan to his left as they perform "Tower of Babel"

Here is the video. It's in 360 thanks to Adrian Zaw and Zaw studios, so look all around with your mouse. About half way in, additional photos are posted over the darkened audience.

Christopher stands at the piano to take a bow.

Luis went second, conducting his composition, "JN".

Luis, wearing a grey suit, conducts his piece, "JN".

Here is the 360 video. Down is closer to down.

To break it up, Jeness, Emer, and Tommy led the three kids in their improv performance. Luis had snuck in on piano during rehearsal, and Jeness thought it was Tommy. Proof that the students are hungry and advice rubs off.

Emer, Jeness, Christopher, Luis, and Jayleen are on stage with their instruments, doing the concert improvisation.

Here is their beautiful improv. Look around the 360 video.

Tom Hiel wrote a piece entitled "Inception" for the kids to improv to with him and Terence Young.

And finally, to round out the first half, the piece Jayleen Montoya and I worked on, "Secret Identity".

This one featured the full complement of musicians including students. Tiny little mishap, the second theme was missed toward the beginning, so there's a little bit of a hole where some music should be. One of these days I will dub it in.

Molina and Caroline watch as Christopher and Jayleen stand with their guitars to take a bow.

It was a hit. At intermission, some of my close friends told me they knew I worked on "Secret Identity" because of the style. No comment.

SECOND HALF

Audience member Jeu Foon hold a guitar on stage, unaware that we are about to switch him to a ukelele.

We started the second half drawing volunteers out of the audience. Jeu Foon, Michael Gasparik (Jay and Luis' music teacher), my friend Matt Peteson (drafted), and a potential student. We started them with their instruments - guitars, bass, piano, and drums. But just as the downbeat was supposed to hit, we cut them off. The kids came out with replacement instruments: a ukelele, a slide whistle, a water bottle and a couple others. Jeu (above) protested. Before we started, the rule was, you had to play a cohesive song, but could not play the instrument you were handed traditionally. The most memorable moment was Matt taking the Sparkletts jug and slamming it repeatedly on the piano bench next to him to keep the beat.

My Selfish Moment

I wanted to play something with Jeness by ourselves. So we sat down and did an improv. We had barely played together except for mapping out the first note and what key. It was magic for me, and I felt like I deserved it.

Akira at the piano performing the improvisation with Jeness Johnson on cello.

Molina, Caroline, and Luis.

I'm really glad this number made it on the program and the artists took the concept we were envisioning. Luis started with a melody and Molina and Caroline dazzled with Flamenco guitar number based on his motif. They went way over their time allotment, and I had to come on stage to cut them off.

And so we get to "Pictures at an Exhibition".

For whatever reason, there is no audio or video recording. So, just a quick couple anecdotes. Ben told me to play all the way through instead of dropping out here and there, so I did. Luis couldn't find the downbeat on the church bells. I missed the exact same section of the "Great Gate of Kiev" that I did in recital in 2012.

After the show, Ben come up to me all smiles and so happy that we did it. He also complimented my playing. (In fairness, I did not really go for it full out until the concert.). Lori Lee, Christopher's mom, also said, "I knew that you played, but not that you played like that." Very flattering.

A fun follow up note. In December, as I was soliciting mentors for the next cohort. Ben invited me to coffee to tell me that for the next show, I needed to hire a real conductor. So when I was going to hire him again, my email subject was "Real Conductor This Time".

The show finished with a version of "Twinkle" improvised by everyone. Though I'm sure that not everyone knew what key it was in. It ended on "Chopsticks", how I like to start each of my shows.

Huge after party where potential donors were supposed to show up. It was largely just an after party with no donors, but a huge spread. And what we had accomplished here was transitioning from "just a concept" that I was talking about without doing anything to real music accomplishing a lot.

Let's face it, if I heard there was going to be a concert with high school kids' pieces being performed, I would buy a ticket, but not attend. But enough people went, and the Inception word was out.