Of stage fright, the concert and the photos

I could feel my body heaved a huge sigh of relief this morning as I woke up with coarse voice, itchy throat and phlegmy cough, today. The morning after the concert.

So, we survived our first concert at one of the best-looking galleries in KL, Wei Ling Gallery.

Whye Mun and I went from picking a date for the event to finalising the repertoire to finally performing to a rather full audience at the gallery last night.

I must say I had one of my most unforgettable stage fright attack before the performance for this one, not wanting to say that it's my worst...wanting a more positive-sounding tone. But one thing though, I couldn't be more positive than this -- for wanting to do more of this nerve-wrecking exercise even though this felt like a near-death experience.

My repertoire wasn't that intimidating for this concert but I found myself nearly couldn't stop living my fear during my every free minute, for close to a month. Whye Mun and I shared this emotion together and I think it did us both good. There was nothing we could quite do to control the phobia, I tried the best I could to focus on the music instead giving too much air time to the fear.

So I spent the one month rehearsing the lines in my bathroom, reading dictionaries, watching myself in the mirror while I mouth my lines in German/French/Italian, talking to friends about the freaking phobia and staying awake at night in my bed thinking about it.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the concert, on J's NIKON D70s, taken by none other than J himself, much love :)

Joseph Leow accompanied us on keyboard
before show...."If you are afraid to make eye contact, focus on that point over there, or over There..." the teacher's tip

Introducing a song...
View from the other room in the gallery

Whye Mun sings the blues (O mio babbino caro)

"I want to be a prima donna Donna DONNA!"

Thank you :)

Curtain call..

yay, show over! Cheers to all the work...

After the show some of us posed sillily for the camera, three of us reprised the `Three Little *itches' concert (Nic, myself and Zal)

Joseph tryin to get out of posing as agent 007

The shoulder-smothers

My contribution to the works of organising the concert -- getting us the most dedicated front house gal, Zal...and she brought her gal, Erin who refused to be my back-up dancer for the night...so she smiled n waved shyly from audience instead :)

The Vocal Talents Music company, from left - Cha Seng Tiang (VTM Principal and our vocal coach), myself, Whey Mun, Eric Keoh (VTM partner) and Lianah, VTM manager and Mrs Cha

The gallery showcasing Ivan Lam's work...I like

Eighty percent of the concert proceeds went to SPCA while half of my share of the concert proceedings went to the Independent Pet Rescuers, Nicole Thomas will be using the cash to house more strays, spay more canines and feed more cats.

Till the next one, here's to more stage fright blues and the fight against it, fellow performers of the world....

Thank you friends, for coming to listen to us. We loved it...and whether you like or not, we won't stop singing :)