Penang-based sand artist Bernice Wong is dwelling her goals.
She will likely be performing alongside the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) for The Carnival Of The Animals (Carnival) live performance at Panggung Sari, Istana Budaya tonight and tomorrow afternoon (3pm).
The 37-year-old Ipoh-born as soon as misplaced all her financial savings when she entered right into a shady take care of pals to open up a restaurant. In her lowest moments, as serendipity would have it, sand art turned her refuge.
And now, a decade since she found the art kind, Wong is delighted to be sharing the stage with a nationwide orchestra.
“I’m so excited and it’s my greatest honour to be part of the concert. I will be drawing different kinds of animals, following the flow of the orchestra. Each movement represents an animal,” says Wong, referring to the humorous 1886 musical suite of 14 actions by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.
“People might think that an orchestra performance is sometimes quite boring. This concert is completely the opposite of that. You wouldn’t even want to go for a toilet break,” she provides.
For the present, Wong says will likely be utilizing a specifically imported man-made sand, drawing the animals with simply her hand with none instruments.
Carnival’s conductor Nasran Nawi mentions that Wong’s involvement was “mooted to help illustrate the narrative of the different movements and animals depicted in Saint-Saens’ piece to add colour and life to the performance.”
“It will also introduce more people to the artistry of a Malaysian sand artist and the rare collaboration between orchestra and live visual art,” he provides.
Interestingly, this 12 months marks the 100-year anniversary of Carnival’s first public efficiency. It has since change into one among Saint-Saëns’s best-known works, performed in the unique model for 11 devices, or extra usually with the full string part.
From a stately march at the starting, heralding the arrival of the lion and a humorous double bass and piano part for the elephant to a xylophone motion referred to as Fossils that evokes the picture of dancing skeletons, Carnival proves to be a deal with for a household outing.
“The sounds of the instruments are exploited to perfection, painting the picture of the animals efficiently. It’s the shape of music that swoons everyone to their feet – the trilling birds, the swans gliding with an elegant swagger, the hopping kangaroos and so on.
“The composer also slips in the occasional musical pun to underline his point, for example, the tortoise slowly trundles off to Offenbach’s famous ‘can-can’,” provides Nasran.
Carnival will make use of a full strings part (violins, violas, cello & double bass) with single winds (clarinet & flute/piccolo) and percussionists and the second section will contain a full symphony orchestra arrange of 70 musicians.
Carnival is the NSO’s first live performance with a full capability. Since the begin of the pandemic, the orchestra has clocked in a number of digital performances and two dwell concert events in 2021 – Misha Omar’s Konsert Bersama Bintang, and Konsert Tanahairku.
Wong hopes that audiences, particularly the younger ones, will go away the live performance with a fond reminiscence.
“And this may also inspire them to be future stars or learn some new skills in future. Just like my husband Jefferado Jeffrey Chng. His father brought him to a magic show when he was eight, and that magic show inspired him to become a magician. Today, he is a full time magician.
“So who knows? Maybe some of the kids who attend this event might become future musicians, dancers or even sand artists,” concludes Wong.
More data here.