‘Twas the night before…

The Gold Medal preliminary rounds. Obviously there’s naught to be worried about, but I just wanna write here that I feel very happy that I’m no longer stressed about performing. Even tackling something as huge and challenging as Rach 2, I feel excited to play it.

Somehow, while practising for this competition, I’ve found out how to reach a relaxed state for myself. I know exactly how it feels like to be really relaxed, and let my fingers fly (see previous post) and I’m happy I can always have that as an anchor even when I momentarily blank or lose control.

I’m just so amazed that I’ve been able to learn this monstrous concerto and get it up to performance level in merely half a year–not to mention I only learned it on and off and only really had time to fully focus on it in the last month!

I guess this is just a gratitude post. I feel grateful I no longer feel nervous about performing, that I can now focus on really expressing what I want to express to my audience, and not have nerves or technical problems get in the way. Oh, they will get in the way, technical passages, but I just don’t see them as a massive problem, and it feels amazing to play, especially playing something as ecstatic as Rach 2.

So yeah, there you are. This is written the night before the prelims for the Gold Medal competition. Let’s hope all goes well and I enjoy my performance tomorrow.