Season's Greeting

Before I start,
I wish all of my friends and colleagues a merry Christmas, Chanukah, or any other holiday celebrations that you celebrate. I'm off to Arkansas with Ashlee to enjoy my Christmas in a good old southern home cooking with her family. Then at the end of January I will be flying to Jakarta to spend some time with my parents then to Japan to see my relatives. So happy holidays and a happy New Year!


Finally the year 2006 is coming to a close. I am happy to say that this year has gone quite well. I finally got a visa to stay in this country outside of being a student. I also got myself an agent, which entitled me to get this said visa to stay in the country. I made my international debut as the title role with Singapore Lyric Opera in their country premiere production of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" for the celebration of 250th anniversary of Mozart's death. This was totally an awesome production and also a great present to my parents, who got to come to Singapore to see the show, all three times. Along with them, many of their friends and also some of mine who we all have come in contact for the past decade and a half. After my return from the Singapore gig, I went straight back to my normal activity, absolutely NOTHING!!! No, not quite true. I got to do another production of "Figaro" in a concert with Chamber Opera Chicago and Northbrook Symphony. I feel that this one might be the last Figaro I will do for a while. One, I would like to try other roles that are out there, and also two, I think the role might be getting a little low. I would love to revisit this role again for this is my favorite role. After that, I had my rounds of auditions both here in Chicago and also in New York City.
I must say the audition trips are tough especially if you are out of town all the time. As I wrote in my previous blog entries, it sucks. It's tiring, takes time, costs A LOT of money, and of course you never know what you will actually get out of it. Fortunately for me, this time around the trip was fruitful for me. I have received an offer from an opera company. Not quite sure what yet but I guess I will find out as soon as they figure what their upcoming season will be in February. The fact that the Artistic Director himself wrote me to let me know that they want to offer me something means a lot. So early Christmas present to me!

Of course, not everything was all happy and cheerful.

Earlier this year, in February, my grandmother has passed away. She was perhaps my favorite along with her husband, my grandfather. Both on my mother's side(not that I didn't like my father's side but they were not very nice to my mother, I guess I didn't like them so much at the end), and I always loved to go and visit them. I was, unfortunately, not present at my grandfather's last moment here on Earth due to me living here in US and also some work schedule. My parents hid the detail from me so I will not worry, they end up hiding the fact from until a week has passed. So because of that, I wanted to know if anything happens to my grandmother.
My grandmother is a tough cookie, a real "Tokyo" girl. She never took any crap from anyone. I have not seen her for couple years until this past January. I knew she was sick and not quite well. She always joked around whenever I call her to cheer her up, she always asked me: "When are you coming home? You know I'm not around forever". It always broke my heart. Yet, I could never get back to Japan, due to my visa issue, work, or simply just not enough time to fly back. I knew my time was up to spend time with her. I decided to fly back this past January to pay her a visit, which was long overdue.
The trip, first of all, was solely me wanting to visit and spend as much time as possible with my grandmother. Of course it didn't go the way I wish it to be. I ended up giving a two, one-hour recitals at the hotel we were staying. Perhaps my grandmother can come to see me at work. Unfortunately, she did not feel well enough to come. I got to show her the video, you know us Asians, we love to video tape/take pictures of everything.
My stay in Japan was about 10 days. I got to spent almost everyday with my grandmother. She seems to be getting better as each day I spent there pass by. My aunt told me that once she knew that I was coming for sure, she felt better.

The last day of my visit she was giving me an envelope.
She was laying down because she was a bit tired.
I think she knew.
I think I knew...
Even then, I told her:
"I'm coming back in June to visit again so I can see you again"
She replied:
"I'm looking forward to it"

The envelope was filled with money. I couldn't accept it. She refused to take it back, she said she doesn't know how long she can do this. I thanked her. She was crying. I was definitely crying.

February I found out that she passed away. But not on my parents accord. I called to give them a great news, they thought that I heard of my grandmother's passing. The same day I found out that I was offered to sing Figaro with Singapore Lyric Opera, I found out that my grandmother passed away.

I still miss her very much.

I hate to be a downer, but looking back this year 2006, everything that happened to me meant something. Especially, this coming February I will be making my way out to Japan to celebrate my grandmother's first death anniversary. How time flies...
I don't usually write stuff like this but this was one of the important things that happened to me this year and I needed to get it out.

Happy Holidays to you all and all have a Happy New Year!

See you in 2007.

Teppei