Our First Little Recital!

Hello everyone!

Last weekend, I had such a proud mama moment!  My Boston students had their first recital, and my goodness! cue all the emotions.

I never imagined that I would love teaching so much, but during the past six years or so, teaching has grown into one of my biggest passions.  I love everything about it; getting to know the students and the parents, figuring out different ways to approach different subjects for each student, working out how to solve road blocks in their learning process, and seeing them grow both artistically and personally.  It's truly one of the most rewarding experiences.

I feel so lucky to have so many wonderful students (and their parents!) here in Boston, and together with MaeLynn's studio, we had an exciting recital day full of fun music and wonderful companionship!

We were also lucky to have such a sensitive pianist, Daniel, who was there to play with our students! It's not easy following the students' interpretations sometimes (which can be rather surprising at times), but he did amazingly!  =)

All of our students played so beautifully! We had a variety of range in levels, and they all did their best, and we were so proud!!

We were also joined by a wonderful singer, who is one of my students' sister, and it was so fun to have variety during the recital!

We ended the recital with a little Bach Double action!

With all of the students and teachers!

haha this photo really captures the experience -- sweet, funny, a little distracted..  and never a boring moment!

Everyone brought refreshments to share afterwards, and we had a wonderful time chatting and getting to know all of the friends and family!

I feel so blessed to have such talented and wonderful students. Every single one of them has such good hearts that even when they don't practice sometimes (ahem..), I look forward to every lesson with them  =)

I'm so excited that for the first time in my  life, I am planning on being in one place for more than a few years!  I'm excited to hopefully work with all of these students long term and to see all of them grow!

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

Photo Cred: my wonderful fiancee -David  =)

Last Week of Classes at Rice!

Hello everyone!

I am officially done with my Master's degree!!  No more school until... this fall!  haha 

While I am super excited to be attending Boston University this fall for my doctorate degree, there is so much that I am going to miss about Rice.  Of course, the amazingly talented peers and wonderful teachers I've had the chance to work with here, the incredible symphony that I got to play with these two years, the beautiful campus, the friendships, dancing...  but I want to discuss them one at a time in reverse chronological order.

The most recent thing that happened (on Friday) that I am going to miss, is the Shepherd Symphony. I am still in awe of the last symphony concert in which we played Don Juan, Dvorak Cello Concerto, and Daphnis and Chloe suites 1 and 2.  I mean.  Wow.  What a concert that was.  Really, I have never played in a better symphony orchestra, and now that it's over, it's finally sinking in just how lucky I have been these two years to play in such an incredible ensemble.

Right before that concert took place on Friday, I took this picture on my way home from the dress rehearsal for that concert.  That rehearsal was the last class of my Master's degree, and I was getting a bit sentimental as I walked home for the last time...  I am going to miss this pretty school of mine  =)  I haven't been to the BU campus (only the music building) but I'm not sure that it can top this beauuutifulness of Rice University  =p  I mean, Just look at this scenery.  and it's just a little strip of walkway that leads to my apartment!  other parts of Rice are much more beautiful that this  =)

Another thing I'm going to miss a lot is our studio!  Mr. Lin's studio 2013-2014.  What a special studio we've had  =)  It was a pretty small studio (only 9 of us!) so we've enjoyed countless random talks that all of a sudden became our 'Mr. Lin's studio class' or 'Mr. Lin's studio therapy session'.  I mean, when you have 4-5 people from the same studio talking (which makes it more than half of our studio), it automatically becomes Mr. Lin's studio something or other.  And of course, Mr. Lin himself.  I have seriously never worked or been stressed out so much about violin in my life, but probably because of that fact, I have learned and improved so much during my time here.  =)

On Tuesday, we had our final studio recital, and more importantly, our studio party!  Everyone played beautifully at the recital, but let's be real, we were all ready for the party, especially after that 2.25 hours-long recital.  I think it broke the record as the longest studio recital ever?  but it was all worth it because we got to Mr. Lin's house for the party and were greeted with this amazingness. 

Thank you so much Mrs. Lin for cooking up this amazingness for us.  every single thing on that plate tasted even better than how incredible it looks.  And all of us went back for seconds.  and maybe thirds..

And then we just talked (until almost midnight!) and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company..

some cuddle time with two furry, four legged creatures also helped!  In heaven.  yup.

our studio picture!!!

What a great night!  Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Lin for being so generous, opening up your home to us, and feeding us sooo much food!  =)

Another thing I'm going to miss a lot is of course, my roomy, Amulet  =)  and going on double dates together with our guys, Chris and David!

We can always count on Amulet and Chris to drag us homebodies out and introduce us to new restaurants!  Here we are trying Banana Leaf, a Malaysian restaurant, together  =)  It was quite good, and we would highly recommend it, especially if you have the Groupon!

And whenever we are in that shopping center, we always go for some shaved ice!  This time it was peanut butter flavored shave ice with some brownies and banana chunks!

and yup, it disappeared in a blink of an eye... so yummy!

and last but not least!!!  my guy.  of course I'm going to miss this one, how could I not?  especially when he has a rose (that he bought for me for our dance routine) in his mouth  ;)

it's going to be a long year of long distance-ing, but I'm just not going to think about that until the fall because we have an epic Asia tour planned for the summer!  We are going to be visiting our families in Korea and Taiwan as soon as I graduate, and I cannot wait!! it's going to be sooo much fun  =D

so it's been incredible 2 years Rice!  Thanks for everything, and I will treasure all of the experiences, lessons, and relationships I have been blessed with here for many, many years to come  =)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

--Janny

Birthday Surprise for Mr. Lin!

Hello everyone,

Today is Mr. Lin's birthday!!!  Last year, we planned a pretty elaborate surprise for him (elaborate because there were more people in the studio and required more coordinating), and I think we about gave him a heart attack!  We didn't get to do the whole shebang of decorating the door and inside of his studio this time around (but there are still some decorations left over from last year that he keeps around year around haha), but we did get most of our studio together and surprise him when he got to school  =)  

He was definitely surprised, hopefully pleasantly so, and this is what we had waiting for him!

It was a baseball themed 'party' this year because he's always talking about baseball during our lessons, so we assumed he really enjoys it  ;)  haha  we had a baseball card, a baseball cupcake, a pencil sharpener that says 'Mr. Lin's' written on it, and a jar of pencils that has 'Stolen from Cho Liang Lin' engraved on them.  

It was really fun to get the whole studio together to surprise him on his birthday, and though he says he's not going to schedule lessons on his birthday from now on, we think he enjoyed it  ;)

Happy Birthday Mr. Lin!  

Thank you so much for always pushing us to be our best, and expecting us to do what we at first think to be impossible.  It's been tough at times trying to live up to his expectations, and also trying learn to have the same kind of expectations for myself, but I really feel like I've grown a lot during these two-ish years  =)

If you see him today, please wish him the happiest of birthdays!

--Janny

Mr. Lin's Studio::Annual Peking Duck Studio Dinner!

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  

For those of us in Mr. Lin's Studio, last weekend was the highly anticipated Peking Duck Studio Dinner outing!  It's an annual thing in our studio where we go to Peking Cuisine, take over an entire room, and order an exorbitant amount of food. (check out our last year's one here)  I believe we had something like 3 ducks, 2 gigantic bowls of stew, and probably 20 other amazingly delicious dishes that I can't name because I'm not Chinese...

It's a night when we all get to meet the new additions to our studio, hang out with Mr. Lin and his family, and generally work our way into a food coma.  The best way to spend an evening, if you ask me!

It's a pretty small studio this year (9 students!) with only 2 new incoming students, so I'm excited to do more things as a studio this year!  Planning things with 9 people has got to be easier than with 14 or so people, right?  =D

Anyway, here's Mr. Lin's studio 2013-2014!

Oh, plus Lara, Mr. Lin's daughter, and Tina, one of his former students  =)

Thanks Mr. Lin for the amazing dinner!

and thank you for stopping by! have a wonderful rest of the week!
--Janny

Last week of school!

Hello everyone!

Why is it that when you are so close, it's the hardest to keep chugging along to the finish line?

I have only 1.5 days of school remaining, but I'm not quite certain that I will be able to make it to the end   haha

Here I am, supposed to be finishing up my thesis that is due tomorrow at 5 pm,

about to go to a dress rehearsal for the final orchestra concert in a couple of hours,

and then perform at the final orchestra concert tonight,

then dress rehearsal of sorts for the ballroom competition happening on Saturday...

so I need to finish this paper! but it just refuses to be written!

It's been a curiously rough week;

I mean, by the way my calendar looks, it shouldn't have been that rough,

but boy, it definitely was.

I'm actually not even sure why...  it just really was.

I'm sleep deprived, stressed, and ready to just go to sleep even though it's only 2 pm.

I think that perhaps it has to do with the fact that psychologically,

I was checked out by Tuesday night.

It definitely felt like it should have been the end of the semester because Mr. Lin's studio party was Tuesday night!

It was such a great night full of amazing food, company, and much laughter.

with these beautiful ladies of our studio  ;)

and cute lap puppy!!  named Pop-C!

 It was so great to be all together as a studio,

meet some of his former students,

and just hang out together.

It was also really fun to see Mr. Lin so chill and cracking jokes all night

--definitely different than our lessons   haha--

But the problem, of course, was the fact that it was only Tuesday night when the party ended,

and we had rest of the week to deal with,

even though we were mentally finished with this school year by the end of this party...

Le sigh...

but! the finish line is sooo close, and I must cross it!

so back to the thesis I go...

I.. love.. Bach..  I.. love.. Bach...

I hope you are all having a productive day today!!

--Janny

Mr. Cho-Liang Lin's Studio:: 2012-2013!

Hello everyone!

I introduce you to Mr. Cho-Liang Lin's Studio at Rice this year!!

Here we are, enjoying a whole lot of Peking Duck as a studio,

and trying to smile through the food coma.. 

I mean, look at this beautiful table;

still full of amazing food after we have had at it for the whole evening...

 So from the top left, we have Philip and Zoe, the babies of the studio (undergrads)   =)

then Jennifer, Eric, Andy, me, Lijia, and MR. LIN!!

in the front row, we have Eun-Mi, Yi, Lisa, her husband Daniel, Miran, and Rieho.

so, a funny story about Rieho and I;

we actually met when we were like 13 at a music festival in Colorado!

people say that the music world is tiny all the time, but it's one of those things you never really think a lot about until you end up in the same studio as a camp mate from your childhood! =D

It's going to be such a great year, and I can't wait to get to know everyone in our studio much better over the course of this year!!

Happy weekend everyone!

--Janny