Musical Moments

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My dear blog subscribers, I want to take a moment to bring your attention to the musical adventures I've been having during this winter break and before. Few experiences fill me with more joy and contentment than performing, onstage or otherwise.

As you all know, I've been singing with the Harvard Opportunes, the College's oldest co-ed a cappella group. We had our fall jam shortly before the end of the semester, and our spring jam is scheduled for March 8th -- it's coming right up! Videos of the entire fall performance are available on YouTube, but, solipsistic as I am, I want to bring your attention to the two numbers on which I had solos:

The first is called "Up the Ladder to the Roof" -- it's our alumni song, meaning that all past members of the group come onstage when we sing this, and each new member is given a short solo. Mine is toward the end of the recording, which you can see by clicking here.

The second song, and my "main" solo for the year, is a pop medley we do every semester, called "Let the Music Play." The piece weaves together different Top 40 tunes, which are connected by a frame song, which I sang at our last concert. Click here to watch.

Back home, I've been thankful to return to the performance styles I grew up with, making music with my closest friends and family. I was thrilled when my good friend Woojin Kim asked me to sing with him at a coffeehouse event organized by his sister Paulin at Seoul Presbyterian Church in Burke. We had to pick our song the day of the event (no names were coming to mind) and joked about whether we could pull off a Justin Bieber song -- we decided on "Beauty and a Beat," adding our own signature mellow acoustic spin to it. Click here to listen!

And just last night, Priya and I finally sat down to record "Skinny Love" as sung by Birdy. Priya is a self-taught pianist, and always asks me for suggestions on what she should learn next. Naturally, I always gravitate towards songs on which I can sing with her, and so I suggested this Bon Iver tune soon after returning home from school. We recorded many takes last night, as I made blunder after blunder, and was vituperated smartly by my quiet perfectionist of a sister. We finally got it somewhat right -- I hope you'll click here and enjoy it.

I hope you'll have a listen, and I hope to have more to share soon. As always, thank you for reading!

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