After listening to each piece of the China Festival at Carnegie Hall, I came to the conclusion that the first composition was my favorite. The pianist was not only skilled but visually seemed to be in deep concentration resulting from the object of his affection: the musical keys.  At first, the music by the composer Chen Qigang began with a slow tempo. It then moved onto a very quick, almost violent and eerie beat. Occasionally, the pianists would apparently bang the keys and then juxtapose such aggression with a smooth rising of tempos.

I am noticing a trend that occurs with almost every event that we have been on with IDC. At first I do not really know what to expect, but I never expect the museums or people to be as interesting as they actually are. They are incredible. The International Center of Photography, the Metropolitan Museum, Thomas Neff (at the meet the artist common event), Fall for Dance, Snapshot Photo Day, and now Jeremy Geffen and the Chinese Festival at Carnegie Hall not only exceeded my expectations, but also blew my mind!

Each of the five acts at the Chinese Music Festival at Carnegie Hall was unique and entertaining. The first act, the man who played piano, set the tone for the rest of the concert. At first the music was simultaneously slow and upbeat. These two sounds seemed contradicting and at first I cringed, as the two sounds caused dissonance. But then I realized that the two opposing sounds kind of worked with each other and formed a type of music I was not used to hearing. His piece soon became light and fast and reminded me of a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

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Jeremy Geffen

Jeremy Geffen has one of the most amazing jobs in the world. He handpicks which performances will be shown at Carnegie Hall. He has probably seem hundreds of performances on stage, and even more while scouting out which ones he will choose. I learned a lot through meeting with him.

The snapshot photo day assignment was a very cool idea. All of the Macaualy students are unified on October 11^th because every person takes a photograph of his neighborhood on the same day. The twist that Professor Bergman added was also interesting.