World Harmonica Festival '97

on 15 - 19 Oct 97

at Trossingen, Germany

Diary of 16 Oct 97 (Thu)

We have the second practice session with the piano accompanist in the morning, again in the Conservatory.  The presentation of the test piece for the chromatic solo category starting at 1pm marks the beginning of the competition.  The competition is held in a smaller hall of the Konzerthaus.  The jury consists of James Hughes, Yasuo Watani, and of course the composer of the test piece, Paul Lewis.  This is the the first part of the chromatic solo category.  The second part is the presentation of  own choice piece tomorrow.  From the performance of the test piece, we unanimously agree that we have identified the top 3, and Ho Pak Cheong, our first treble harmonica player, is one of them.

After the competition, we dash back to the Lindensaal, just opposite to the Conservatory (alas, another 15-minute walk!), which is the venue for the trio and group category competition.  We want to get ourselves prepared for the sound effect of the venue.

The next highlight of the day is the concert starting at 8:15pm.  We have the harmonious combination of harmonica and guitar from Wolfsberger and Steinkogler, the pure sound of James Hughes, a rare performance of James Moody's divertimento for harmonica and string quartet by Yasuo Watani, and some nice duets between Hughes and Watani.  The concert is enjoyable, but we have to skip the second half (which is already 10:15pm) to better prepare for the 3 competitions - solo, trio and group categories tomorrow.