Heyo, And Excitement At Meeting You Guys! :)

Heyo everyone!

I've technically been here for a couple of months now but I've only posted three pieces and barely reviewed anything or properly introduced myself -- which explains this post. :)

I'm Singaporean, (half-Chinese, half-Indian by ethnicity, Christian by religious affiliation, though not in an orthodox way, and my first and second languages are English and Chinese respectively) and currently studying for an undergraduate law degree at the University of Cambridge. Which, unfortunatey, leaves me precious little time with which to indulge my million hobbies. :(

I've stopped formally studying the piano for 3 years now, but I still play very often and and still going through new pieces -- about 2 a month. I've just learnt Rachmaninoff's Em prelude, which is technically simple but such a gorgeous, gorgeous piece to play. My musical tastes are now (or so I'd like to self-flatteringly think, at least) fairly broad, though I started out very heavily leaning towards Chopin and Schumann. Favourite composers -- Bach (nearly everything), Prokofiev (Sonatas and the first 3 piano concertos), BEETHOVEN (God, those amazing piano concertos and late sonatas), Chopin (nearly everything, but especially the Ballades, Barcarolle, Sonatas and the Etudes), Liszt (Sonata in Bm, Annees de Pelerinage), Shostakovich (Preludes and Fugues -- also amazing), Stravinsky (the usual -- firebird, rite of spring), Scriabin (Etudes, Sonatas), Schumann (Piano Concerto, almost all of the miniature suites, and the Symphonic Etudes) and Brahms (again the damn Piano Concertos, along with the Paganini Variations and Ballades).

Basically: I like lots of stuff :). I make it a point to listen to as many recordings of these pieces as possible -- it stands to reason that you can't learn to compose when unless to look and listen to some truly fantastic and idiomatic pieces of piano literature. Or at least that's what I think.

On a random note, I also really like chess, Qchromodynamics, minerology, basketball, Dostoyevsky, Mccarthy, Pynchon, Plath, Ted Huges, and big swathes of literature in general. :) I was an all-science + English literature student up till (what I think you call) my 11th grade, before switching to History, Economics, Higher Literature, and Math in my 12th and 13th years. Partly because many friends I knew were attempting "the jump".This reflects my sad tendency to get rapidly interested in too many things at the same time.

I also used to (and still do) competitively debate in the WSDC/WUDC/BP format. It's fun, you meet nice people, and you can force people to listen to you talk! Teehee. I was once World #4 (and Singapore won the WSDC that year, which was probably the single sweetest moment of my life *mildly intoxicated smile*), but that's a thing of the past now, and university brings with it a veritable host of its own challenges.

I've only posted three pieces to the site thus far, but I've been delighted so far to get some really useful, often enlightening, and sometimes wholly unexpected feedback -- my most recent piece is the Prelude II, but that's been suffering a paucity of reviews, so I'd be hugely, hugely grateful if you guys could take some time to listen and review it, or even the Rhapsody-Ballade, which seems to suffer from an overcomplicated motivic structure. Also, sorry for the shameless scrabbling for reviews: that's what this site is good at, so I figure no-one will hold it against me.

Basically: please review and help me get better at this composing thing we all like to do!

Well, that's enough overexcited gibberish from me now -- I look forward to getting to know you guys. :)

Cheers,

Ashish Xiangyi Kumar

Link to preludes: http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/1606/prelude-ii-or-old-green-lake-one-of-a-pair-see-prelude-i/

Link to rhapsody-ballade: http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/519/rhapsodyballade-i/

Well, welcome.

I would say: wield your rhetorics reviewing the work of others. That is the coin by which you pay for the goodwill in order to receive reviews on your work :)

A warm, yet belated welcome...

That's a great rule of thumb: the more interest you show in others' works, the more interest they'll show in yours.

Enjoy your stay...!