Volume 4 / Chapter 140

TL: LightNovelCafe

[TN: These next two parts will be a bit longer 🙂 Enjoy!]

Two days after all of the auditions were over, the list of New York’s three music conservatories’ students who were to be attending the Austrian Salzburg Festival was posted.

With it, a detailed itinerary of the Salzburg Summer Festival came up.

Until May, they would have personal practice sessions with an advisor. In June, they would all meet to practice together. In July, prepare with the students of Mozarteum University.

The special team to perform in Salzburg was created, and Professor Roger Neill of Juilliard became the art director for the opera. Professor Roger Neill is a director in the field of operas and musicals.

“Won’t Figaro’s Wedding be the best?”

“Yes. It is the most loved opera in the world.”

The professors wanted to play the opera that is basically a symbol of Mozart. They looked at the art director as though asking his opinion. He turned his head a bit and started speaking.

“I was thinking about Magic Flute.”

“Magic Flute?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have a particular reason for it?”

“Because it is the shortest. Considering the ability of the students, shorter pieces will be better.”

Mozart’s 3 most famous operas, Figaro’s Wedding, Don Giovanni, and intermission Magic Flute are 229, 184, and 150 minutes. They selected Magic Flute just because it is the shortest.

“Jun, did you hear?”

Amelia was lying next to Jun Hyuk on the bed while touching his hair, when remembered something and suddenly sat upright.

“What?”

The Juilliard soprano in the role of the Queen of the Night. Laura something.”

“Huh? Isn’t she a prima donna?”

The most famous aria that Queen of the Night in the opera Magic Flute sings is ‘Hell’s vengeance boils in my heart’.

There is a rumor that in the whole world, there are only 3 people who can sing this aria. This is not true, but rather to mean that it is that hard to express the difficulty and beauty of the song.

First, the Queen of Night calls for the best sound, F6. In terms of transliteration, there are a lot of sopranos who can sing the Queen of the Night. However, there are not very many sopranos who can act out her inner art and hell of revenge. This is why a rumor spread that there are only 3 people in the world who can act out Queen of the Night.

However, Magic Flute’s main character and prima donna is not the Queen of the Night. The main character is her daughter, Pamina.

“Apparently they made Laura Queen of the Night because there wasn’t anyone else who could handle the role.”

“I see. But is that girl really that impressive?”

“Ah, you haven’t heard her sing yet.”

“All of the vocal parts practice at Juilliard. Why?”

“Goodness. Everyone’s making a fuss that she can hit a high F without issues.”

“Really? She can hit a high F naturally?”

Jun Hyuk sat up in surprise as well.

“Yeah. I heard from a vocalist friend that she can’t understand how Laura stayed nameless for so long. I think she’ll become a hot topic at Salzburg.”

“If this is all true, that’ll happen.”

“I was expecting your brilliant debut.”

Amelia pouted in regret.

“I already had a brilliant debut. I was even praised by critics. Ha ha.”

“The album is the only thing that’s brilliant. Can’t you do some interviews? What is that?”

Even though there are limitations to an on-the-spot jam, Stanley Clarke and Jun’s album received high praises from critics. There was particularly a lot of interest in a nameless pianist, so reporters from music publications came looking for Jun Hyuk at the school.

Jun Hyuk however, said that he would not take personal questions and that there is no need for interviews because all of the music is in the album.

Not a single line about Jun Hyuk was released in articles because of a rookie’s arrogant tone, and the news was only wallpapered with articles on Stanley Clarke.

“I think the point has come for you to have a management.”

“It’s okay. I have a lawyer.”

“That’s a legal custodian, not a management. You would have been a star already if you had an agency that took care of your press releases and private interviews.”

No matter how Amelia thought about it, it was a waste that he had lost such an opportunity.

“But is that Laura not going out for the Tchaikovsky Competition? Why not when she’s that good?”

“Because it’s only been 2 months since she started receiving a formal education. I’m sure she needs to train more to fit the scoring method.”

Regardless of how impressive a performance is, the person cannot go up to finals if there are a lot of factors to deduct points with. There are over 10 people who aim to enter the finals. It is just that they touch the judges in different ways, but it is difficult to distinguish between who is inferior and superior.

“Is that right? Then Amelia, you shouldn’t be spending your time with me either. He he.”

“Right? I have to go practice.”

Amelia flipped the bed sheets and ran out to the living room.

‘So she can handle Queen of the Night after just 2 months after entering school.’

Jun Hyuk anticipated meeting this young soprano, Laura. He wanted to see how amazing her vocals are.

“Jun, what are you doing? Can you help me?”

Jun Hyuk forgot about his thoughts on Laura Goldberg because of Amelia’s voice as she spoke coyly. He put on a t-shirt and pants, went out to the living room to sit in front of the piano, and spoke to Amelia in a low voice,

“But… Amelia. What do you think of putting some clothes on?”

***

Amelia and Danny received Jun Hyuk’s send off and got on a plane to Moscow, Russia.

The piano and violin sections of the Tchaikovsky Competition are held in Moscow, and the cello and vocals in St. Petersburg.

The competition starts with a preliminary assessment that filters through over 600 applicants from 70 countries to about 20 people per part. Amelia and Danny are good enough to pass this stage easily, but they were nervous.

In fact, the judges were ready to check off PASS for the two based on the brief history listed on their applications alone. What stood out the most to the judges were their song choices.

The preliminary examination is a song of the applicant’s choice, but they brought songs that not even the judges that have been in music for over 30 years recognized.

Amelia’s song is Etude for Piano No. 7 and Danny’s is Etude for Violin No. 13.

When their performances were over, the judges thought that the strongest contenders for 1st place in their respective sections had appeared. The songs are glitzy and elaborate as though they were meant to show off the players’ skills.

The judges checked the composer’s name again to see who had created such an elaborate song that lasted just 5 minutes, but it is a name that they are seeing for the first time.

Amelia and Danny had used the practice songs Jun Hyuk had written for them in their preliminary examination. It was their way of thanking him for his substantial lessons until now.

It is a risk to play a song that the judges do not know, but they did not think that they would be eliminated in the preliminaries because of the song selection. They never once thought that the songs fell behind in quality of the famous songs that other candidates would be performing.

Due to their song selection, the competition officer was busy looking up who composer Jun Hyuk Jang is.

There was also someone in the audience who flipped through the program pamphlet while laughing loudly.

“Ha ha. Jang Jun Hyuk, this rascal. He threw some weird piano song to me, but gift such great etudes to his friends?”

“Professor, is this someone you know?”

“Huh? Who? The pianist?”

“Ugh. I know the pianist too. She’s Amelia LaMarque, a strong contender for 1st place. I’m talking about the composer.”

“Yeah. I know him well. One day, he’ll flip the world around.”

Professor Jeon Hye Jin came to Moscow for her student, Han Ye Ji. She is a top student who she taught well. As soon as she heard Amelia’s piano that was tuned from Jun Hyuk’s practice song, she knew that her student would not have enough to overstep her.

“Ye Ji, what do you think? Do you think you’d be able to beat her?”

“Let me see. I think I’ll know once I get up on the stage.”

“Look at you. Seems you’re really prepared for this. You haven’t lost confidence after hearing that performance.”

Professor Jeon Hye Jin felt reassured when he saw her student smiling.