How-Tung Family

Well, I guess we should say Happy New Year 2012 AND Happy New Year 2013 since we never got ourselves organized enough last December to send out holiday cards.  This year, however, not only are we actually going to send out our New Year's greetings before January 1st, we are integrating traditional (photo cards) and online (QR code & blog) media in recognition of Debby having just completed a course on social media strategy, an elective in her UMass Amherst Isenberg School of Management MBA program.  Ah, yes, MBA.  So much has happened in the past 24 months…  Where to begin?

***

Deborah (Debby/Deb) started 2011 with the discovery of The Bar Method and quickly become an addict.  Although incredbily painful, she has stuck with it and now often sports the requisite Lululemon attire, although mixed with her usual Old Navy garb.  In combination with weekly weight training (eight years and going strong) with her pesonal trainer and bodywork (Thai and/or deep tissue every Friday afternoon) with her masssage therapist, she now no longer requires any sleep and has not been sick for the past two years!  Which means, she has even more time and energy than before--scary.  

So, to prove that she doesn't need sleep, Debby has taken on several new projects on top of her full-time (40 students; private music studio) teaching schedule.  In June 2011, she had the pleasure of playing Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major with the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.  In August 2011, she came out of flute retirement and performed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with violinst Deborah Kim and pianist Rufus Choi in Beijing, China, with the chamber orchestra of the Two Cranes International Music Festival, where she was on faculty.  With great honor, she accepted a part-time position, which started in summer 2011, as one of seven Regional Leaders for the new Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program, where she now finds herself traveling, often several times per month, giving teacher information sessions, meeting with directors of community music schools, and attending music education conferences.

Ever committed to community service, Debby is also one of the co-founders (as well as treasurer and Certificate of Merit chair) of the new Santa Monica Bay (Conditional Charter) Branch of the Music Teachers' Association of California (MTAC Santa Monica Bay), established in June 2012.  She is still president of the Westside Music Foundation, a public benefit charity for music education, and is now treasurer of the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon (MPE-LA).  Debby is in her third year as a member of the Swarthmore College Alumni Council, where she has established a Student/Alumni/Faculty Composers Concert Series (www.swatmusicalums.org), with an event each fall and spring; she is also the Swarthmore College Los Angeles Alumni Connection chair.  She continues as state chair for both the MTAC Young Composers & Young Film Scorers Guild and the MTNA Composition Competition (CA), advocating composition and performance opportunities for young musicians.

Debby started the MBA program at the Isenberg School in the spring of 2012 to help prepare for the launch of an exciting new national project in music education built on a social media platform.  STAY TUNED!!!  She's hoping to go live in 2013!  Check out Debby's new Digital Biography with Active Links | Social Media Networks  and totally revamped www.musette.org website!  (If she doesn't get side-tracked, Debby hopes to graduate with her MBA in Summer 2014.)

***

Brian had a fairly eventful year at work at The Aerospace Corporation.  He continues to work on research projects on enterprise security and intrusion response, and also began leading an effort on developing a future systems architecture for the Air Force’s satellite control and communications network.  Work in this area involves a substantial amount of political and personal maneuvering in addition to the technical work, but Brian isn’t quite yet jaded enough to find it unrewarding.  What’s more, the weekly status reports give him considerable practice in talking about himself in the third person.

In his spare time, Brian still spends a fair amount of nighttime (and some daytime, too!) out under the stars.  In May, he ran an outreach at Kielor’s school, showing the kids and their parents the spectacle of a deep partial solar eclipse (it went over 80 percent deep in Santa Monica).  The clouds threatened to obscure the event all day, but they managed to stay away until after the Sun disappeared amongst the trees.  Two weeks later, he was at it again, showing everyone an even rarer event: the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun.  Brian handed out solar shades (special glasses permitting one to safely observe the Sun with the unaided eye) at each event, and they were a big hit!  Unfortunately, a small number of adults had to be turned away both times.  Alas!

Brian still plays some jazz too, mostly solo piano, but occasionally waylaying the odd musical acquaintance into joining him for an informal jam or two.  As always, Brian will spend a bit of time at the piano at the annual New Year’s Eve party—maybe we’ll see you then!  Click here for links to Brian's website, blog, and social media networks.

***

Kian is already well into the eleventh grade at Santa Monica High School, which seems hardly likely given that he was in the second grade only a couple of years ago.  Impressively, he has thrived in all of his classes, despite the dizzyingly crowded environment at Samohi (something he never fails to remind his parents about).  His favorite subject is French; he is now acing his second year of French, after a single year of Spanish in freshman year.  Word to the wise: You may not want to let on to Kian if you speak French, for you may well find yourself being a sounding board for the rest of the evening!

Even in mathematics, Kian's least favorite subject (cue groan from Brian), he’s still doing well in geometry, managing to keep his alternate interior angles straight from his side-angle-side congruency theorems.  In between his academic courses, he’s still shooting baskets in P.E., and this year, he’s begun taking drawing class, where they’ve focused on drawing scenes from nature.  (Mostly from magazine photos, in case you’re curious.)  Kian continues to take piano, and in his most recent recital, performed the Allemande from Bach’s E-Flat Major French Suite, and Chopin’s Mazurka in a minor.

***

Kielor turned ten this year, leaving the single digits behind for good.  Sometimes he seems excited about that mostly so he can stay up later on weekend evenings.  (He’s been informed that each year, he’s permitted to advance that time another five minutes.  At this rate, he should be able to stay up till midnight when he’s about 30.)  Of course, he’s managed to charm yet another year of teachers and assistants, which we suppose may be a useful skill in time.

Kielor began taking private violin lessons from his uncle (Debby’s brother Dan) last year, and this year has begun performing in not one but two orchestras: He plays viola in his elementary school orchestra, and second violin in an after-school orchestra.  Kielor just performed in his first concert as part of this latter orchestra, a holiday exhibition that we’re afraid rather played havoc with Debby’s sense of pitch, but was otherwise very well received.

Kielor continues taking kungfu lessons, up to three times a week now, and is now executing forms on his own, with a staff, and most recently—to his excitement and his parents’ consternation—a sword.  (Fortunately for all concerned, the blade is extraordinarily flimsy and is probably incapable of cutting a sandwich, let alone any of the students.)  Nonetheless, these lessons have taught Kielor a sense of discipline and restraint that has done him quite a bit of good, frankly.

***