Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name is Brendon Cho. I am the principal sponsor and a friend of these four young talented and good looking musicians in front of you.

First and foremost, thank you very much for coming to tonight’s concert. Considering tomorrow is Monday which many of us probably are not looking forward to, I really appreciate your time and effort of being here tonight to congratulate the first concert of MIE.

I would like to share how I decided to be a part of this new venture. In early May 2014, the cellist HyungSuk contacted me via Facebook because he wanted to discuss about forming a string quartet in Sydney. I did research on him – graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in New York with a full scholarship, he has achieved significantly more than any ordinary 23 years old man could, and every note his plays has a soul. However, I was not convinced because what if this is just another man with a fancy credential who talks a lot but delivers nothing or little.

However he proved me wrong. One day he told me that he was going to look for a venue for the 1st concert – he traveled from Redfern to Town Hall on foot, while carrying his cello on his back, the whole journey took 6 hours. I believe that a man who understands the value of perseverance can achieve anything. Hence I decided to take a part of this new venture.

I also did research on James, Carl and Arne. For James, he looks calm and quiet like a breeze but when he plays Mendelssohn violin concerto, his music is powerful enough to force an early retirement of Anne-Sophie Mutter and Gil Shaham. Both of them will playing in Sydney with Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2015, if I were them, I would be worried.

For Carl, if he does not hold his viola, I would mistakenly recognize him as either an Australian SAS trooper or a Hugo Boss model. Carl is a fellow of 2014 Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship and he also may force an early retirement of Roger Benedict. I am relieved that he is not here with us tonight)

For Arne, I decided to gamble. If I find a video on YouTube that he plays my favourite Dvorak Violin Concerto, it is our destiny. Undoubtedly the first video I found was Dvorak Violin Concerto, I believed in love at first sight.

I would like to conclude my opening speech with a serious note. There are 3 essential ingredients of a chamber music that I learnt

1. Harmony with balance,
2. Collaboration with intimacy,
3. Articulation with precision

You will find them all here tonight.

I promise you that you will find tonight’s concert is one of the most exhilarating, energizing, and invigorating concerts that you ever been in 2014.

Once again thank you very much for coming tonight and please give them another warm welcome to these talented musicians.