Jessie Leov Music

nelson

I need your help!

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Hey all!

Been a while since I’ve been active on my website/facebook page! Many exciting things have been happening in my life. For one thing – I now study a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Music conjoint majoring in French and Music Composition respectively. It’s pretty full on but I love it. I’m nearly halfway through my third year of university now, and have two years to go after this one.

Buuuut the big news at the moment is…. I’m going to Las Vegas in October to attend and compete at the International Sweet Adelines Convention with the Greater Auckland Chorus! GAC are the 2014 NZ Women’s Barbershop Chorus Champions and we recently sung at the Aotea Centre in May in preparation for competing in America on the international stage. This is a huge deal for me – barbershop has been a big part of my life for a long time and I’m very excited to take it further and keep pursuing these new opportunities.DanChilds_1505020770

The trip to Las Vegas has been budgeted at $4000 minimum, and unfortunately I don’t have access to that amount of money, so some major fundraising activities are being put into action! I have applied for and received a $1000 grant from the University of Auckland from the Vice Chancellors Arts Support Fund so this is a fantastic contribution which I’m really thankful for!

The Nelson Bays Harmony Chorus – my ‘mother’ chorus who I was a part of from age 13 to 19 – are very kindly organising and hosting a fundraiser evening in Nelson on July 7th at The Boathouse called ‘Las Vegas Cafe’. I’ll be doing some solo performing there along with some other special guests. We’re hoping to get as many people there as possible – there’ll be dinner and dessert provided! A great evening for friends and family to catch up, have good food and be entertained. Here’s the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/360914837415387/.

Huge thank you to NBHC for all their support!

In addition to the evening event we have a fundraiser Give a Little page for people who would like to donate in this way: . Every dollar is SO much appreciated and helps me on my journey to the international stage!

I hope you’re all doing well – thanks so much for sticking around and reading about what’s been happening in my life at the moment!

You’ll hear from me again soon I hope :)

Jessie x

 

2014 has arrived!

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Hey everyone!

2014 has arrived! Well it arrived 2 months ago… I haven’t posted in a while!

Street Gig in Jan.
Street Gig in Jan.

I have had the most fantastic summer in Nelson – spent heaps of time with my family, and earned a significant amount of money doing gigs around the place! Pretty stoked about that – I should be able to get through this year without going broke! Hurrah.

I haven’t posted any new songs on my soundcloud for ages, lazy much?! But I’ve written a few songs which have some potential over the last couple months so they should make it up there sometime. Uni starts in a fortnight so I’ll start having songs up pretty regularly like last year. EXCITEMENT.

I’m flying back up to Auckland in a few days and moving into my flat! So excited to start the 2nd year of my music degree and to see all my friends again. Last year was incredible but I’m hoping to make this one even better.

So look out for some new songs being rolled out and some updates as I settle back in to the big city.

Anyway, hope y’all are having a great summer!

Jessie x

 

 

 

 

HOME!

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Hey everyone!

Hope life is going swell for you all. I’M HOME! Semester 1 is officially over and I am back in Nelson for 3 weeks. It was a really intense last few weeks of assessments and exams but I got through it pretty good. I did keys/backing vocals for 10 people at final performances! It was exhausting but just so ridiculously fun. My mind is constantly blown at how talented and amazing everyone is. Really inspiring! Check out my youtube channel for videos of my songs and a couple of my classmates: www.youtube.com/jessieleov. Here are the two songs that I performed (the first is a studio demo and the second is live):

Still waiting for heaps of my results from tests/exams from last semester! Oh the suspense. The only papers I’ve got them all back for are 184: Music Theory and 182: Instrumental (piano lessons) for which I got A+ overall for both. Yay :D

So far this break has consisted of me being lazy and spending a lot of time snuggling with my cat. Oh and practicing songs too of course :P So happy to be home. Even though it’s absolutely freezing. But I also am going to enjoy seeing all my uni friends again in a few weeks and getting back into classes! Blessed to be doing what I love with some really awesome people.

To say goodbye until next time, here’s an original I recorded for my end of semester creative portfolio:

Love you all, thanks for your love and support of my music!

Jessie x

PS. Song of the day: Little by Little by Radiohead from their 2011 album King of Limbs. Just can’t get over it. Obsessed (with all of their albums…. XD)

Radiohead - Little By Little

 

 

 

 

Beehive concert!

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I was recently invited to perform 2 original songs at the annual Play it Strange concert at the Beehive, along with 5 other young songwriters, after being placed in the top for their songwriting and cover competitions this year. Mum and I flew over and, despite the turbulent flights, we had a great time! There were some technical difficulties leading up to the concert but it all ended up going smoothly and I was really happy with my performance. Hoping to get a copy of the audio recording that was done of the show. Everyone who performed was so talented and amazing! Met some really cool people. Such a privilege to be able to perform there.

Got two private functions left to play at, a piano recital on Sunday and then a bit of a holiday from gigs for a while. I’m getting my new guitar soon though and hoping to do lots of busking! Also I’m playing in the Street Beat series in town outside ANZ on 24th January from 12:30-1:30pm so that will be great.

Mum booked our tickets to fly up to Auckland on 24th February to move me into my hall of residence. So crazy. We’re taking 4 checked ‘bags’ which will probably be two huge suitcases and my keyboard and my guitar. That should definitely be enough stuff to last me 5 weeks until I come down for Easter break, then I can bring some more stuff up. SO looking forward to studying music full time!

Anyway, hope you all have a marvellous Christmas and New Years! I will post again next year :D

Jess xx