So... This post has been a long time coming. I've been super busy (kind of) since my last post so I promise you that I've not just been lazy!
On the 8th of September I attended a conducting masterclass held by Christopher Seaman, an internationally renowned conductor and the Course Director of Symphony Services International's Conductor Development Program. It was held at ABC's Studio 620 in East Perth, and alongside a small audience and a group of eight up-and-coming Perth conductors of varying experience, we were treated to a wonderfully insightful afternoon. Christopher was super engaging and rather humorous throughout the masterclass, offering a ton of knowledge to everyone in the room. He ran through the basic conducting techniques; how to show a strong upbeat, conducting in 2, 3, and 4, and on to more complex uneven time signatures such as 5/8, 7/8 and 11/8, and the difference between a legato and staccato downbeat. He mused about his early musical life, and briefly discussed his view on professionalism and performance etiquette.
Christopher talked about his view and experience with 'musical intent'. To quote him: "As a musician, you have to be confident with what you want, but also tolerant of what others want". This definitely struck a chord (hah pun!) with me. He said it was important to realise your own direction and intentions and to be completely certain of yourself. Some others may agree with you while others won't, but you must be able to respect and support theirs views too, if they are to do the same for you.
On the same day (September 8th), I played at The Bakery for Club Zho 111 as a part of WALO. In my last post I mentioned that I had my fingers crossed for smooth network connectivity on the night, well... turns out I should have also had my toes crossed too. When it came time to perform we had numerous connectivity and audio errors, meaning about 15 minutes of opening the Max patch, setting the patch, starting it, having the scrolling score and/or audio not work, stopping the patch, closing it, and repeating. This was a completely harrowing experience, and I'm sure everybody in my group considered calling the whole thing off at least once, but we persevered. Ironically though, after managing to get everything working and progressing our way through the piece, Player One (aka Ben Christiansen) accidentally pressed 'restart' only 30 seconds from the end. After stifling a laugh and then manually fading out my audio, I was met offstage with comments that I have a pretty good 'poker face', and the piece was pretty good once it finally began.
On the night I also watched performances by the two other WALO groups, with a notable mention going to Mitch Mollison's Grand Mal (2014), a super cool piece, characterised by its rollercoaster-like tones and flickering lights.
On the 8th of September I attended a conducting masterclass held by Christopher Seaman, an internationally renowned conductor and the Course Director of Symphony Services International's Conductor Development Program. It was held at ABC's Studio 620 in East Perth, and alongside a small audience and a group of eight up-and-coming Perth conductors of varying experience, we were treated to a wonderfully insightful afternoon. Christopher was super engaging and rather humorous throughout the masterclass, offering a ton of knowledge to everyone in the room. He ran through the basic conducting techniques; how to show a strong upbeat, conducting in 2, 3, and 4, and on to more complex uneven time signatures such as 5/8, 7/8 and 11/8, and the difference between a legato and staccato downbeat. He mused about his early musical life, and briefly discussed his view on professionalism and performance etiquette.
Christopher talked about his view and experience with 'musical intent'. To quote him: "As a musician, you have to be confident with what you want, but also tolerant of what others want". This definitely struck a chord (hah pun!) with me. He said it was important to realise your own direction and intentions and to be completely certain of yourself. Some others may agree with you while others won't, but you must be able to respect and support theirs views too, if they are to do the same for you.
On the same day (September 8th), I played at The Bakery for Club Zho 111 as a part of WALO. In my last post I mentioned that I had my fingers crossed for smooth network connectivity on the night, well... turns out I should have also had my toes crossed too. When it came time to perform we had numerous connectivity and audio errors, meaning about 15 minutes of opening the Max patch, setting the patch, starting it, having the scrolling score and/or audio not work, stopping the patch, closing it, and repeating. This was a completely harrowing experience, and I'm sure everybody in my group considered calling the whole thing off at least once, but we persevered. Ironically though, after managing to get everything working and progressing our way through the piece, Player One (aka Ben Christiansen) accidentally pressed 'restart' only 30 seconds from the end. After stifling a laugh and then manually fading out my audio, I was met offstage with comments that I have a pretty good 'poker face', and the piece was pretty good once it finally began.
On the night I also watched performances by the two other WALO groups, with a notable mention going to Mitch Mollison's Grand Mal (2014), a super cool piece, characterised by its rollercoaster-like tones and flickering lights.
I stuck around after WALO had finished performing to see Kynan Tan. His solo laptop work was pretty impressive, and was about 40 minutes long (give-or-take), or at least felt like it! His use of texture was exploratory and completely immersive, and the processing was extensive. It was a great end to the evening!
From September up until this point, I've done four gigs with the RnB/Pop/Reggae band Jacob & The Rudeboys. We played at The Rosemount Hotel supporting Caravana Sun (NSW) (14th of September), at Mater Dei College in Edgewater (17th of September) for an 'Arts Festival' type of event, and more excitingly, we headlined (ie. three sets) at The Indi Bar (3rd of October) with a possible residency on the cards. It's very exciting times for The Rudeboys, we have several paid gigs coming up, including the opening gala event of a match making site, The Dating Boutique, and a wedding down in Donnelly River, both gigs being in November. We also did a photoshoot for Jacob & The Rudeboys second single Good Man Bad Bones, set to be released super soon! |
Even more exciting news! Next Friday (October 17) The Kalamunda Youth Swing Band has its 25th Anniversary Concert, held at Mazenod College in Lesmurdie. The concert will feature the three KYSB Bands, the Mazenod Jazz Band, and the KYSB All-Stars Band made up of past members. We've been gearing up towards this performance, and we've even taken on a new piece called Errand Boy (1961) (complete with actual errand boy), which promises to be super fantastic! Here's the video of Jerry Lewis performing the work. |
And just one last thing!
I'm playing the trumpet in Hannah Sorenson's recital, and singing in Josten Myburgh's recital. I'll give more information on this later seeing as it hasn't actually happened yet so I probably shouldn't include it in a "review".
But in the mean time, here are the links to their respective graduation recital Facebook events:
Hannah Sorenson - No Place Like Home
Josten Myburgh - Dedications
Peace.
I'm playing the trumpet in Hannah Sorenson's recital, and singing in Josten Myburgh's recital. I'll give more information on this later seeing as it hasn't actually happened yet so I probably shouldn't include it in a "review".
But in the mean time, here are the links to their respective graduation recital Facebook events:
Hannah Sorenson - No Place Like Home
Josten Myburgh - Dedications
Peace.