Sunday, June 21, 2009

Last Month or so Wrap

It's been a while since I last provided a blog entry, and with some spare time up my sleeve I might as well recap the different happenings, occurances, and upcoming events.

North Coast Regional Band Camp

North Coast had their regional band camp last month, and the feedback from students from the Clarence area has been really positive. As mentioned previously, last year was an incredible low for the band camp showing how dire the situation was in terms of employing specialist tutors and having staff encourage and relate to the children partaking. It was guaranteed that the camp could not get any worse than last year, but it was a question of how well the North Coast could bounce back. Staff selections were exceptional, selecting studying musicians from Newcastle combined with tutors based in the region. The standard of pieces selected was not only higher, but thoroughly enjoyed by the campers taking part. We will be hoping for some bigger and better things for this regional camp next year.

Performing Arts Submission

A member of the music community has put forward a submission for a performing arts space in Coffs Harbour. I was quite interested in this submission that was put forward, because Coffs Harbour doesn't really have a professional level performing arts space. We do have assorted performance buildings, but it seems there is something that is not right with each location. The big factors are usually either seating or acoustics, although it does appear religious values want to be cast into the fray as well now.

The submission is fairly thorough detailing why "Coffs Harbour urgently needs and deserves a proper venue for performing arts". The comparison with other towns caught my attention, especially when Port Macquarie was mentioned with their new "Glasshouse Theatre" costing the local council 50 million dollars. I'm interested to find out if Coffs Harbour council would be prepared to spend that much money on a new auditorium. And the whole business of Coffs Harbour "needing" and "deserving" this building certainly had me reflecting on the current music programs offered and the amount of musicians emerging from these programs. To cut the long story short, unless we have more students being encouraged to partake, be trained up, have more ensembles and members of these groups established it would be completely foolish and embarassing to have such a building constructed that would either be hardly used locally or filled with very few numbers. Constructions don't build musicians and ensembles, people do. This thinking has been shared by the local conservatorium this year and there are several locals that are opposed to this.

AMEB Examinations

Preparations are all falling into place within the three camps of Grafton, Coffs and Bellingen. The candidates from Coffs and Grafton are fairly relaxed, all knowing their pieces quite well and feeling settled with their performances. The Bellingen preparations have been slightly stressful working with only six months to get ready, but I am feeling confident that we will still be achieving some terrific results. After conducting extra lessons with students this afternoon in Bellingen, I am already amazed at the change in some of these students in terms of performance practice and their approach to music. A lot more character is being added to several students and their playing, bringing out personality. The quiet ones are speaking up and playing out more now, huzzah!!! We still have about six weeks on average, which should be enough time for finalising touches on pieces AND memorising technical work (a common feature across the board).

It still amazes me that there are music tutors and teachers that are of the opinion that scales, arpeggios and technical work can be of little relevance. Sure they might be boring, but hello?! Music is made up of sections of scales, arpeggios and technical work. If anything, technical work should be easy to play straight up and down since it all follows the same line. Therefore, the technical work should be easy and pieces of music difficult. With students, this trend somehow flips itself the other way around. What a bizarre phenomenon.

PAA Announce Next Program

The next program has been announced for September, and my goodness it is quite a program.

William Tell Overture - Rossini
Waltz from Der Fledermaus - Strauss
3rd movement Trumpet Concerto - Haydn
Slow movement 7th Symphony - Beethoven
Carmina Burana - Orff

Instead of my jaw dropping at the program, I was left scratching my head. This was in particular with the Carmina Burana. To put it bluntly, it's a bloody big work and I don't know how we are going to have the numbers for it. There is talk of a choir (obviously) accompanied by full orchestra and two pianists. What I'd like to know is where are we going to find the following...

* Flutes (especially those that can double piccolo)
* Eight clarinets amongst three players (everyone doubles with B flat and A, plus 2nd uses an E flat and 3rd a bass)
* A contrabasson (some people would be saying a "contrawhat"?)
* French Horns (there might be one available just outside of the region, but no others within. We need four)
* A tuba (no one jump up straight away)
* Five timpani
* A bass drum (no, the "kick" off a drum kit doesn't count)
* Tubular bells (no, we can't steal church bells from around town)
* A celesta (where? And how much do you want for it?)
* A full string section (and I do mean a FULL string section from top to bottom)

Logically, I cannot see this working or being done justice. The program, and Carmina alone, is going to be way too much. At the moment we just don't have the orchestra for it. Why do we need to target the big popular works? Why can't we simply accommodate for smaller sized ensembles or the musicians we readily have available in the area? Ignorance is... meh... I don't mean to sound like a stick in the mud, but we honestly don't have the resources to pull a big project like this off successfully.


With that all said and done, it's time to get back to composing. I'm hoping to complete three compositions before the next band camp, something I haven't done since 2005. It will be a massive relief.

Until next time! :-)