The first ensemble to mention in this post is the West of the (NSW) Divide Wind Ensemble. This week, the ensemble took part in an International Youth Music Festival held in Hong Kong where they performed as part of a competition, and were even permitted the opportunity to perform at Disneyland.
The buzz and the feeling of performing in such a competition, or at a unique venue, cannot be described. A few years ago I experienced this in New Zealand, but for these young musicians the feedback so far has been overwhelming from their trip. Adrenaline rushes, goosebumps, and an assortment of emotional reactions has been expressed so far from the students. I'm sure there would be students that would state that words couldn't describe what they experienced.
As part of the competition, the ensemble had to prepare four works, and one of these had to be by a composer of their home country. In this competition you are not necessarily performing against other ensembles, but for a rating that is either bronze, silver, or gold. Two years ago the ensemble flew to Hawaii and narrowly missed out on gold, and this group was lauded by several people as being one of the strongest ensembles from regional NSW. And it was with several high standard musicians in different sections throughout the ensemble, which really helped the group bond and perform well. For this group of musicians traveling to Hong Kong, it was a very different ensemble to what they had two years ago. After not being involved with the band camp program in 2012, I only recognised about half of the students from the programs at the workshop in January.
About halfway through the week the news started to trickle through about the result of the competition. A gold rating was awarded to the West of the Divide Wind Ensemble. I honestly couldn't believe it at first until a couple of photos of staff members with the award were shown. To be awarded a rating such as this, in my opinion, shows that you are setting an incredibly high standard. Possibly to even go as far as breaking into an international standard if the ensemble functions magnificently well in a lot of performance aspects, which this group has done.
While everyone in Hong Kong would have been on an absolute high with the result, I was sitting here at home absolutely speechless. No doubt when these students arrive at their home towns the superlatives of greatness are going to be announced throughout the local media, including the endearment of being "talented". When I was invited to work with this ensemble in January I didn't know what to expect, and I don't think the students did either until we started cracking the whip and working with them. One aspect I really enjoyed about this ensemble was that I could look around and not view anyone as assumed talent. By no means am I saying that no one involved in the ensemble, or as a whole, is not talented. However, what we were able to unearth was something far greater than talent and it was "strong work ethic", and it was required for the lineup of repertoire. From there the students have developed their performance work further individually and as a group, going on to produce not a gold performance under pressure, but, an absolute diamond.
A massive congratulations to the West of the Divide Wind Ensemble for another highly successful overseas adventure.
So while the Wind Ensemble was packing their items aboard for a flight home, I had the opportunity to work with a new ensemble that will be performing in the Coffs Harbour Eisteddfod next month. At the Clarence Valley Con, in Grafton, the Coastal Clarinet Project had its first rehearsal. This clarinet ensemble has been in the works for a while now, and it was great to see it lift off the ground on Friday. This collaboration is made up of members of the CVCon clarinet ensemble, "Clarinza", along with students from Bellingen and Coffs Harbour. By no means is this meant to be an "elite" ensemble, but the prerequisite that is set is that you are prepared to work hard (and everyone is with skills ranging from 1st through to 8th grade). Even though we only had six of our fifteen piece ensemble (those dreaded holidays...), a lot of success and enjoyment was had by everyone.
The main piece we are working on for the eisteddfod is the "Doumka's Freilach" by Alexis Ciesla. Klezmer music has become increasingly popular over the last couple of years amongst students and audience members in this region. There was even a rousing standing ovation given to a performer at the Coffs Eisteddfod last year after a klezmer piece was performed.
As part of the preparations, I decided to take a leaf out of the "Wind Ensemble" book by using hymns as ensemble practice. A lot of skills can be developed through the use of this music, and I think everyone noticed the benefit of this yesterday. Dynamic balance, ensemble, leadership, and understanding of counterpoint were developed. The students present learned that the important parts aren't always held in the outer layers of the melody and bass, and that there are a lot of important aspects occurring on the inside with inner parts. With another rehearsal coming up on Friday we'll be looking at extending the skills and the playing even further, maybe even play the Doumka's Freilach faster (currently it's at 132 beats per minute after having been sitting around 120 bpm).
Time for me to get back into some practice while I have this extra time available in the holidays.
