ASTON: classical collective courts contemporary crowd

Aston, with former MitCon top scholarship winner, Ella Jamieson, far left

Australian classical collective Aston is gearing up to hit the road next month, playing a series of shows through the NSW Central West, which will include performances at the Conservatorium of Music in Orange, Bathurst, Lithgow.

Aston is:
Will Henderson – Guitar,
Daniel Luscombe – Percussion,
Eliza Morrison – Violin,
Ella Jamieson – Piano,
Michael Bennett – Violin 
Hanna Oblikov – Cello. 

Catch Aston live:
Saturday 18th - Mitchell Conservatorium, Bathurst, West Wing, Court House, Bathurst
Tix from ABC Booksplus, Howick St, Bathurst or venue
Ph: 6331 6622 or www.mitchellconservatorium.edu.au

Sunday 19th - Mitchell Conservatorium, Lithgow, Wylde Street, Lithgow
Tix from Venue ph: 6351 3990, 6331 6622 www.mitchellconservatorium.edu.au

The six-piece, featuring local Bathurst girl Ella Jamieson on piano, are set to wow audiences with their take on some of the year’s biggest pop singles.

The collective reached an incredible milestone last month, achieving over one million views for their interpretations of contemporary pop songs on You Tube in just three months!

Fans all over the world have flocked to You Tube to check out Aston’s unique classical take on massive pop hits – from Kylie’s Confide In Me, to Rihanna’s Rude Boy and the one that took it to a whole new level – Lady Gaga’s Telephone, which has so far achieved 880,000 views over the past four months.


Never shy of a challenge, Aston recently headed into the studio to record La Roux’s former ARIA top 5 single Bulletproof – the track chosen by fans from a selection of six recent hits to be recorded by Aston for their next single. In just four weeks, over 10,000 fans voted online; Bulletproof can be viewed on the band’s website with the new single available on iTunes now.

Together with their upcoming tour dates, Aston are looking forward to the release of their debut album, set to drop in October.

You can catch Aston every Thursday on Seven Network’s hit series The Matty Johns Show; tune in to see them play a selection of pop hits every week.

Do You Have Some Great Musical Ideas?

Jared Killey, composing

Mitchell Conservatorium is proud to announce a composition competition for Bathurst residents, aged eight to eighteen. You can write in any style, for any combination of instruments and voices. Your piece could be a solo or for a group.

Full details of the competition are available from the Mitchell Conservatorium office, which is in the right-hand wing of Bathurst Court House in Russell St. Please phone 6331 6622 for more information.

Prizes range from a $50 encouragement prize for 8 to 11 year olds, to a $350 first prize for 16 to 18 year olds.

The entries must be submitted by Friday, 17th September, 2010.

Our adjudicator is distinguished composer, Paul Terracini. You can hear several of Paul's great works at this page, or you might like to check out the Youtube video below, which features Nikki Vasilakis playing his theme for the SBS television program Classical Destinations.

Why Music Matters

Distinguished band director, Jack Stamp

According to Jack Stamp, one of America's most beloved band directors,

Music matters because
1.It is demanding
2. It requires perfection
3. It encourages creativity.

In this audio recording, he says that playing in a band is harder than playing sport or academic study, because in those areas mistakes are allowed for and expected.

In Baseball, a 30% average is considered very good and in a Physics exam, getting 90% right would result in an A grading.

I love his comment about creativity in musical performance. He says that

Music involves transforming something that’s black and white into beautiful colours.

In Music rough enough is not good enough. Here's what mostly right sounds like:

Bullseye!

Sarah Matthews, a wonderful cellist who has been teaching and performing at Mitchell Conservatorium for the past two years, makes playing the cello look easy. She even sounds great if you catch her practising her scales.

But in a recent Performance Opportunity, Sarah explained to us non-string players just how hard it is to create those beautiful sounds. Sarah says

a great string player is like a whizz at darts who hits the bullseye every time!

During the past week it has been my privilege to accompany Finella McBurney, Sarah Walls, and Emily and Tom Lindsay, who are young violinists studying at Mitchell Conservatorium. Finella and Emily are about the age I was when I began learning the piano, and Sarah and Tom are just a little older.

I am amazed at how clever they are at getting so many bullseyes as they tune each note as they play! When I began music lessons, all I had to do was put my fingers on the piano and occasionally play two notes at once, already tuned for me by our faithful piano tuner.

The exams they were preparing for were held yesterday, and all four received good results for their hard work. Congratulations are also due to their teachers and families, who are clearly partners in the process of learning to create the great sounds they are making.

Cooerwull String Group, hitting lots of bullseyes at a recent concert at Lithgow branch of Mitchell Conservatorium.

Winter Showcase

Christopher Dove, of Bathurst Brass Boys

If you would like to hear some great music to warm up a winter afternoon, head to Bathurst's Entertainment Centre this Sunday, 22nd August at 3 PM for a concert which begins with Mitchell Con's own Bathurst Brass Boys, and also features Fretworx, directed by Aaron Hopper, Lachlan division's Dr Music and the Con Kids, The Allegri Singers, conducted by William Moxey, the Bathurst Chamber Orchestra and The Bathurst City and RSL Concert Band, conducted by Mathias Rogala-Koczorowski.

Stringmansassy: duo featuring Mitchell Con's Aaron Hopper and vocalist, Kacey Patrick

Music therapy

Director: Philip Braithwaite, with Anne Murray, Emma Walls, Jay-Anna Mobbs, 
Hannah Thompson, Laura Van-Uum, Phoebe Ward and  Courtney Powell

Mitchell Conservatorium students enjoy performing in all sorts of places in Bathurst. They don't confine themselves to concert halls, but enjoy going wherever they have the opportunity to play their music.

In this photo from 2009, our Junior Flute Choir are presenting a program for patients at Bathurst Base Hospital.

Eusebius has enjoyed hearing the students play, but doesn't have a recording to present here, yet. So here is a great recording by FluteMark of a Bach work to give you some idea of what our lovely flute choir sounds like.

The greatest musical instrument?

Michelle Griffin, with Jonathan and Maureen Lewis

If you're going to learn a musical instrument, you might as well choose the best one! But which instrument is it?
Eusebius got taken to task on facebook recently when he quoted Kenneth Miller's comment that

No other acoustic instrument can match the piano's expressive range, and no electric instrument can match its mystery.

Violinists, recorder players and organists were out in full force, protesting vigorously.

I have to admit that there is an even greater instrument than the piano. And everyone's got one. It came free when you were born, included in the price. No batteries required.

Learning singing is a great way to begin studying Music, and is an essential element in becoming a musician, because it helps to you fulfill Schumann's great statement that

To be a musician you must have music not only in your fingers, but in your head and heart, too

Singing engages your body with your musical soul more directly than pushing keys, blowing through a tuba or hitting a cymbal. But once you have your own instrument (your voice) operating efficiently, it becomes easier to get the connection when you play a tin whistle or cello, or whatever you'd like to master.

And our three teachers above can help you to develop this great instrument: your own voice!

Come into the Con, in the Courthouse building [right-hand wing] in Russell St or ring 6331 6622 to get started!

Don't miss this!

This is a terrific performance of the first movement of a Brahms' trio for Piano, Viola and Cello, played by distinguished Australian performers, John Gould viola, Anne Stevens piano and Rita Woolhouse cello.

It was recorded at the Wesley Music Centre in Canberra on 1st August, 2010.

If you know of other great Australian performances on Youtube, please give us a whistle!

Free sheet music

Would you like some sheet music that you don't have to pay for? Everyone loves a bargain, so it is not unusual that musicians and music students like to hunt on the internet for free copies!

And there is plenty of stuff available, though some comes with a sting in the tail. Let me explain.

Some internet sites have plenty of free sheet music, but it is not of high quality. You will find copies of your favourite pieces of music that are hard to read, poorly notated and that have musical errors in many free sheet music sites. And there are other sites that may send viruses to your computer, or leave something behind after your visit.

But here are two great, reliable sites:

1. The Petrucci Music Library. On 10th August, 2010 there were 68 thousand scores available on this site.

These scores are mainly pieces of classical music that are over 75 years old and consequently out of copyright. You can find music for almost any instrument you can think of at this site, as well as scores and parts for orchestral and chamber music.

Some of the scores are poorly scanned, or the original that was used was of poor quality. Some of the scores are of an older, inferior edition to the ones we use today.

But many of them are very good quality, and you can't beat the price.

Courtney Powell, with teacher Michelle Griffin, in Rising Stars concert

2. Richard Harris, composer and arranger has kindly placed dozens of great, mostly simple arrangements on his personal site which he allows you to download for free. Richard's arrangements are simple, but do not dumb down the original piece of music.

Richard asks you to register, because he would like to know who is visiting his site, but after registering, you can download as many pieces as you like.

Here are a few of my popular favourites from Richard's site:
The Great Escape theme.
The Ghostbusters Theme who ya gonna call?
Blueberry Hill [which comes from the 1940s: I always thought it was a song from the 50s]
I'm A Believer
We Are The Champions
Nutrocker [a fun, jazzed up version of The March from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, originally performed by Bumble Bee and The Stingers]

Richard's site also includes many lovely arrangements of well known pieces of classical music and [is it too early to mention it?] lots of Christmas music.

If you find you enjoy these arrangements, you would certainly like his books of popular songs and film music, published by Faber.

What Can I Play?

There are lots of instruments to choose from at Mitchell Conservatorium: it's up to you which one you choose. The Hayes  children had fun playing percussion instruments with teacher Aaron Hollier at a recent MitCon Open Day.

 Maybe you would love to play a big string instrument like a double bass or cello.
 Georg Mertens, cello and guitar teacher shows in this Youtube clip, recorded in the Cathedral cave at Jenolan, just how good a cello can sound in the hands of a great musician. Could this be you one day?

Come into the Con, in the Courthouse building [right-hand wing] in Russell St or ring 6331 6622 to get started!

Crazy ... but it works.

Mean Malin, performing in the 2009 US air guitar championship

Ever tried practising away from your instrument? Sound silly? Did you know that most great performers do it, and find it to be very effective?

 Amazing Canadian pianist, Angela Hewitt, does it when travelling, and says she can practise for longer when she hasn't got her piano there to distract her!

Robert Maddocks has a great story about an

experiment where a group of ordinary people are tested on their ability to shoot free throws in basketball. There are three groups of people, all inexperienced at the game of basketball. They are all tested at the beginning of the experiment to see how many free throws they can get. They are then separated into 3 groups. Group A is set up to practice shooting hoops for a half an hour everyday. Group B is not allowed to practice at all. And, Group C is instructed to 'imagine' shooting hoops for half an hour everyday. The results were surprising. Group A scored the same or worst. Group B scored slightly better than their initial score. Most surprising was the fact that Group C had the greatest increase of shots scored.

However, this is not going to work as your only form of practice! And I understand that it doesn't work so well for singers. When Joan Sutherland tried it, she discovered that every time she gave it a try, her voice kept coming along, too!

Please let us know if you have found this to be a useful form of practice.

Furry Leaves

Furry leaves: inspiration for Beethoven?

Welcome to Mitchell Conservatorium's new blog.

 Does this picture ring a bell? Many music students have an ambition to be able to play the piece of music that sounds like this song.

Do you know which one we mean?

 It sounds quite simple at the beginning, but after a minute or so, it becomes more like a Fifth Grade piece than a piece for a beginner to play.

If you click on the Youtube link below, you will hear an interesting version played by Zack Kim.