Where did you first hear Mozart's magic music?

Many people first heard the wonderful music of Mozart at school. Maybe your teacher played his delightful string quartet Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Serenade) or did you first encounter him through attempting to play his pieces yourself?
They say Mozart is too easy for the amateurs, but too hard for the professionals. It seems so light and charming, yet Mozarteans spend a whole lifetime in perfecting his phrasing and little nuances.

Like many people, I learnt a lot of his music through the wonderful film Amadeus. And the most striking of all of this music is surely his Requiem. Have you heard it yet? On Saturday, 30th June there will be a very special performance of this superb choral music at 3 PM at All Saints Cathedral.

Mitchell Conservatorium's Jonathan Lewis (tenor) will join with Helen Barnett (soprano), Bill Moxey (bass) and Narelle Hissey (mezzo soprano), The Allegri Singers, Macquarie University Singers  and Bathurst Chamber Ochestra to perform under Timothy Chung's baton.

This brief excerpt was one of the favourite parts of the mass when NSW secondary school students performed excerpts in a choral concert in Sydney Opera House, conducted by Graham Abbott in the late 1990s.



You can have a preview of other parts of the Requiem in Mitchell Conservatorium's Armchair Concert on Monday, 25th June at 1.30 PM on 2MCE fm, 92.3 or 94.7 fm or at 2MCE.org

Who Am I?

Guten Tag. Today is my birthday. Do you know who I am? I was born on 27th January, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. I died in December, 1791, just a few weeks before my 36th birthday.

In my short life I wrote over 600 pieces of music. My father put some of the first pieces I wrote into a book for my sister, which is called Nannerl's Music Book. You can find a copy of these first pieces here, which is a special internet site from Germany, which contains copies of all of my music. You might like to download the pages and try them out. Some of them are easy, but some are harder than they look!

Here is a short extract from a film about me called Amadeus, which is my middle name. Do you like the laugh they gave me?