Congratulations to our colleague, Georg Mertens, whose Georgcello Youtube site has now received a million visits.
As we said in a post last month, Georg Mertens is a cellist, guitarist, composer, arranger, teacher and author who combines great musical skills with an astute knowledge of successful internet marketing.
How did he achieve a million hits on Youtube? It was not by choosing to play current popular music, which was the way former Mitchell Conservatorium student, Ella Jamieson and her band, Aston, clocked up the magic million, with their classical version of Lady Gaga's Telephone.
And it was not a viral campaign, like the wildly successful Canadian Christmas flashmob version of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.
Georg's success in attracting a million visitors to his Youtube site has been achieved through providing so many musically interesting, varied performances on guitar and cello, both solo and in combination with other musicians.
His most popular video, so far, has been an Arabian improvisation on cello.
Choose a song that is currently very popular, and create your own great version of it.
Make a great live video of your performance
Result? Over 957,000 views on Youtube.
The Alphabet Photography method
Choose a piece of music that has been popular from the time it was written over 250 years ago.
Hire a terrific set of singers, including soprano Stephanie Tritchew and Chorus Niagara, a professional 80 voice choir.
Find a suitable venue.
Liaise with the management of venue
Set up seven hidden cameras
Perform your song unannounced, as a flashmob at midday when the centre is buzzing
Result: 936,000 views on Youtube in one week!
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
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.
