Musical Time Machine

Do you know your composers and which musical periods they belong to? Was Mozart born in the 20th century? Did Bach know Debussy? Who was the most famous composer in the Renaissance Period?

You might enjoy the DSO Kids Time Machine.

Would you like some hints to help you? The Naxos Brief History of Music could be just the ticket.

U3A?

Cheryl McKellar and David McKay, with Joan and Bill Bergen in the corner

U3A, or University of the Third Age, is an organisation for people over fifty, no longer working full time. The Bathurst branch is very popular and always has lots of different programs to appeal to a wide range of interests.

The Music Appreciation program has been going for over ten years. It is currently run at the beginning of the fourth school term. Each week we listen to some live music, hear some fascinating information about an aspect of Music, and also listen to some recordings to complement the talk and live music.

Over the past eight years we have explored

J S Bach
Mozart
Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn (all born within a year of one another)
the beginnings of Russian classical Music
British Music of the Twentieth Century
G F Handel
Australian Classical Music
French Music

Proposed future topics include:

Haydn
Beethoven
Bach's sons

Music Is For Life

A charming trailer for a heart-warming new documentary. I hope we get to see it in Bathurst!

When are you too old enough to play and sing? Alice is 106 and is still playing, every morning and afternoon.

During the time she was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, she performed over 100 concerts for fellow inmates and played all of Chopin's Etudes from memory. (This camp was intended as a showpiece to the world, to deceive people into thinking that Jewish inmates of all concentration camps were being well-treated.)

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.