All Guitar Program at Mitchell Con

Aaron Hopper and Fretworx

Yesterday, I only knew the names of two of the people in the photo above. But the power of social media has changed all that! From left to right, we have Andrew Dean, Emily Foster, director of  Fretworx, Aaron Hopper, Tim Burrey, Melissa McKinnon and Kiaran Bryant, performing two of  Aaron's beautiful compositions in a concert at Mitchell Conservatorium yesterday.

It was an all-guitar concert, which provided an opportunity for Tim Burrey to present his A Mus A program, but it also included a wide variety of guitar styles.

Heath Auchinachie

Heath Auchinachie, of Ilford, began the concert with Drifting, an intriguing piece by Canadian composer Andy McKee. Heath has referred us to an extremely popular clip of the composer himself playing the piece.

Tim Burrey 

Tim Burrey played a program of music that was written by composers who lived between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries.  He showed he was as comfortable playing a Domenico Scarlatti sonata, Milonga Del Angel by Astor Piazzolla, a John Dowland piece or a suite of three pieces by Federico Moreno Torroba.


Tim's first teacher, Georg Mertens, played Villa-Lobos' popular first prelude, Albeniz's Asturias and a Fernando Sor piece.


The concert was warmly received by an enthusiastic audience of supporters. All funds raised from the sale of tickets were donated to Central West Care. We were interested to hear of their innovative programs from its director, Richard Ulbricht at the beginning of the concert.

Music and Art at Mitchell Con

Georg Mertens by Jennifer DeMaere

Mitchell Conservatorium has so many talented people working together producing great things. But we didn't know till very recently that we have a talented visual artist on our staff.

 Jennifer DeMaere has been a valued member of the administration staff of the Con for many years. Her painting of Georg Mertens captures him perfectly.

Georg teaches cello and guitar at Mitchell Con and at home in Katoomba, but is also renowned for the beauty of his musical performances in Jenolan Caves. These have been sensitively recorded and uploaded to Youtube, where his performances have been viewed more than a million times.

I enjoy his performances of J S Bach cello suite movements, and appreciate the trouble he goes to in the interesting annotations he includes with these performances. But I've only discovered this morning that one of the performances of his own compositions has been cleverly juxtaposed with stunning pictures of the cave interiors. Georg's own Ciaconna is enhanced by the scenes included in this video:

 

 You can hear Georg performing with his student, Tim Burrey at 3 PM on Sunday,5th August at Mitchell Conservatorium. Aaron Hopper and Fretworx will also be entertaining the audience with some great guitar sounds.

 All proceeds from your $ note donation will go to Central West Care For more information, please ring Mitchell Conservatorium on 6331 6622 during office hours.

Interview with Georg Mertens

Georg Mertens (Photo: Sandy Smith)

Four years ago cellist and guitarist Georg Mertens' idea of Youtube was that it was a social media site for amateur videos made by naughty skatie boys. An offer from video professional Chris Callaghan to put some clips from Georg’s well known Jenolan Caves concerts series on the same site initially make him think twice, but he was persuaded with the thought that there was nothing to lose by being involved.

Now three years later, Georg has purchased his own high end video camera to manage his own his production. His concert series clips are currently receiving hits of up to a thousand a day.
”The popularity of our Youtube site is such a surprise really, as our videos don't include popular music, and there are no special effects. Our music is not amplified or modified, but is purely acoustic cello solos and duos for violin and guitar,” says George “and I do nothing for the video promotion. Perhaps, just good music has an appeal again!” he adds.

Georg and fellow Mitchell Conservatorium violin teacher Gustaw Szelski, who play regularly as the Paganini Duo, recently enjoyed a successful tour to Canowindra, Mudgee and Bathurst as part of the Mitchell Conservatorium Musicians Spring Series II concerts. ”I applaud Georg for his ability to get his music out there” says Fiona Thompson, Executive Director of the Mitchell Conservatorium. "We try to do that same on our own Youtube Channel but have yet to achieve the same notoriety as Georg.”

Top runners in the popularity stakes are the cello solos: Bach's Prelude from the G Major Cello Suite, Georg's Asturias (Albeniz) transcription for cello and his Arabian Improvisation. Other popular videos, recently uploaded include The Paganini Duo's performances of La Cumparsita, Czardas and Dark Eyes.

The clip below, one of 78 on Georg's site today, is of Villa-Lobos' Prelude no 4 for classical guitar.


Christine Sweeney

A million hits on Youtube

Georg Mertens

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.

A tribute to a remarkable musician

Mitchell Conservatorium cello and guitar teacher, Georg Mertens has been busy, as you will discover if you type his name into your favourite search engine.

As well as performing on and teaching cello and guitar, Georg also composes his own music, and arranges and transcribes the music of some of the great classical and even folk composers. He has written his own cello method, which he has generously provide free of charge on his interesting website.

Over the past 13 years he has hosted 150 performances of beautiful cello and guitar music, in solo and ensemble performances in the unique Jenolan Caves.

He has 76 performances available on Youtube, which include solo cello and guitar, as well as ensemble performances with his violinist friend Gustaw Szelski, who also teaches at Mitchell Conservatorium in Bathurst.

Gustaw Joe Szelski

You can purchase signed copies of his recordings from his own website, from iTunes or from www.amazon.com

I admire Georg's musicianship, but also the hard work he has done in promoting his recordings and his concerts in Jenolan Caves, through his creative use of the online resources we have available to us today.

Well done, Georg.

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!