Talented Artist and Musician

Emily Calder with her daughter Ellianna

Emily Calder is a versatile artist and musician. Since the age of four, she has been working her way down through the string section of the orchestra. Emily began exploring violin via the Suzuki Method. Her first teacher was former Bathurst resident, Janice Donaldson.

At the age of thirteen, she began lessons with Mitchell Conservatorium's Nicholas Newell, who introduced her to the viola when she was fifteen.

She is currently studying cello with Mitchell Conservatorium's Sybbi Georgiou.

Emily has the University of Queensland's Diploma of Music Teaching, which is a tertiary accreditation for teaching instrumental music, and is currently working towards the Bachelor of Music degree, awarded by the University of New England.

Emily enjoys many different styles of music, and is as happy playing gypsy violin as she is in performing the great classical violin repertoire.

At Mitchell Conservatorium Emily teaches violin and also directs two string ensembles for primary school students.

Mitchell Young Strings

On Wednesday afternoon, she enjoys teaching Mitchell Young Strings to play various stringed instruments. On Thursday, she leads Fiddlesticks, which is a NSW government assisted ensemble for students from Department of Education primary schools. Thanks to their support, lessons only cost $2 per session.

She teaches the students in these two groups the basics of playing an instrument in the violin family in an ensemble, and also uses her knowledge of conducting to show them the ropes in that area also. Emily enjoyed being part of Jerry Nowak's conducting classes when the world-renowned director and musical arranger visited Australia last year.

Pastel by Emily Calder

Emily is also a visual artist. She favours working with pastels, which she finds challenging and rewarding.

You can hear Emily playing Summer, from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and a movement from Mozart's Violin Cocnerto No 5 in A Major in a free concert on Sunday, 20th May at 4 PM in The Orchard Room at Mitchell Conservatorium, West Wing, Bathurst Court House in Russell St. Emily will be accompanied by pianist, David McKay. Her brother, Jared Killey will perform some beautiful classical guitar music.

How to make it difficult for your child to practise

Bryn White, in 2011 scholarship concert

Here is some more practical advice from Cynthia Richards' book How to get your child to practise ... without resorting to violence.

The earlier article gave suggestions for making it easy for your child to practise.
Here are twelve stumbling blocks which can make things harder than they need to be:

1 Indifferent home environment
2 Faulty teacher-child relationship
3 Lack of maturity and commitment in the child
4 The wrong instrument
5 Unfavourable practice conditions
6 Bad memories
7 Peer pressure not to practise
8 Not proficient enough to be competitive
9 Too many conflicting interests
10 Sibling rivalry
11 Competitive feelings with a parent
12 Communications

Some of these things can be tinkered with, to give your child every opportunity to enjoy practising. Can you see something you could do that might help your budding musician?

What would you add to the list?

How To Get Your Child To Practise

Cynthia Richards' How To Get Your Child To Practise ... without resorting to violence is an excellent book, well worth your time, but - it's out of print!

Aren't you lucky I can pass on Mrs Richards' handy tips? I read this book at my sister-in-law's place. She is also a music teacher.

Today I am passing on the positive points, but in my next post, I will tell you what she tells you not to do. The tips have all been tested by Cynthia, who is a parent and music teacher herself.

1 Start early
2 Practise with your child every day
3 Set up family rules for practising
4 Use incentives when needed
5 Handle conflicts by

a avoiding emotional involvement
b being friendly
c being matter of fact
d not giving in

6 Enjoy your children's music
7 Praise them for their successes
8 Look for stumbling blocks and do your best to remove them
9 Focus your efforts on getting your child hooked on music

If you chew over this advice, one point at a time, you will find it will help you in parenting generally, as well as in getting your child to practise.

I'd love to know what you think about these tips. Have you tried any of them yourself?

Who is the cool dude playing the flute? If you know, please tell me and I'll credit him properly. I know he was playing at Open Day, but i didn't get his name.

Masterclasses

Mitchell Conservatorium is hosting three masterclasses on Sunday, 7th November at 11 AM in which three distinguished musicians will share their love of Music and expertise with selected performers and also interested observers.
David Miller, AM will conduct a masterclass in piano and accompanying. David is widely recognised as one of Australia's leading pianists and accompanists. He has been appointed a member of the Order of Australia for his services to Music.






Philippa Paige, member of Sydney Symphony, teaches violin at Sydney Conservatorium, as well as teaching string teachers their craft. She will also be conducting a masterclass, where she will be sharing insights into violin playing and teaching at 11 AM on Sunday, 7th November.

Peter Jenkin teaches clarinet at Sydney Conservatorium and is one of Australia's most versatile performers on the clarinet. He plays in a diverse range of styles and is eager to share his specialist knowledge with teachers and students in Bathurst on Sunday, 7th November at 11 AM.

He will be joined by David Miller, AM in a concert at 3 PM, which features works by Scriabin, Verdi and  Brahms. The concert will conclude with Elena Kats-Chernin's wonderful Russian Rag.

David Miller will also be conducting a masterclass in piano and piano accompanying, earlier in the day.

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.