Do you know what a flashmob is? Wikipedia defines it as
a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.
It is usually organised via mobile phones or internet sites such as Facebook.
The Christmas flashmob above took place on 13th November, 2010 at a shopping centre food court.
Hope you enjoy this wonderful performance of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. Eat your heart out, Leonard Cohen. Please forgive Eusebius, but that song is one of his pet hates. (Cohen's, not Handel's.)
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
For the past six weeks, Mitchell Conservatorium has been hosting a Music Appreciation program for Bathurst's University of the Third Age. Each year in Term 4, David McKay presents a one hour program which includes interesting top-quality performances and recordings of music on a selected theme. This year we have been focussing on French Music from the past two hundred years.
Performers have included Julia Romano, who sang French chansons by Debussy and Fauré, Glen Wholohan, who played movements from an enjoyable, jazzy saxophone suite by Jean Françaix, Chloe Walker, who played an arrangement of Debussy's first Arabesque for flute and piano, and Joan and David McKay, who played Fauré's beloved Dolly suite for piano duet.
For the final week's program, Cheryl McKellar played Tango en Skai by Roland Dyens, which you can hear played by the composer himself in the video at the head of this post.
Mitchell Conservatorium's first director, Laurie Orchard, inaugurated the Bathurst Music Appreciation program in the 1990s. David McKay is humbled and honoured to be following in his distinguished footsteps. (Laurie, an octogenarian, is still hosting a U3A Music Appreciation program in Lismore, where he now lives.)
You're never too young (nor too old) to start exploring music at Mitchell Conservatorium. We have classes for toddlers and a well-developed Early Childhood program which gives pre-schoolers and children in Infants School the resources to build on for a lifetime of creating music.
Our newest Early Childhood teacher is Catriona McKay. She has her A Mus A in Voice, and lots of experience performing in ensembles, operas, and choirs, such as The Sydney Philharmonia. She enjoys composing, arranging and recording music for children. She has developed her own Early Childhood music programs known as Little Sings and Song Club. Catriona is now using materials developed in these groups at Mitchell Conservatorium on Fridays.
If you'd like to enrol your children in one of our Early Music programs, please phone our office on 02 6331 6622 between 10 AM and 5 PM, Mondays to Fridays, or come along and meet our friendly staff, in the west wing of Bathurst Court House, in Russell St.
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.
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.)
