What's going on in your young musician's brain?

What instrument will you play in 2012?

Violin is just one of the instruments taught by Mitchell Conservatorium staff. But did you know that you don't have to come to our studios in Bathurst, Lithgow or Forbes to learn from our terrific teachers?

Student can also learn from our staff in their own schools. Are lessons from MitCon staff available at your school? Please ring 6331 6622 during business hours to find out.

By the way, don't forget that your voice is an instrument, too. I think Playschool's Rhys Muldoon already knows this. Do you know his new song called I'm Not Singing?

The Joy of Piano Duets

Playing the piano is a great experience. You can be a whole orchestra all on your own, and don't need anyone else to be able to create a complete piece of music.

But solitude can get pretty boring after a while. Someone said that solitude is OK, as long as you have someone to talk with about it later.

Many pianists don't experience the joy of playing with others. But there is something you gain from playing piano duets which you don't get all on your own.

Today my wife, Joan and I have been playing Ulrich and Wittmann's piano duet arrangement of Beethoven's Septet. It was written for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass. You may recognise the third movement, because Beethoven also used it in his Piano Sonata, Op 49 No 2 in G Major. This pleasant performance is by musicians from the Verbier Festival Orchestra.



There is a free copy of the piano duet arrangement at the wonderful Petrucci Music Library site.

If you are not in the habit of playing piano duets, you might prefer to start with something easier. Wilhelm Aletter's Four Easy Piano Duets might be a better place to begin.

If you go to the main page of the completely free This is a link to piano duets at the site. Some are labelled as "easy" but "easy is in the fingers of the player" [or is that "mind?"]

I love the scene in Robin Williams' Millennium Man where the robot plays the Berceuse from Faure's Dolly Suite with the little girl.



Katia and Marielle Labèque are sisters who usually play two pianos. Here they are performing Leonard Bernstein's America, from Westside Story.



But perhaps the most enjoyable piano duet is this one from a student concert of the second movement (Andante con cozyta) from P.D.Q. Bach's Sonata Innamorata.

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.

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.

Britney Spears goes Baroque

Remember the Lady Gaga fugue? The very clever Giovanni Dettori has done it again: this time with his Baroque version of Britney Spears's songs Hit Me Baby One More Time and Oops, I Did It Again in his new composition called Counterpoint.

Mr Dettori has kindly made the sheet music available, too.

Counterpoint refers to the unique ability musicians have of saying two or more things at once and making sense! Lots of pieces of music have several tunes going at once, but this was developed to a high art in the Renaissance Period of Music (1450-1600 AD) and perfected by Johann Sebastian Bach in the Baroque Period (1600-1750).

The Naxos summary of periods in Music history is pretty well written and useful.

Giovanni Dettori teaches counterpoint via his Youtube website, which is well worth investigating.

I like the way you can listen to this piece and follow the scrolling score. Well done, Maestro Dettori!




Did I mention that Britney Spears is an anagram of Presbyterians?