Where did you first hear Mozart's magic music?

Many people first heard the wonderful music of Mozart at school. Maybe your teacher played his delightful string quartet Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Serenade) or did you first encounter him through attempting to play his pieces yourself?
They say Mozart is too easy for the amateurs, but too hard for the professionals. It seems so light and charming, yet Mozarteans spend a whole lifetime in perfecting his phrasing and little nuances.

Like many people, I learnt a lot of his music through the wonderful film Amadeus. And the most striking of all of this music is surely his Requiem. Have you heard it yet? On Saturday, 30th June there will be a very special performance of this superb choral music at 3 PM at All Saints Cathedral.

Mitchell Conservatorium's Jonathan Lewis (tenor) will join with Helen Barnett (soprano), Bill Moxey (bass) and Narelle Hissey (mezzo soprano), The Allegri Singers, Macquarie University Singers  and Bathurst Chamber Ochestra to perform under Timothy Chung's baton.

This brief excerpt was one of the favourite parts of the mass when NSW secondary school students performed excerpts in a choral concert in Sydney Opera House, conducted by Graham Abbott in the late 1990s.



You can have a preview of other parts of the Requiem in Mitchell Conservatorium's Armchair Concert on Monday, 25th June at 1.30 PM on 2MCE fm, 92.3 or 94.7 fm or at 2MCE.org

The voices of angels?

Another great Mitchell Conservatorium concert to enjoy after work, on Friday, 22nd June. The concert starts at 5.30 PM and will be held in the All Saints Cathedral hall and features our own wonderful Mitchell Young Voices, singing with the distinguished Sydney Children's Choir. 

A $ note donation is requested, which you can pay at the door. Please ring our friendly office staff for more details, Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 5 PM on 6331 6622

You can't beat a piano!

Amazing pianist, Hiromi Uehara

OK. I'm biased. But can you think of anything more wonderful than a piano? I think it is the ideal musical instrument, because it is so versatile. Pianos are perfectly suited to solo performance, and the music sounds complete without the addition of any other instruments. But they also sound amazing when they accompany others or take the lead in front of a band or orchestra.

In the 1800s, hundreds of thousands of them were shipped to Australia, and some of those are still being played today. My very first piano was one of them. My parents bought it in 1959, with a lot of help from my Nanna.  The price was 90 guineas, which means £90 and 90/- (Ninety pounds and ninety shillings.) That is roughly $200, but in 1959 money, when the average wage was £15 ($30) per week! Nanna told Mum and Dad she'd pay the pounds, if they paid the shillings!


I think some people would still like to buy a piano for $200, which may be why many children begin on a small keyboard and not a piano.


But substituting a keyboard for a piano could be compared with buying a bicycle and expecting it to do the job of a car. A digital piano makes a better alternative, though it's still like asking a motorbike to substitute for a station wagon.


If you want a reliable piano, you are less likely to be disappointed and more likely to get something that will last by buying from a reputable music shop, whether you buy a new or second-hand piano. Each piano I've purchased was bought from a music store and I've been generally happy with what we were sold, although when I've tried to do it cheaply, I have not got the quality instrument that the store had first recommended.


A new piano should easily last twenty years. The digital keyboard might also, but they tend to go out of fashion as new ones keep being made with the latest do-dads.

At Mitchell Conservatorium, we always advise that you get your teacher's advice when buying a musical instrument. Good ones are expensive and it is worth getting help in making sure that the one you buy is worth what you are paying for it.


Here is a sensational performance on a quality piano by Hiromi Uehara of George Gershwin's I Got Rhythm. If you want to see some dazzling playing, keep watching. The video is 9 minutes long, but it's worth it.

A Japanese Music Lesson

Sally Nguyen in Osaka, 2012

Mitchell Conservatorium piano student, Sally Nguyen enjoyed her visit to Japan, made during the school holidays. Her host family kindly took her to a koto class, where she was able to hear this special instrument being played by an ensemble of keen students.

If we tell you that a koto is a little like a zither, you may still be wondering about it, because you won't see many zithers in Bathurst, either.

But this amateur Youtube video, made by another student from another school during a trip to Japan, might be worth watching, and better than any verbal description we could supply.



Many Australian composers have become fascinated with the music of our Asian neighbours and have incorporated some of the music in their writing. Peter Sculthorpe has even written pieces for piano called Koto Music I and II. The Australian Music Centre has a short sample here. You will notice that the performer is playing inside the piano, not on the keys.

If you would like to try this, please ask the piano owner's permission first: it can damage the strings.

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.

Great ideas for encouraging your child to play

Here are six tips for successful music practice from Jammin' with you, the New York Music blog.

1. A place to play with no distractions

2. Practise every day          It makes playing music more fun.

Practising is not fun when you do it irregularly.

3. Play early

 Playing before school often works well and beats playing just before you go to bed and are really tired, or after a hard day at school. Become a morning person and you won't miss the best part of the day!

4. Keep your instrument ready to play.

Don't put it away in a case. Keep the piano smiling: lid open! One reason I can't play the cello is that mine was in a soft case with lots of straps to undo. I didn't have a stand for it and rarely got it out of the case!

5. Reward success: stickers, trip to the park, be creative!

6. Praise good playing.

Don't jump every time your child plays a wrong note. Occasionally point out a note that has been played wrongly several times. (A good tip for us teachers!)

If you head over to Jammin' with you you'll see I have my own way of putting their advice. It's worth reading what they said there - and it looks so cool, too!

A music lesson from Einstein

Reader's Digest has published Jerome Weidman's 1955 story about the evening he spent with Einstein.

Weidman has just had dinner in the home of a distinguished New York philanthropist, and discovers that there is to be a chamber music concert following, which he is going to have to endure.

I fixed my face in what I hoped was an expression of intelligent appreciation, closed my ears from the inside, and submerged myself in my own completely irrelevant thoughts.

After a while, becoming aware that the people around me were applauding, I concluded it was safe to unplug my ears. At once I heard a gentle but surprisingly penetrating voice on my right: “You are fond of Bach?”

I knew as much about Bach as I know about nuclear fission. But I did know one of the most famous faces in the world, with the renowned shock of untidy white hair and the ever-present pipe between the teeth. I was sitting next to Albert Einstein.

When he tells the famous scientist that he is tone deaf, and knows nothing about music, Einstein takes him upstairs away from the concert and shows Mr Weidman that he has a greater appreciation of music than he realises, by patiently leading him from the popular music he is familiar with into classical instrumental music. Then, Einstein dramatically announces

“Now, young man, we are ready for Bach!”
As we returned to our seats in the drawing room, the players were tuning up for a new selection. Einstein smiled and gave me a reassuring pat on the knee.

“Just allow yourself to listen,” he whispered. “That is all.”

It wasn’t really all, of course. Without the effort he had just poured out for a total stranger I would never have heard, as I did that night for the first time in my life, Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze.” I have heard it many times since. I don’t think I shall ever tire of it. Because I never listen to it alone. I am sitting beside a small, round man with a shock of untidy white hair, a dead pipe clamped between his teeth, and eyes that contain in their extraordinary warmth all the wonder of the world.

I wonder if you also feel that you are not able to enjoy music, because you are "tone deaf?" Part of Einstein's method in helping Weidman to appreciate the music was to get him to sing what he had just been listening to. The young man discovered that he was able, at least to some degree, to reproduce what he had been hearing.

Mitchell Conservatorium can't resurrect Einstein to help you to explore the wonderful world of music, but we can provide you with other enthusiastic guides who can help you, too to develop a love of music through making music yourself.

You can find out more from our website or by speaking to one of our friendly staff during office hours on 6331 6622.