It’s time to register for the 2015 AUSTA National Conference. There are plenty of brilliant sessions to attend including masterclasses with Michele Walsh and pedagogy workshops with Loreta Fin. I’d love to see you at one of my sessions on Gypsy Jazz music or on Romanian Gypsy music. Bring your violin or viola! Go to … Read more
Following the success of “Five Little Grooves”, “Monster Grooves” are High School A/B standard pieces that allow hip string players to bust out in Funk and Gypsy flavours. The backing CD comes in two tempos – practice and performance. These new compositions were very well received at the recent AUSTA Reading Day and are already … Read more
Will Eager (cimbalom) & The Camerata of St Johns will premiere my new piece for cimbalom and strings, “Hora Emisfera Sudica” at the Tyalgum Festival of Classical Music. The concert takes place in picturesque Tyalgum at 2:30pm on Sunday the 8th of September.
As part of the Perth Festival, Laique played in Albany as part of the Great Southern Playmakers. It was great to mingle and play alongside such greats as George Washingmachine, Howard Cairns, Ian Date, Nigel Date, Ewan McKenzie, Charlie McCarthy, Sarah Clare and many others.
The AUSTA Reading Day for 2013 has taken place at Somerville House, and again we saw excellent writing by local composers such as Stephen Chin, Timo Jarvela, Matthew Hoey, Keith Sharp, Michael Stocks, and Neridah Oostenbroek to name just a few. I was proud to show off my new concertinos for solo violin, viola, cello … Read more
We played at the Folklorica Tent at Woodford yesterday. Will’s cimbalom sounds amazing. It was great to know that our instruments and fingers still work at 120% humidity and 42 degrees celcius.
Dale Baltrop is the concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Working with him in the Camerata of St Johns last week was amazing. He NEVER seems to make a mistake on that violin of his, and moves effortlessly between roles of soloist, leader, rehearsal director and all-round nice guy. I hope we get to work … Read more
Thanks to Topology for inviting me to play with them up in the Torres Strait. It was great to experience some of the culture up there, and to be a part of an important concert for Christine Anu – returning to her birthplace and singing in the local Saibai and Mabuiag dialects.
This is a particularly dark and lugubrious work. I didn’t really like it at first but it certainly grew on me and there are some great moments such as the opening of the “fifth door” where offstage brass and the mighty organ surprise the audience in a powerful depiction of Bluebeard’s kingdom. After the concert, … Read more
Will Eager, Sam Vincent and I have formed the trio Taraf Tambal. We perform Romanian gypsy music as well as our own original compositions. You can catch us at the Restrung Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse in October, or at the Woodford Folk Festival. BTW this is Will’s new cimbalom. So pretty!