ok. sorry for the delay. i've had an eventful 6 weeks or so, settling into london, world's end and guildhall. the 1st term of school is coming to an end though, so i can take some time over the next month to assess the first 3 months here and start planning for an eventful 2012.. yay!
the most exciting thing is yet to come.. on december 6th i fly to west africa, the gambia, for just over 2 weeks for a collaboration with local musicians.. i'll be immersed in their music culture & rhythms: drumming, singing and dancing.. i'll be taking plenty of photos and music clips so i'll definitely update this blog with lots of things to look at and hear!
recently, as you all know, the memorable day of 11/11/11 was upon us. it's the first time in 17 years (except for 2009 when i was in brazil!) that i have been absent from the buninyong rsl's annual commemorative service in regional victoria, australia, where i play the last post and reveille on the trumpet (ditto for anzac day too). this year, alongside my fellow masters companions, i was involved in a special project with inspiration from http://11elevenproject.com/ we created eleven, one minute compositions with 11 musicians, making a deadline for ourselves of recording each and collating them for upload to the 11eleven project. the first and last tracks were of 1 minute silence.. 6 others being composed in 11 minutes each, and the final 3 of them were made in 33 (11+11+11) minutes. thanks goes to detta, natasha, rené, evi, mirjam, liza, kat, cris, afla and chiel for making this happen... each track has a context and concept for/by all involved, which proved challenging with the limitations of time for composing and recording. it was a great day, with loads of laughter.
on november 17 i was involved in another project i wrote briefly about last month.. i arranged an orchestral work based on julian nott's wallace & gromit theme (i've still got the tune running through my head!). it was performed at the roundhouse theatre in chalk farm, london, by the young person's concert foundation orchestra, who are pro muso's from around london. the foundation is a charity for kids... the musicians lead workshops and perform for children all around the united kingdom. for this particular concert, each work was arranged by a different composer/arranger and we had the option to conduct it.. of course i jumped upon this opportunity and absolutely loved it! after a crash course in orchestral conducting i managed to do pretty well (i think!). so my head is a-buzz with inspiration to write another orchestral work and conduct it myself... i'll keep you posted on my progress!!
mmm so i'm going to pause there so i can get back to some work.. i'll sort out some recordings this week from another group i've been playing with and upload some before i head off to the gambia.. happy ventures out there to all who read this! rae :)
Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
A New Beginning...
so. i've arrived in london. this first month has flown by and i really wish i'd written before now coz by golly it's been an interesting, busy and crazy time.
after i said goodbye to my 'stuff' in the storage units, i closed the door and walked away with a refreshingly free feeling. it was kinda weird tho, as i've been quite used to having just enough space & things around me to create music and make my life progress.. my piano, vibraphone, my office of business tricks and pieces, books, never ending stand of hats to wear.... now however, i'm limited to a bag of clothes, a lap-top, my mellophone and my conducting baton. literally yes, my baton came with me and i'm looking forward to the first time i use it in a few weeks time, conducting an orchestra who will be performing an arrangement i'm orchestrating of julian nott's wallace & gromit theme. but more about that later...
so my first surprise came at the melbourne airport when i was astonished that the beers were cheaper than the northcote social club. wowweee! how things change and we just accept (the story of my life in the past month!!).
to cut a very long story short... don't try looking for a place to live in london in september. i can't explain it really, but it's a million times worse than what i imagined. the novelty of moving around every couple of days between hotels and friend's places wore off after a week.. believe me there's some really awesomeful hotels here.
i knew it would come to an end tho.... and now i find myself looking at a view like this, from my place in world's end... this is first light on saturday morning.
world's end (great name huh!) is south west london city.. it's a bit of a trek to school, but transport is good (waaay better than melbourne) and with a view like this it really feels like i can escape the city (kind-of) with some perspective anyway. here's another pic of the main city zoomed in a bit, later in the day...
the guildhall school of music has been great. the course is full-on and will definitely keep me crazy busy. it'll be a bit more challenging to practice piano & vibes now (it's not really practical to have either at home, so the only way is to book practice rooms at school~ it can be very competitive).. late nights and early mornings... bring it on!
i'm met some great people from all over the world. and as part of the masters there's visiting tutors each week who show us their work, create practical projects for us for the week and really make us think. very interesting indeed. when i blog more regularly i can explain things as i go...
the guildhall is based at the barbican, which is the largest multi-arts centre in europe. it's a great place to be visiting everyday, loads of things to see and experience. with so many artists living and working around the area, it's possible to fill each day with pure entertainment! work must be done however, so i'm at the drawing board today, catching up on emails and starting the orchestration of julian nott's wallace & gromit theme.
i have had the chance to see some great music tho... just yesterday i saw a string quartet from the london symphony orchestra (lso st luke's) perform steve reich's different trains, for tape and string quartet. there was an interesting discussion about it afterwards too... there's lots of masterclasses, concerts and talks about various music subjects daily really. tuesday at the barbican is lucinda childs dance company performance, which i'll go along to as well... anyway, the list goes on!!!
anyway, over and out for now.. work to be done! more news soon...
wintery sunshine from london,
rae :)
after i said goodbye to my 'stuff' in the storage units, i closed the door and walked away with a refreshingly free feeling. it was kinda weird tho, as i've been quite used to having just enough space & things around me to create music and make my life progress.. my piano, vibraphone, my office of business tricks and pieces, books, never ending stand of hats to wear.... now however, i'm limited to a bag of clothes, a lap-top, my mellophone and my conducting baton. literally yes, my baton came with me and i'm looking forward to the first time i use it in a few weeks time, conducting an orchestra who will be performing an arrangement i'm orchestrating of julian nott's wallace & gromit theme. but more about that later...
so my first surprise came at the melbourne airport when i was astonished that the beers were cheaper than the northcote social club. wowweee! how things change and we just accept (the story of my life in the past month!!).
to cut a very long story short... don't try looking for a place to live in london in september. i can't explain it really, but it's a million times worse than what i imagined. the novelty of moving around every couple of days between hotels and friend's places wore off after a week.. believe me there's some really awe
i knew it would come to an end tho.... and now i find myself looking at a view like this, from my place in world's end... this is first light on saturday morning.
world's end (great name huh!) is south west london city.. it's a bit of a trek to school, but transport is good (waaay better than melbourne) and with a view like this it really feels like i can escape the city (kind-of) with some perspective anyway. here's another pic of the main city zoomed in a bit, later in the day...
the guildhall school of music has been great. the course is full-on and will definitely keep me crazy busy. it'll be a bit more challenging to practice piano & vibes now (it's not really practical to have either at home, so the only way is to book practice rooms at school~ it can be very competitive).. late nights and early mornings... bring it on!
i'm met some great people from all over the world. and as part of the masters there's visiting tutors each week who show us their work, create practical projects for us for the week and really make us think. very interesting indeed. when i blog more regularly i can explain things as i go...
the guildhall is based at the barbican, which is the largest multi-arts centre in europe. it's a great place to be visiting everyday, loads of things to see and experience. with so many artists living and working around the area, it's possible to fill each day with pure entertainment! work must be done however, so i'm at the drawing board today, catching up on emails and starting the orchestration of julian nott's wallace & gromit theme.
i have had the chance to see some great music tho... just yesterday i saw a string quartet from the london symphony orchestra (lso st luke's) perform steve reich's different trains, for tape and string quartet. there was an interesting discussion about it afterwards too... there's lots of masterclasses, concerts and talks about various music subjects daily really. tuesday at the barbican is lucinda childs dance company performance, which i'll go along to as well... anyway, the list goes on!!!
anyway, over and out for now.. work to be done! more news soon...
wintery sunshine from london,
rae :)
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