Ask a musician
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Music students are invited to ask ACO musicians for advice. Subjects you might like to ask about include string techniques, style, interpretation and career pathways. We're redeveloping our website with a proper blog section for this, but meanwhile, please email your question to education@aco.com.au and we will post the question and response here.
Letter from Asia
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Jessica Block, our Deputy General Manager, is touring Korea and Japan with the ACO.
I recently heard Seoul described as 'Tokyo's wild younger brother' and it certainly has that feel - it's warm, engaging and fast-moving, a kind of frontier town with a slightly dangerous edge...
Our first day was a busy one, with different musicians playing very different gigs.
First, a quartet played for the children of the Give out Love orphanage. This is an orphanage sponsored by the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Seoul and it caters for disabled children, from tiny babies to much older children. The orphanage is controversial - its Pastor is currrently engaged in a series of lawsuits, including one involving his 'baby box' He keeps a box outside his Church, into which unwanted babies are deposited. There have been objections to this, on the grounds that it makes it easy for people to throw away their babies but the argument against that seems obvious - what would happen to those babies if the box wasn't there?
Anyway, we'd been told that the children would be around 5 - 10 years old so it was a bit of a surprise when a number of volunteers arrived pushing prams and carrying toddlers, as well as holding the hands of much older, severely disabled children. Steve, Melissa, Maddy and Bec played a lovely concert for the kids, who behaved beautifully and it was a wonderful experience for all concerned. It was the first ACO private concert that I recall attending with a tiny baby in my arms and certainly one we'll all remember for a long time to come.
After the performance, Maddy and I were interviewed by a number of reporters. The first question they asked us (I gather this is common in Korea) was 'are you married'? Maddy laughed and blushed and said no but she hoped to, one day. I considered saying 'no but I do have a child' but given the audience, decided against it.
The following evening was our main public concert in Seoul, at the Seoul Arts Center, featuring our Korean harp soloist, Hyun-Sun Na. The concert hall there is large and well appointed and the program, which included all of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, was extremely enthusiastically received - the audience cheered and stamped its feet and the ACO was brought back to play three encores! One interesting feature which purists might hate but most audience members seem to appreciate, is a big screen behind the musicians, which identifies each movement being played.
The concert was a great success. Immediately after the concert, our guests attended the reception which had been organised by our presenter, the Korean International Festival of Music. We were treated to several speeches in Korean by various dignitaries. The Australian Ambassador, Mr Sam Gerovich, then made a most warm and generous speech about the ACO, after which drinks were served to a large crowd of guests. We are very grateful to the Australia-Korea Foundation for their support of our Korean tour.
Then it was off to Japan with a bus the next morning at 6 am and then a flight to Kanazawa.
Kanazawa, on the coast of Japan, is a delightful place - warm and sunny with quiet, wide streets and a beautiful concert hall. Most of us had a delicious lunch at the local fish markets - I was taken there by Cindy Lineburg of Austrade in Osaka, who has lived in Japan for 14 years and speaks fluent Japanese. She tells me she is still stared at by most people, though she feels thoroughly at home and she has overheard (and joined in) many spectacular conversations with people over the years, who unwisely converse about her in her presence until she reveals that she has understood every word. Cindy organised the concert for us with Mr Hori in Kanazawa and it was a delight for the Orchestra to play there, as it has been in all of the concert halls here so far. The audience was quieter than our Korean audience, but just as enthusiastic and the concert was extremely well attended.
Fukuoka was next, with a very different feel. It's a big city on a river and an exciting place to stay, with a very good concert hall one hour's drive away, in Kita-kyushu. This was our first concert with the superb Japanese harp soloist, Naoko Yoshino and on our first day, Aiko took Naoko and some of us to a most unusual restaurant. It specialises in seafood which arrives at the table still living and some of it is eaten while it's still breathing, or just after it's breathed its last. Some prawns arrived, for example, thrashing around in a bowl of sake and then as they subsided into their last alcoholic bath, an elegant, elderly lady wearing a kimono very efficiently decapitated them and shelled them. We ate them immediately, raw and their heads were returned to us later, deliciously deep fried and also eaten whole. I drew the line at the abalone, which were still moving in their shells but we were fascinated by the squid, which reddened as you drew your chopsticks over each section of its sectioned but still living, body. Then we walked along the river and ate delicious bowls of ramen noodles at a crowded riverside stall with plum wine and beer, finishing the evening watching live eels killed and eaten on the spot.
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The concert in Kita-Kyushu was great, at the lovely Hibiki Hall, where members of the audience had remembered us from 2008 and returned to hear us again! Naoko was truly wonderful to listen to and the Orchestra played a beautiful program, again very well received. Japanese audiences are the best behaved audiences I've ever experienced - there is almost no coughing and no talking - my kind of place.
And now here we are in Tokyo, where we played two concerts on Tuesday at the exquisite Hakuju Hall in Tokyo. The program featured Grieg, Part, Ravel and then Tchaikovsky, with Piazzolla's Oblivion the encore each time. Aiko's gorgeous parents (and several cousins) arrived bearing boxes of chocolates and cookies for us all - they took some of us out of tea between the two concerts. Having Aiko with us has been wonderful, as it was having her with me in Tokyo in June - she sends us all texts about the right places to shop, she looks after us all beautifully and she translates Richard after each concert - she has also encouraged her entire family and all their friends to come to the concerts.
Two nights ago saw the ACO perform a private concert at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, for Servcorp. The Orchestra performed a beautiful concert in the Embassy’s auditorium, followed by a most elegant supper at the Ambassador’s Residence. The Ambassador, Mr Bruce Miller, spoke most warmly about the Orchestra, followed by Richard’s affectionate tribute to Alf Moufarrige’s and Servcorp’s generous support and then, after the concert, a toast by Mr Moufarrige to the people of Japan.
And then last night, 13 October, the final concert at Kioi Hall in Tokyo, featuring Schoenberg’s exquisite Transfigured Night. Enthusiastic applause greeted the performance, which was followed by an Reception at the venue, hosted again by Mr Miller, Australian Ambassador to Japan. The Australia Japan Foundation’s support for the Tour was gratefully acknowledged, along with the support of each guest present at the Reception. Richard took the opportunity to pay tribute to each member of the Orchestra and the Tour ended with a very late night supper followed by a visit to a karaoke bar until the wee hours...who knew that Eriikka could sing so beautifully or that Chris could do a near perfect imitation of Sir Les Paterson. Back to Australia tomorrow, both glad to be going home and sorry to be leaving this enchanted, slightly other worldly existence.
Being on this Tour has been a wonderful experience for me, both professionally and personally – I have loved every concert and have also greatly enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with the musicians, on buses, planes and in Alice’s case, three early morning runs. It is a great honour to work for this organisation and I felt that very keenly during the concerts in particular, watching the thrilled responses of audiences everywhere we played. The Orchestra is firmly committed to a regular presence in both Korea and Japan and we hope to return to both countries, at the earliest possible opportunity.
Finally, I want to make special mention of Erin McNamara, our extraordinary Tour Manager. She is incredibly well organised and always several steps ahead of all of us - she holds the whole Tour together and the musicians and I marvel continuously at her ability to set up the concerts, deal with the constant stream of questions and requests from all of us, both tiny and huge and all with the same unfailing patience, efficiency, courtesy and sense of humour - she can even speak several phrases in Japanese. She is amazing and I hope she knows just how much we value her.
Bravo to Richard and the whole Orchestra, on a truly memorable Tour!
ABAF Awards
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
At the Australian Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) Awards in Perth ACO General Manager Tim Calnin, and Poppy Fassos, the Commonwealth Bank’s General Manager Group Sustainability & Partnerships, accepted the National Production Resource Group Commitment Award. This prestigious award is given to the most outstanding arts partnership of over 7 years.
For more than 23 years, the partnership between the ACO and the Commonwealth Bank has helped bring world class music to people all over the country. We are proud of the way this special partnership has grown and developed over the years - as each of our organisations has grown - to now encompass both the annual National Tour Partnership and the loan to the ACO of the Bank’s rare 1759 Guadagnini violin, played by Principal Second Violin Helena Rathbone.
Helena Rathbone and the Commonwealth Bank Guadagnini violin on STVDIO
The ACO would also like to congratulate our extraordinary friend and supporter, Medici Patron and Patron of the ACO Instrument Fund, Peter Weiss AM, who received the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Leadership Award. This is given to an individual, family, group, or foundation who through their leadership, advocacy, practice and example has encouraged increased philanthropic giving to Australia’s cultural life.
Peter Weiss has been a supporter of the ACO for over 20 years and recently spearheaded the development of the ACO Instrument Fund – an initiative established to buy fine instruments for ACO musicians to play – by donating $1m (the biggest donation in the ACO’s history). The Fund’s first purchase is a 1728/1729 Stradivari violin, played by Assistant Leader Satu Vänskä. Peter has allowed the (previously confidential) magnitude of this donation to be publicised, in the hope that it will encourage others to follow his lead and support the Fund.
Peter’s passion for music stems from his love for the cello – a love that inspired him to purchase a rare 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri filius Andreæ cello, valued at over $1m, for the exclusive use of the ACO’s principal cello, Timo-Veikko Valve.
Mr Weiss also has significant relationships with many other Australian arts organisations. He leads by example and has used his influence, warmth and infectious sense of fun to energise music and the arts in Australia. He is a leading philanthropist, an ambassador and a true friend of the ACO.
As Peter himself has said "When you put me into the ground and spread the dust, I'd be far more rested to know that my cause for being here was to fund the arts rather than making frocks."
STVDIO films about the ACO instruments
Friday, 26 August 2011
STVDIO television channel has release the six short films they have made about ACO musicians and their extraordinary instruments. Watch them on our YouTube channel.
May Education Events
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
May has been a busy month for the ACO’s Education Program. Combined Schools Workshops have been held in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney with participants from over 60 different schools. The Picton Strings also had their second workshop for the year and then performed alongside an ACO Ensemble in the first of a series of community concerts in Picton. The concert sold out and the students played very well, with young musicians playing solo in Bach’s Concerto for 2 Violins and Biber’s Bittalia. Richard and an ACO Quartet made the first visit for the year to Matraville Soldiers Settlement School for another incredibly special event. Children from the school choir sang with the musicians during a concert compared by their ACMF music teacher, Rachel Scott, who once again expertly led the children on a journey through the music.
**ACMF stands for the Australian Children’s Music Foundation. The ACMF has been running a weekly music program at Matraville Soldiers Settlement Public School for the last four years.
Picton Strings Begins
Monday, 7 March 2011
Following the success of the Parramatta Strings project, the ACO has begun a new 3-year project to support the development of music and instrumental teaching programs around Picton in the Wollondilly Shire on the outskirts of Sydney.
On 24 February, ACO musicians Zoe Black (violin), Veronique Serret (violin), Caroline Henbest (viola) and Danny Yeadon (cello) visited Picton to meet the students and work on Vivaldi Concerto for Four Violins and Bartók Rumanian Dances. The group was incredibly well prepared, making it an easy task for our musicians to start to shape and refine the music. Soloists from the Picton Strings played the lead parts in both works and performed it for an audience that included the Mayor of Wollondilly Shire, as well as parents and teachers.
The next workshop will be on 27 May, and will be followed by a community concert at the Wollondilly Shire Hall, a beautiful old heritage building in the middle of town.