Beavering away.....,...,

In my studio this week.........after an intensive weekend's music making at our annual Winter Music Camp. We workshopped Mendelssohn's Reformation symphony as the major work along with a number of shorter, easier pieces........(Debussy - En Bateau; some bits of Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach and an amusing Leroy Anderson piece - The Waltzing Cat (complete with miaows and dog barks!)
So it's back to work this week - a lot of finishing off to get done.

String Camp 2013

I'm leaving for String Camp today - a whole week of music-making and NO cooking!

But, before I go......here's how the doll I am working on is coming along. She's coming to string camp to hopefully have some clothes made.

Winterlude......The Joy Of Music

I have just spent a weekend away on a winter music camp organized by our community orchestra. Around fifty five enthusiastic instrumentalists gathered at Ulverstone for an intensive few days of music-making.

This is Willem van der Vis, from Melbourne, who was our conductor and mentor for the weekend - he managed to squeeze a reasonable facsimile of a Beethoven Symphony from us by Sunday afternoon!

The ensemble

Fraser - a study in concentration.

An uncharacteristic quite moment in the brass section!

A "backache of basses"!

The loneliness of the long-distance percussionist!

There was time to fly.........

.....play a spot of golf

or just stroll on the beach.

It was a wonderful weekend full of music, laughter and cameraderie. Can't wait to do it again!

Musical Kitty?

I was playing my violin a little while ago as one is wont to do on a Sunday morning................I turned around and look who had taken up residence in my violin case and appeared to be listening intently to what I was playing!

There is a bit of a story behind this kitten - my grand-daughter was staying at a friend's house one night a few weeks ago. On their way to the school bus stop next morning they found two tiny, abandonned kittens in the middle of the road. Of course they had to rescue them! One went to live with the friend, the other now seems to have adopted us as his new family. He can't have been more than four weeks old when she found him and very skinny and starving. He took to solid food very well, but of course, got a dose of the runs before his little tummy adjusted. He's growing so fast and is a feisty, playful little cat. I wonder if he knows how lucky he is, that a soft-hearted fifteen year old found him? I think he probably does!

Making Music

I've just participated in a wonderful Winter Workshop that our community orchestra hosts every year. I had great intentions of taking lots of pictures, but my camera battery was almost flat and - silly me - I forgot to take a fully charged spare. So I only got this one photo of Darren our trombonist extraordinaire before the battery gave up the ghost.

Our guest conductor for the workshop was Willem van der Vis from Melbourne. It was hard work and we attempted some challenging pieces, but it was totally absorbing and a great way to spend an evening and a day. We always end these workshops with an "open rehearsal" in front of an audience - not a performance as such, because the four works are still works-in-progress. We will probably play at least some of them at our end of year concert.

If you've ever been a little tempted to join a community orchestra, my advice would be to just jump in and do it! It's a wonderful, fun supportive way to enjoy making music with others and you might surprise yourself with what you can do! I play second oboe in our orchestra, but I'm also playing first violin with the "Piccolo Strings" which is a training orchestra - strings only. I've been learning violin for about a year and a half from a wonderful , positive teacher who also happens to be the usual conductor of our orchestra.

Update

I spent a wonderful long weekend last weekend at Portarlington at the National Celtic Music Festival. So many fiddles, so little time! Unfortunately I forgot to pack my camera, so I couldn't take any pictures - you'll just have to take my word for it that it was a wonderful festival in a beautiful location on the Bellarine Peninsula.

So I'm back at the coalface now and catching up in the studio. Here are a couple of recently-completed dolls. The one with reddish hair is part of an order and the other Izannah Walker-style doll will be listed in my Etsy store soon.

I will be exhibiting work in a winery in August in an event called "ArtEntwine" which teams up artists with local wineries. This event will take place in late August as part of the Regional Arts Conference. To that end I am working on a number of small sculptural pieces. The one here is a work in progress.

What A Blast!

Well, I have landed back in reality with a thump after a fabulous week of music-making. It's hard to pick a highlight of the week, but the Cajun and Scottish fiddlers were fantastic. Playing in a chamber group was a new and wonderful experience, as was playing in an orchestra with ages from around seven to eighty. It was also wonderful to behold teenaged boys and girls getting so much positive experience from playing the violin - suddenly they were in a millieu where what they do is not "nerdy" but normal - I think many of them went away with great memories.

Here are a few pics...........from top to bottom: Tout-le-monde (sans moi!); double bassists - check out 9 y.o. Monty with his mini-sized bass; early morning swimmers; my chamber group; Colin, the Scottish fiddler.

Off to String Camp

Well, my bags are packed and I'm almost ready to head off in the morning for a week of intensive music making at LYCO's annual string camp. I will be "camp mother" to a cabin full of 14 - 16 year old girls..........might be interesting?

I'm really a wind player so in order to not feel like a fish out of water and at least be able to participate a bit, I've been learning to play the violin since November. Surprised myself how much I enjoy it. Wish someone had put one of these into my hands when I was six!

The camp is at the beach near Ulverstone - a great setting - and the weather looks set fair, so I think it is going to be a fabulous week.

Adios, amigos! I won't be posting until next week.