Updating news after
a very long break!
Well, it's
a while since this page has been updated - mea culpa!  has
done a few perfomances since the last update, all of which have gone very
well and been most enjoyable for both the audience and us.
Latest News
In the immediate future, on November 30 at the
Italo Australian Club Forrest, we’re planning a concert
with a Canberra accordion ensemble, featuring national champion accordionist
Anton Wurzer. We intend to play the Canberra premiere performance of the
new Betty Beath piece "Though I travel far…..I do not forget
". (This is thanks to Geoff Barber of WAMO (West Australian Mandolin
Orchestra) and AMMA (Australian Mandolin Music Association) for having
commissioned the piece. It’s quite a challenging piece, so the timeframe
for preparation will be important for us.
After our Italian Cultural Centre performance, Nick Green,
one of our bass players, asked if we would perform at Amity
at Tumut, a nursing home in Tumut where his ailing grandfather
was residing. On July 12th we overcame the logistics of getting a dozen
musicians to travel two and a half hours to a gig and arrive at the same
time, arriving in Tumut (via Maccas), in time to set up and briefly chat
with the residents before playing. Knowing we had an elderly audience,
we’d prepared a repertoire of tangos and other pieces popular in
the 1940s and 50s, a Planxty O’Carolan concerto (7 movements of
Irish pieces) and a new collection of favourite Italian pieces. It went
down a storm, with clapping and humming accompanied several of the tunes!
It took us an hour or more to extricate ourselves from enquiries and lively
conversation over cuppas and Amity’s freshly baked scones before
we could pack up and leave. An open offer is there now for us to return.
It all made a good day out.
On Sunday 30 March
joined Milena Cifali in her Classical Guitar Recital at the Italian Cultural
Centre in Forrest, where she performed works from her new CD Continuum
as well as new original works. The recital featured performances by combinations
of guitar, mandolin, didgeridoo and flute, and the COZMO ensemble. Fifty
per cent of proceeds were donated equally to the Italian Cultural Centre
and the newly-formed Canberra Classical Guitar Association. By the way,
Milena has recently been nominated for an Aria award – congratulations!
performed
at the Albert Hall on March 10th for the 80th anniversary
of the Hall on Canberra Day, in aid of saving the Hall from commercial
developers. The Albert Hall Canberra Day Event Organiser was delighted
with our presence and performance and commented that the sound of our
mandolin ensemble was delightful, perfect, beautiful and other glowing
adjectives (she loved us!!).This was a particularly significant function,
in that the Albert Hall is struggling not to be destroyed by developers.
We played for breakfast and brunch patrons on the terrace of Albert Hall
from around 8am to10am, before the formal part of the day began. COZMO
invited Milena Cifali, a highly-regarded Canberra-based classical guitarist
(recently nominated for an Aria award – congratulations!) to join
us for this performance. Milena graciously agreed and bolstered our guitar
section on the day, sight-reading the whole set (thanks, Mili!). It was
a most successful performance, with many audience members personally expressing
their appreciation. Our set was followed by speeches to do with the 80th
birthday and in support of the Friends of the Albert Hall movement. A
most interesting pastiche of song, drama and poetry was presented by Canberra
Girls’ Grammar students depicting events of local and national importance
in the life of the Albert Hall and its role in the National Capital’s
growth.
Our Newest Arrivals
Welcome
to Mary Firkins and David Harcourt - very competent additions to our guitar
section! Their sense of time helps to keep us all together.
Welcome
to Peter Mudge, a 17 year old double bass player (and bassoonist), who
had his introduction to
last week, and survived the first rehearsal with flying colours! ! :)
Past News
Music
at the Creek Festival
Friday 16 – Sunday
18 November 2007.
has been accepted to perform at The Creek! We’ll
be playing on Sunday 18 November, late morning (exact time still to be
advised). All
performers will be given a weekend ticket (the Early Bird
price is $55 this year) which includes camping. This is a really great
local festival, and for people who have never been to it, it's a great
opportunity to enjoy some wonderful folk, blues and world music!
Welcome
to Dianne Cross and (welcome back to) Sharon Casey on 1st mandolin and
especially to Andrew Botha on guitar. Dianne's vast experience will be
of enormous benefit to the ensemble and her dry wit.will be enjoyed by
all. Sharon will add her Celtic flavoured mandolin to the firsts, while
Andrew, joining the guitar section, will help fill out the rhythm section
(while further lowering our average age! :) As at August 2007, probably
has the lowest mean age of any mandolin ensemble in Australasia - we're
really aiming to fulfill the FAME objective of encouraging young mandolinists.
Gig at Kawaree
Lodge
played at Kawaree Lodge on Sunday 19 August at 2.00pm.What
a great gig! Despite some members not being present due to emergencies
and hospital incarcerations, we played really well, and the audience was
highly appreciative, requesting the Tango Appassionata as an
encore. Our first performance of Handel's Suite No. 4 went off
without a hitch. Congratulations, everyone! :) Photos will be available
shortly, courtesy of Christine Allon.
Sydney
International Mandolin Festival
Sunday 6 –
Sunday 13 January 2008:
will be providing a generous subsidy to each full-time dependent student
and pensioner COZMOnaut attending,(as far as we know, the only FAME ensemble
to offer this), and FAME is also offering a generous subsidy to participating
students.
has inexpensive off-site accommodation organised. Members can refer to
previous Notes
issues for further information.
Also, check out the
Festival website: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~fameweb/FAMESydney2008.htm
for full details of the Festival.
Mandolins Victoria's Music
Week: MV07
A joint venture of the Melbourne
Mandolin Orchestra and Concordia Guitar and Mandolin Ensemble, MV07
took place in Melbourne from 8 - 14 January 2006. Two members of
attended, and enjoyed the week enormously.
Christmas Celebrations
nauts
celebrated the end of their first year as an ensemble and also celebrated
the festive season with drinks and a BBQ on Wednesday 27 December at the
home of its President, Col Bernau.
Sydney Balalaika Orchestra
in Concert
On the weekend of 9 and 10 December
2006, we hosted the Sydney
Balalaika Orchestra in Canberra for a Saturday workshop
and Sunday concert. The weekend went really well, with the workshop held
at Marist College on Saturday, and the concert on Sunday held at Canberra
Grammar (Monaro Crescent Red Hill) in the Tim Murray Theatre.
The workshop involved members of
the Sydney Balalaika Orchestra, and
members of the public. Pieces played included "The Birch Tree"
and "In the Village" from the repertoire of the SBO, and we
contributed Russell Reinhardt's "AGREP Tango" and his arrangement
of Faure's "Romance sans Paroles" (Thank you, Russell :) ).
After a rewarding four hours of rehearsal and a wonderful lunch, we retired
to a well-deserved dinner and hours of convivial conversation.
Sunday brought the concert, and with
it, horribly hot weather. Luckily the Tim Murray Theatre is well airconditioned,
and after a 90 minute setup and sound check, we welcomed an eager audience
who enjoyed an amazing concert from the SBO. Members of
and those who attended the workshop were fortunate enough to be invited
to play on the two pieces that we'd workshopped the previous day.
The SBO is a Sydney-based not-for-profit
orchestra, established in 1966 to play and promote traditional Russian
folk music. This internationally-acclaimed orchestra and has toured on
numerous occasions to China, the birthplace of its outstandingly talented
Musical Director Victor Serghie and one of its founding members Vladimir
(Volodya) Savitsky. The SBO has also toured Russia - most recently in
July 2005 to both China and Russia - where they were such a huge success
that they have been invited back in 2007! The orchestra is now busy holding
concerts in Australia to fund their return.
Volodya plays a Kazakhstani
4-string bass dombra and a Russian 3-string prima domra,
amongst other instruments. He moved to Canberra a few years ago with his
family but had not found a new orchestra to play with until he found
last weekend. He has honoured its members by agreeing to join its ranks.
Welcome, Volodya!
All the members of the SBO are superb
musicians, as no doubt all in the audience last Sunday would agree. Of
special interest are its youngest members, all of whom have been playing
their instruments for a number of years - 17 year old Nikolai and 23-year
old Melitsa, who both play the bayan (a kind of button accordion,
which weigh 18 kgs each!), 17 year old multi-instrument percussionist
Sonya, and 19 year old Robin who plays the prima domra. The SBO
also has a virtuoso cymbalom player, Lucy Voronov, whose extraordinary
skills have to be seen to be believed! Sonia Cece sings the SBO's repertoire
of Russian folk songs with moving passion and lyrical skill, complementing
and completing the rich and complex sounds of this brilliant group. |
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