2016, another year, lots of variety

My contract with OV ended in early December with a fun 5 @ 5 concert featuring the cello section. I was in Bach's Brandenburg concerto no 6 - such fun to play.

There was more Bach in early Jan, this time at A=415 with a baroque group performing Cantata BWV 248V in St John's Southgate. It took the bass 48 hours to settle down to the lower pitch, which is a semitone lower than it is used to.

And between the two was the annual New Years Eve concert with the Auzzie Pops Orchestra. This year we stayed in Melbourne rather than partying the fee away on the Sydney tour! The accountant is happy about that. So the poor bass went from a Mario Lanza medley to Bach in the space of 3 days. Variety really is the spice of life.

My next project was the Residential Summer String Camp at Camp Clayton, near Ulverstone, Northern Tasmania. A huge mob of musos ranging from 7-70 were divided into 4 orchestra and 20 chamber ensembles and yours truly was the bass tutor this year. As the picture attests, we survived a tiring by fun week.

At time of writing I am working on a Beatles cover band gig in Hamer Hall. Great arrangements by Nick Buc. Such a lot of fun.

OV Contract coming to an end

Apologies to my regular readers (er, both of you!) for my tardiness in posting update on my website and blog. I have been busy, but that is no excuse.

My contract as acting princpal bass with OV ends at the end of November. It has been full, challenging and varied. Solo, chamber, small orchestra, ballet, opera and full symphony orchestra repertoire have provided lots of fun and notes.

It all started with a symphony concert and lots of chamber gigs in Bendigo in August, see photo.

A six week ballet season was next up, with Stravinskys Symphony in 3 Movements followed by the Australian Ballet's new version of Sleeping Beauty, including a CD recording.

October was a month of smaller projects such as the Herald Sun Aria competition, Mostly Mozart and Morning Melodies. And we are now in the opera season, where the main course is Mozart's glorious Marriage of Figaro.