Peninsula Summer Music Festival

It is almost that time of the year again, and the 2009 Peninsula Summer Music festival is going to be even bigger and better!
Ironwood features in a big way this year, with two concerts of very different repertoire.
Ironwoods first festival concert, called Viennese Soirée at 5pm on the 31st of December at Main Ridge Estate celebrates the new year with a fun filled program of works ranging from Mozart to Strauss Jnr to welcome the new year Viennese style. This is an interesting program for Ironwood, along side regular repertoire such as works by Mozart and Haydn, we will be exploring the vast amount of Viennese repertoire written in the early to mid 19th Century including works by Johann Strauss Jnr and Senior, Joseph Lanner, and Johann Schrammel.

Here is an excerpt from the program notes explaining these Viennese gems:
The early nineteenth century saw Viennese dance music gaining enormous popularity. Despite what we are used to hearing today, the first compositions were intended for small chamber groups in intimate settings. Joseph Lanner, along with Johann Strauss Sr were known as the original ‘Waltz Kings’ of Vienna. They began their careers as violinists in a string quartet playing in cafés, restaurants and parties. Lanner found much success as a composer, as did Strauss, and their friendship unfortunately transformed into rivalry. Lanner was equally as popular as Strauss in Vienna, and his Steyrische Tänze of 1841, based on folk melodies from the Austrian province of Steyermark (Styria), are amongst his best loved compositions.
Strauss Sr’s Bajaderen waltzes were composed in the peak of his popularity in 1832 and were dedicated to the crown prince of Spain. The melodies are based on Auber’s opera The God Brahma and the Bayaderes.
Johann Schrammel and Johann Strauss Jr represented the next generation of Viennese composer/performers. The former founded the famous Schrammel Quartet with his brother Josef. Their music, based on the folk melodies of old Vienna, became known as ‘Schrammelmusik’ and became famous throughout Europe. Johannes Brahms held Schrammel’s music in the highest regard and was often found in the audience at their public concerts. Kunst und Natur is based on ‘Wien bliebt Wien’ (Vienna is always Vienna) and was one of his most famous marches.
Johann Strauss Jr. was of course the most successful and celebrated composer of mid 18th Century Vienna. He started his career like his father as a chamber musician and before he had reached the peak of his fame, in 1852 when the Annen Polka was composed, he was writing for a relatively small group of instrumentalists. It was first performed in a bandstand in the Prater in Vienna during the festival of St Anne on the 26th of July 1852.

It has been fun putting a quirky program like this together and we know we are going to have a ball playing it!
If you would like a sneak preview, we will be playing some of these works during the ABC live broadcast this Sunday afternoon the 28th of December at 3pm in the Iwaki Auditorium, Melbourne. Please feel free to join us as entry is free, and or tune in your radio to 105.9 ABC Classic FM.

More soon about the other exciting concert Ironwood is playing in the Festival!

Ironwood Live and Unplugged!

Sunday 28 December 2008
3.00pm Sunday Live
With Colin Fox




LIVE BROADCAST
Direct broadcast from the Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Centre, Melbourne
Ironwood Chamber Ensemble
Rachael Beesley, violin
Julia Fredersdorff, violin
Nicole Forsyth, viola
Deirdre Dowling, viola
Nils Wieboldt, cello
Program includes:
Mozart String Quintet in C minor and a selection of shorter pieces anticipating celebration of the New Year!
Concert-goers in Melbourne are welcome. Please be seated by 2.50pm as the performance begins promptly at 3pm. Entry is free.
Producer: Haig Burnell

Musical Mayhem

Apologies to all our readers for disappearing on you;we all got a bit busy in the last month or two...Here's a selection of what Ironwood have been up to:
Last week, Julia, Rachael & Valmai played with Salut in Sydney and Canberra, doing a program in which Mr Handel himself introduced and spoke about his music.
Julia also did two concerts with Latitude 37 in Melbourne and Flinders.
Danny, Alice, Neal & Nicole played a concert with Romanza at the Art Gallery of NSW which was all about the 'stylus phantasticus' - Biber, Schmelzer, Muffat, Buxtehude & JS Bach.
Lots of the Ironwood Workshop participants have been involved in concerts at Sydney Conservatorium of Music - a project about gesture in the cantatas of Scarlatti, directed by musicologist Allan Maddox, and the Early Music Ensemble's semester 2 concerts, directed by Neal, and tutored by Danny & Nicole - the last one being a big French program with Rameau, Lully,& De Lalande.
Nicole & Danny helped to direct some very succesful baroque & new music concerts with MLC School Burwood, with Genevieve Lacey, recorder, as soloist. The Chamber Orchestra of students aged 10-17 played Telemann, Biber, & JS Bach in one concert; and premiered a new piece by Australian composer Damien Barbeler, along with works by Elena Kats-Chernin, Ives, and student composers in the other www.mlcsyd.nsw.edu.au
Danny & Alice have been touring Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, playing Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, Beethoven 8, and the Brahms Double concerto.
Nicole has been richocheting from one end of the repertoire to the other - a world premiere of Nigel Butterley's latest work with Halcyon....and then to the Elgar Festival with Sydney Symphony conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
In between, she's been jamming in session recordings for new films 'Australia' and 'Mao's Last Dancer'. Mao's Last Dancer is the inspiring autobiography of dancer Li Cuxin, who grew up in rural poverty in China, & became a soloist with the Houston & Australian Ballet Companies.
Danny has been back to the UK to play with John Eliot Gardner's English Baroque Soloists (and got his own standing ovation at the Proms!), Neal has been turning his PhD into a book & Julia has made the big move back to Melbourne. Rachael has been very busy in Australia and Europe; she's about to lead Pinchgut Opera's new production of Charpentier's David & Jonathan (THEIR blog ) and is going to guest lead Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in 2009 as well.
PHEW!! you'd think we'd need a rest now, but next week we all begin work at Pinchgut Opera on David & Jonathan, as well as starting rehearsals for Ironwood & Latitude 37 for the Peninsula Summer Music Festival at the end of the year. Danny disappears back to work with EBS for a little while, and then we all meet in February at Bundanon for our next residency...
We'll keep updating during Pinchgut with more adventures (and hopefully a bit of summer surfing in Sydney between rehearsals...)
Nicole

Musica Viva Tour

Ironwood are pleased to announce a tour with Miriam Allen in March next year presented by Musica Viva. The dates are as follows:

Miriam Allan, soprano with Ironwood

-Canberra March 12 7pm Llewellyn Hall, ANU
-Sydney March 14 8pm City Recital Hall, Angel Place
-Sydney March 30 7pm City Recital Hall, Angel Place
-Brisbane March 18 7pm Conservatorium Theatre, Southbank
-Newcastle March 21 7.30pm Concert Hall, Newcastle University Conservatorium
-Perth March 24 7.30pm Perth Concert Hall
-Adelaide March 26 8pm Adelaide Town Hall
-Melbourne March 28 8pm Elisabeth Murdoch hall, Melbourne Recital Centre
-Melbourne March 31 7pm Elisabeth Murdoch hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

For more information click here

Les Vingt-Quatre Violons du Roy

I have recently been playing in a very interesting project in France. It is a reconstruction of the 24 violins of Louis XIV, in which 12 instruments have been specially constructed to play the three inner parts, those of Haute Contre (slightly bigger than a violin), Taille (slightly bigger than a viola), and Quinte (a very big viola comparable to a viola da spalla, supported by a tie around the neck). These instruments all have the same tuning as a viola (ADGC). See the three types of instruments pictured below.


The upper (dessus) part was played on violins, and the bass line on Basses de Violons. In the second half of the 17th Century, the modern violin string family had not yet been standardised and the shape and form of instruments was still highly experimental all over Europe. The title of 24 violins, therefore, does not refer to violins as we know them in modern times, but to the violin family to which all of these instruments belong.

The orginal configuration of the 24 violins was 6 dessus de violons (violins as we know them), 6 Basses de violons (which are like big cellos tuned a tone lower) , and 4 of each of the inner parts which are varying sizes of 'viola like instruments'. This was then complimented by recorders, oboes, traverso flutes, and bassoons as well as theorbos and harpsichord to complement the Basso Continuo group.

The orchestra in the above mentioned form existed in Versailles for no more than 80 years during the middle baroque period, mostly during the reign of Louis XIV. The result of the influence of Jean Baptise Lully, the court composer and musical director from the early 1650s until his death in 1687, the orchestra was created specifically to perform the operas, ballets, and comédie- ballets that Lully wrote. He sometimes performed as a violinist, and, like the King, also as a dancer, but mostly directed the orchestra beating time with his long staff (the famous one that ended up causing his death when he stabbed himself in the foot with it, and it became gangrenous).

The music that Lully wrote during this period revolutionised composition in France, and was to be of considerable influence elsewhere in Europe. Not only was his exploration and expansion of dance forms highly inventive, but his ability to apply the French language to music in such a sensitive way had a massive impact on operatic style, resulting notably in a new style of recitative, closer to recitative accompagnato, rhythmically guided by the language itself.
The instrumentation of the 24 'violins' permitted Lully to write music which was incredibly rich in harmony, therefore creating a full, resonant and extremely powerful texture.

BUT to get back to the subject Julia!.....The interesting point of this project is that in recreating instruments which are designed for the exact tessitura of the parts they are required to play, the resulting sound is so powerful and balanced, that there is absolutely no comparison with the modern day viola (no matter how beautiful their playing is!!). The inner parts are harmonically the most interesting parts in any of Lully's works, and hearing them so clearly is pure joy! Of course, I am not saying that these instruments are BETTER than the viola (that would be asking for trouble), but just more suited to this repertoire. Nevertheless, the problem is that these instruments are unsuitable for playing any other types of music, therefore not really the type of instrument that most people could afford to invest in for such a limited repertoire. Buying a bow for a specific repertoire such as early italian playing, or classical playing is one thing, buying an instrument for 80 years worth of repertoire is ANOTHER!!!

It is fortunate that the French are so proud of their culture, and that the government funded Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles can see the benefit of an endeavour such as this. I feel very lucky to be part of it.

Wildflowers & Walking

Images by Lisa Stewart

It's almost Spring down here in the southern hemisphere. I've got lots of musical things I could tell you about, but will save them until I can show you all some photos as well. In the meantime,I'm adding some outside, spring pics & I urge anyone who lives in Sydney to make a visit to Muogamarra Nature Sanctuary on the next couple of weekends. Just out of Cowan on the Old Pacific Highway.

A very special place, Muogamarra is only open for a few weekends each year, in spring, as it designed to preserve northern Sydney bushland without too much human trampling. The wildflowers are all in bloom and are spectacular; heaths, grevilleas, and even red waratahs. The first time I have seen NSW's state floral emblem growing in the wild!

The Spit to Manly walk is also good for wildflowers,and views of course, and has just been included in a huge new survey of Sydney's coastal and harbour walks..see www.walkingcoastalsydney.com.au Fabulous - you can download all the maps from here.

Happy walking and wildflower viewing!

Time for a change...

So it's that time of year (in the Northern Hemisphere at least!) to update, organise and renew in readiness for the new academic year.

So here's my offering, a new website!

www.rachaelbeesley.com

I've also updated the Ironwood website and Facebook Ironwood group page, so feel free to check them out!

www.ironwoodchamberensemble.com

Rachael:)

My new baby!

Boxes and the Bach Archives

Whilst trying to fit my whole life into 12 Boxes to put on a ship pending my imminent relocation to Australia, I had a lot of time to listen to music, and found myself flitting between myriad styles from Jazz, to Indian wedding music, to electronic, to Chanson Française to the Beatles, to Bach Archives. So it wasn't a trip down memory lane just because of the stuff I was packing, but also for my lucky ears. I love rediscovering old favourites, they become all fresh and shiny once again, yet they will always have that air of nostalgia about them, no matter how long it has been since they saw the inside of my stereo.

I was talking to a friend about one of my all time favourite CDs, and we both agreed that it has to be one of the most beautiful recordings ever made. EVER! Definitely a desert island disc this one.....

It is a collection of works written by members of the Bach family that belonged to and greatly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach. J.S Bach treasured this collection, and took the time to correct some errors, complete missing parts and to write cover pages for some of them.

The large majority of works on this disc are by Johann Christoph Bach, eldest son of Heinrich Bach and uncle of Johann Sebastian. J.S. Bach particularly appreciated the works of his uncle and had performance materials made to perform many of them in church in Liepzig. The Lamento Ach, daß ich Wassers gnug hätte is absolutely exquisite. Listen to this with the translation and make sure you have a box of tissues in close proximity. The most well know of Johann Christoph Bach's compositions is the stunning cantata Meine Freundin, du bist schön, which has a gorgeous chaconne with a beautiful, virtuosic obbligato violin line.

The CD also features the work of Johann Christoph's younger brother, Johann Michael Bach, also a prolific composer and organist of the castle chapel in Arnstadt, then later in Gehren, as well as a motet by Georg Christoph Bach, the brother of Johann Ambrosius (Johann Sebastians Father) based on Psalm 133, and composed for Georg Christoph's birthday in 1689, when both of his brothers came to visit him in Schweinfurt, where he was Kantor.

To have an insight into the musical language of J.S Bach's forefathers is already fortuitous...and the interpretation here is remarkable. The instrumental playing is amazingly expressive, and the singers communication of the text is stunning. Language is so all important in regards to the interpretation and performance of Baroque music. The repertoire of the 17th Century in particular is a style in which instrumentalists must strive to represent the spoken language as well as the musical language of the composer. Obviously when it is your mother tongue it is much more straightforward and in the end, that is what makes this recording so perfect. Here, every single musician understands and FEELS the text. In addition to this, their interpretation has a wonderful spontaneity, that is so often missing because of the cutting and pasting aspect of recording these days.

Funnily enough I am about to perform a cantata of another Bach family member, Johann Nicolaus Bach who was the son of the Johann Christoph Bach that I mentioned above) at the festival Bach en Combrailles in the Auvergne. I will probably run into a certain Rachael Beesley while I am there as well :)

Let's Get Physical

No, not the old Olivia Newton - John video clip! Although that might be a good jumping off point for improvisation...

Nicole here, reporting from various excursion around Sydney's current dance and theatre performances, exploring and building some ideas about how our music making might be expanded, well, physically.

First off, the Australian Theatre for Young People ATYP presented Meryl Tankard's work "VX18504" at the very funky Carriageworks VX18504 was Meryl Tankard's father's service number, and the work looks at all sorts of conflict, personal, at school, and at war, using a variety of spoken, & danced techniques. It was an amazing night from some extraordinary young performers. I got into the final performance - lucky me.

Earlier this week, I went to see a new collaboration between the Sydney Theatre Company and the National Institute of Dramatic Art NIDA directed by Nigel Jamison, who has been known for his work in the physical theatre area for some years, in the UK and Australia. "Gallipoli" is an epic ride through one of Australia's most iconic, and most contested bits of history. This work was a stunning combination of song, contemporary war commentary from historians such as Charles Bean, monologues, and movement, all workshopped by the performers over several months. Go and see it while you can, if you are in Sydney.

In the last couple of weeks, I've also been to see a much more experimental wing of the Sydney Theatre Company; their 'Wharf2Loud' program, which is all new work. "Manna" the work I saw, explored sound in theatre, using newly composed song, soundscapes and folk song. The actors sang most of their parts, and did some of the wierdest bits of cooking I've ever seen on stage!

During our residency at Bundanon last year, we had Adrian Burnett come in to give us some movement & pilates/yoga workshops. Adrian is a freelance choreographer, who has an extensive career in dance, including being a soloist with the Australian Ballet for a number of years. I dont think any of us are about to grace a stage in ballet shoes, but we learnt a lot from Adrian (including which muscles hurt the most, at seven in the morning!), and it's all contributing to a greater awareness of what we do on stage as musicians.

All very interesting and inspiring and causing my little brain to whirr furiously...Stayed tuned..or should that be 'hold that pose'? ;-)

Inspiration

The Red Tree, The Coronation of Poppea, The Band's Visit and Mamma Mia! So what do all these things have in common?? Well they all made me laugh, cry, sing and sigh! I think it's always good to take time out from our own performing world to find inspiration from other artists and art forms. 

So what's this all leading up to? Well a few months packed full of concerts in festivals throughout Europe! Bach in the Bach & Combrailles Festival, Berlioz, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gershwin and Tschaikovsky in the Festival Berlioz, the Festival de Musique La Chaise-Dieu and the Musikfest Bremen with Anima Eterna, Bach in Zermatt with Capriccio Stravagante, Schutz in the Schutz Festival, Den Haag and Schenk in the Berlin Tage fur Alte Muzik with La Suave Melodia plus a few days of teaching in between at the KonCon in The Hague!

Then it's back to OZ for another exciting season with Pinchgut, Salut! and Convivio and then time for the Peninsula Summer Music Festival with Ironwood!! Yeah:)

Rachael

Master of the Great Wardrobe!!

Check out the hilarious sign they had in the toilets at the theatre in Graz! - Julia

La vie bohème

Julia Reporting:
8am this morning - whilst sleepily piling myself and my obedient orange suitcase into the Frankfurt airport shuttle bus, it occurred to me that a musicians life is a little like a game of pinball, we just get pushed (or bus'd or plane'd or train'd) around from place to place. But this mornings trip was different....I was finally travelling back to Paris after well over 2 months of living out of a suitcase. Ironically, after dreaming about unpacking my suitcase for so long, I just can't face it tonight and itis sitting on the floor of my apartment looking heartlessly abandoned and suspiciously full!
Even though it is a difficult lifestyle at times, it has it's equal share of benefits. Following the Concert in the beautiful city of Graz, where I stayed in the hotel with the funny pillows (see this post), we went on to do a couple of concerts with the wonderful soprano, Roberta Invernizzi. We played a program of Bach and Handel in two amazing locations, the Aldersbach Klosterkirche (see photo above) near Passau in Bavaria - a very good example of Baroque architecture (albeit RATHER over the top), and the next day did a 6 hour journey up to Eisenach where we played in St Georges Church. Eisenach was the birth place of J.S Bach. His father was the organist at St Georges Church, and J.S Bach was also baptised there. It was really exciting to be in the church where the young Bach would have spent so much time in his early years...but WE didn't have much time to spend and unfortunately we left for Frankfurt almost straight after the concert, so no time to look at the Bach house and museum (sniff).
We arrived at our hotel last night at midnight, celebrated the birthday of a colleague with a couple of bottles of champagne in the dodgy hotel bar before the detestable sound of my alarm mercilessly wrenched me out of my much needed sleep just a few hours later...what made it easier was the prospect of coming home to my own apartment, my own bed, my own space, a bit of home cooking, and no more weird pillows or buses, or planes for another 3 weeks...I am spending my holidays AT HOME!!!

Flora plans....

Well, the concerts in this season might be over, but the planning for next year, and the years beyond never lets up. We pretty much know what we'll be up to in 2009 - there's another residency at Bundanon, some more workshops and LOTS of concerts(hint: we're travelling further in Australia than we have so far...). We'll tell you in a more formal announcement very soon. In the meantime, we CAN tell you that the first workshop will be May 27 - June 5, at the Boyd Education Centre, Bundanon, NSW. We'll have brochures and hopefully an online application up by the end of the year. You can always check out what is happening at the amazing Boyd property at www.bundanon.com.au

We thought we should introduce our 'Ironwood at Bundanon mascot', Flora (photo above). Flora is some sort of very pink monster,complete with fluffy skirt and handbag, and she's come along on all of our Bundanon adventures so far. We found her in the toyshop at Berry, the gorgeous little town near Bundanon. She watches over all our rehearsals, and likes to get around all the important jobs at Bundanon.

The photos are of us on the Writer's Cottage Verandah during our 2007 residency, and Flora getting around Bundanon, and the Shoalhaven River at Bundanon. All the photos were taken by Lisa, who is doubly talented - an artist and violinist.

Game, Set, Coffee????

For the last two weeks, Ironwood have been in the recording studio- the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Eugene Goosens Hall, on a variety of projects, which we'll tell you about in due course. Julia had to go back to Europe last week - see the post about Austrian pillows (below), and Lisa joined us - adding to the coffee fans in the studio.

Recording is such a different thing from rehearsing and playing concerts. We all like to have our 'creature comforts' with us in the studio,to help our concentration. I like having a coffee first up, to sip as we go through our first takes in the morning, and lots of bananas or apples. Later on, when we're going over & over things, it degenerates into lollies (that's candy for our US readers & sweets for the UK ones...)- particularly red snakes, milkbottles, green frogs & chocolate (any sort, I'm not fussy!). Danny has been known to eat quite a bit of the chocolate as well,(when he's not being virtuous & sticking to his training diet) and you can usually find a strong cup of tea under his music stand.

Julia and Rachael, however, got themselves so organised during this recording! They had a table between them, on which they'd set up bottles of water, fruit, a thermos of tea, and chocolate, as well as all their spare strings, rosin & other string playing paraphenalia. We thought they looked like two tennis players, sitting there sipping their water between takes (or sets), so here's the picture above.

I guess you could say that recording runs on caffiene and sugar mostly, so now I know everyone's coffee order, I thought I might give you all a little guessing game - "Match the Musician to their Coffee Order" The musicians: Rachael, Julia, Lisa, Nicole, Danny. The coffees: Skim Cappucino, Soy Flat White, Green Tea, Flat White (no skim, no soy, no decaf, just coffee!), Soy Latte.

A coffee to anyone who can correctly match the drinkers with their coffees....

Austrian Pillows

Hi, Julia here...I am back in Europe now, and on tour with a bunch of Italians, which means good food, lots of laughter, and very noisy bus trips which never arrive on time. This post has nothing to do with music...Having just arrived in Graz this afternoon, I just wanted to share with you the astounding presentation of pillows at our hotel. They look a bit like fortune cookies...and yes that is just one pillow on each bed...as if making a bed was not complicated enough already!

ABCapers

Ironwood are currently in the throes of recording a CD for ABC classics at the moment... information shall be forthcoming closer to the release date, but in the meantime we wanted to give a sneak preview of what happens BEHIND the scenes, or in this case when B1 and B2 have had a very LONG day down in the depths of Goosens Hall....

Latitude 37 Launch Concert

Last night was the launch concert for Julia Fredersdorff's new trio Latitude 37. Formed with former Den Haag Conservatorium colleagues Laura Vaughan (Gamba) and Donald Nicolson (Harpsichord), Latitude 37 explores the wide range of trio sonata repertoire from the baroque period. Their first concert combined repertoire from two centuries and 3 countries including works by Selma, Buxtehude, Marais, Telemann and the fantastic 5ème Pièce de Clavecin by Rameau.
Much to everyones delight the response to the concert was very enthusiastic and Dante's upstairs in Fitzroy was packed out with an audience of over 100 people! Rachael was there to give her support and her glowing and encouraging smiles were much appreciated by the group! Everyone stayed to celebrate the occasion afterwards chatting over a glass of bubbly.
Tomorrow ABC radio are recording the program for broadcast and we will be sure to keep you informed once a broadcast date and time have been determined.
It was great to see such a response to early music in Melbourne, may this trend continue!!Thanks to all those who came to support the group, it is always nice to see friendly faces in the audience.

A Little (Beachside?) Romance

Ironwood is busy rehearsing for its' next lot of concerts - Brahms String Sextet G major; a Georges Onslow String Quintet & a Mendelssohn 'Capriccio' - a lovely little fragment for string quartet. Quite a departure from the last couple of weeks of classical and modern repertoire.

Great fun, and great to explore all the portamento, shifting and vibrato of the 19th century. Ironwood this week is made up of Alice Evans & Lisa Stewart (violins); Nicole Forsyth & Valmai Coggins (viola); Danny Yeadon & James Beck (cell0).

We have two concerts in this series - Thursday 3 July at Elizabeth Bay House and Saturday 5 July 5.30 for 6pm at North Head, Manly in the Former Artillery School Ballroom,Sydney Harbour Trust, North Head Sanctuary. Elizabeth Bay House is sold out, but if you'd like tickets for the North Head one, ring 0419 484 323 to reserve one, or at the door on the night.

Lisa took the photo above, which looks toward Fairy Bower and Shelley Beach, Manly, just below North Head. Paradise, eh? Next concert series on a tropical island, perhaps?....

Sunday Live ABCFM 29th June

It's been a busy month for us....Last Sunday saw Sydney Conservatorium Early Music Ensemble do a concert for ABC Classic FM's show 'Sunday Live' - broadcast right round Australia on radio, and streamed on the ABC's website http://www.abc.net.au/, live from the Verbrugghen Hall at Sydney Conservatorium ('The Con').

Lots of the musicians playing had also been involved in the Ironwood Winter Workshop,either as guest players or as well as being students at the Conservatorium. The program was an all JS Bach one, including two cantatas and Brandenburg 3. Neal Peres da Costa is the intrepid director of EME, as it's locally known; tutors Danny Yeadon, (cello, above left)Nicole Forsyth & Alice Evans also played in the concert.

So it was yet another musical reunion for many people...finishing up with drinks at the local pub. Essential for any end of semester concert!

B Minor Mass

Not strictly an Ironwood event, but lots of us (and Ironwood course members) are playing for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs concert of JS Bach's B minor Mass this week in Sydney's Angel Place Recital Hall.

It was a reunion of sorts from the workshop - the whole second row of firsts & seconds had been at the course! Tonight we've been rehearsing with the full choir and soloists Sara Macliver, Tobias Cole, Tobias Cole , Paul McMahon, Andrew Collis.

David (2nd Bassoon) has been trying to fake Nicole (viola) out by putting his instrument up too early - a common orchestral trick& one which causes fits of giggles...The violas & the bassoons are honorary 'deskies' (that's stand partners to you guys from the USA). We often sit in the same section of the stage in a baroque orchestra. Julia says that bassoons & violas tend to have the same low IQ - we wont say anything about 2nd violinists, will we Julia?!....Neal(harpischord) has been very well behaved, and not displaying his vampire teeth too often...(only on very dissonant chords...).

Pekka Kuusisto (violin, Finland) is in Sydney doing recitals this week for Musica Viva (our national chamber music promoter) & Danny (Ironwood's cellist) has been listening to his concert tonight, on a rare night off from playing. Pekka is a fabulous improviser; those who haven't heard him yet should look up the documentary film '4' (director Tim Slade, producer Joanna Buggy) - Pekka is the solo violinist for Vivaldi's 'Winter' concerto. Danny & Neal feature in the 'Summer' section of the film, which was shot in Northern Australia.

Melbourne Concert

Hi everyone,
Well, we've done our marathon travel weekend, complete with delayed flights. Julia is keeping a photographic record of every delayed flight (oops, I was just about to write 'fright'....;) she has to get. Just as well we had our laptops with new wireless 'dongle' connections to keep us amused & to play on YouTube. 50 points to the techhead who can tell us where the term 'dongle' originated.

We drove from Melbourne Airport to Sorrento; and Nicole displayed new talents- eating singapore noodles with chopsticks (no less!) while driving. (yes, we all got there in one piece).

St Johns Sorrento is a pretty little church built in 1874, and is a well known Victorian venue for chamber music. There was a fantastic friendly audience, mostly locals we think, who welcomed us very warmly, on quite a cold evening. ABC Classic FM recorded our concert, and we will let you know the likely future broadcast date.

After the concert, Danny navigated along dark rural, kangaroo-ridden roads, to 'Chez Fredersdorff' where Julia's dogs Billy & Milly greeted us. (Along with the open fire & much champagne & blue cheese). We all collapsed well after midnight..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

How to play the violin

Hi to all.
Whilst waiting for our delayed flight to Melbourne we found this very instructional video clip on the net. Useful information for all violinists.....
We also found some good coffee in Sydney Airport at Gourmet Cellars Wooohoooo!
Oh and a special thanks to all those who came to our concert at Vaucluse House last night. It was really nice to have you in the audience.

Dancing with Strangers

Ironwood are busy rehearsing for concerts which will take place tomorrow at 6.30pm in Vaucluse House in Sydney and at 8pm on Friday at St Johns Anglican Church Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.
It was a case of no rest for the wicked for us, as we have barely had time to rest after the Early Music Winter Workshop, but the rehearsals are going well and the concerts should be great. On the program; Mozart and Haydn Quartets K80 in G major and Opus 54 no 1 in G major, as well as Paul Stanhopes Dancing with Strangers, based on the based on the literary work of Inga Clendinnen, and Enyato I by Ross Edwards.
Hope to see you there!

Early Music Winter Workshop

Ironwood have just returned from Riversdale, the location of their first Early Music Winter Workshop. We were thrilled by the fantastic response from students from all over Australia who brought their wonderful personalities, energy and enthusiasm to this unique place. We enjoyed a week of Chamber music and lessons, culminating in daily cocktail concerts, and were lucky enough to fill in the extra time with art classes, yoga, flow classes or simply chilling out looking at the stunning view.
Meanwhile the chef extraordinaire, Andreas Lippa, was to totally spoil us all with his wonderful cooking….it really was a week to remember for tutors and students alike.One of the most impressive things being that every single student blossomed both personally, and as musicians. We feel very touched by the dedication and passion that each student demonstrated, and are amazed at the transformation that happened in everyones playing over a relatively short period.
Ironwood are already planning for next years workshops and will keep everyone up to date. In the meantime, please feel free to send any feedback etc that you may have in response to this workshop. Thanks to all involved for a wonderful week.

Welcome!

Welcome one and all to the new Ironwood blog. We will be writing regular reports about our touring schedule, concerts, education programs and residencies, as well as keeping you up to date with the movements of each member of the group, and any interesting information about historically informed performance practice.
First on the agenda will be a post about our recent Early Music Winter Workshop. Watch this space!