Well, much to my relief it all clicked together like Lego and I had no jitters at all as we started the Overture in front of a very enthusiastic and large audience in Gilgandra in the central west of NSW. Over 150 performers from around the state took part in the production including the Sydney U3A choir and Catastrophic Winds. Local English teacher, Fiona Lambell, was a wonderful narrator and at the end of the show members of the audience were on their feet. They left the hall singing and whistling the show tunes and the next day we had the same response from the very warm audience up the road in Coonabarabran. Leonard and the Lottery Ticket is ready to take on any audiences anywhere.

The next performance will be across the Tasman in the Christchurch Town Hall where the Mayor of Christchurch will be the narrator along with the Christchurch Youth Orchestra and a choir of several hundred. Leonard is very happy.

This last weekend was funded by a grant Mark was awarded by the Conservatorium High School Association of Old Students.

The Brass ensemble is going to present a new work that Mark has written for them called Sunday Afternoon and there will be no one more nervous than Mark himself who is making his debut on trombone.

What makes this student concert so special is that all of the performers learn by distance from Mark via the internet or phone and this is the first time they will all meet up in person. Their families are of course making up the audience and the students come from across the whole Upper Hunter area.

Congratulations must go to Xstrata Coal for their generous support of this wonderful programme.

The school is an inner city Catholic School in Christchurch. For many years Catholic Cathedral College has been suffering from a declining roll due to the changing demographic of a spreading City that is seeing the centre of the town taken over by commercial business. Cathedral College, situated right beside the very grand and beautiful Catholic Cathedral, is already an amalgamation of Sacred Heart Girls College and Xavier Boys College but until recently the future of the school was very much in doubt.

Enter Bruce Henley, the new school principal, who came with a physics background. Bruce’s task was to perform the impossible, in other words save the school. He looked around and discovered in Auckland another inner city Catholic School which had been in exactly the same position but by making compulsory the learning of a musical instrument this school is now enjoying a total revival.

Bruce visited this school and was simply amazed at what was being achieved so, despite the lack of his own musical background he decided he would take Cathedral College down a similar path. His staff was not convinced but Bruce knew that it was do or die, so money was found for instruments as the bulk of his students were not able to buy their own. At the start of the next year all of the new students were issued with an instrument. The majority of Cathedral College’s students come from Pacific Island and Maori backgrounds and these students took to music with enthusiasm. A school orchestra was formed and for Bruce their first performance at the school assembly was a very proud moment. By the end of the first year, for the first time for many years, there was an increase in the school roll and each year this is now the trend.

At the start of 2008 Bruce Henley decided to bite the bullet and he too started to learn the clarinet. As soon as he could play a couple of notes he went and joined the junior school band. He was the worst one in the band and the children were very amused that their principal was allowing himself to be put in this embarrassing position. The conductor of the band was delighted to have the school principal there at every rehearsal as the behaviour of the band members improved enormously. Bruce learnt alongside his young students and for the first time he came to appreciate the complexities of learning music. He encouraged all of the students and they encouraged him. He even made himself take the internal practical exams where he had to play in front of all the other students. Often his performances turned to custard and his nerves were very evident but of course the students at Cathedral College think it is “so cool” to have a principal who isn’t afraid of stepping out of his traditional role and at times making himself look a bit foolish.

I do have to say that Bruce who until this year has never played a musical instrument or read a note of music has made remarkable progress with his clarinet playing and is an absolute joy to teach. Not only does he want to get as good as he can at playing the clarinet he also modestly knows what an incredibly positive impact and influence he is having on his school.

At the end-of-year Prize Giving Bruce played in the school orchestra – he said he “didn’t contribute much to the performance”, however everyone in the school hall knew differently!

Music at Cathedral College is flourishing, the school roll has gone berserk and Bruce is passionate about his new hobby.

Long live music.

Where do teachers learn all of these skills? All emergency problems are discovered at crucial moments when it is impossible to visit a repairer. Although there are many fine wind instrument repairers around there are also a number who leave question marks in the instrument cases when they are returned. As a teacher we need to acquire these skills.

Out of necessity I have learnt enough to get myself out of trouble and I have always had a genuine interest in anything to do with my instrument. I learnt to dismantle my clarinet and even more importantly put it back together again soon after I started to play. I learnt how to diagnose problems and how to replace pads in a rough and ready sort of way. I developed a real respect for needle springs very early on as they are not only lethally sharp but also frustrating beyond belief if they get broken off at the key post. I don’t have the same feeling of dread about replacing cork and I know what a great friend a rubber band can be. My skills are very basic and they have got me and my students out of trouble on many occasions. However no one appreciates a highly skilled, professional repairer more than me.

(It is such a joy when you get an instrument back after it has been restored to a better than new condition.)

How does a young teacher answer a parent who asks is a “Flying Goose” a good brand of reed to buy and is a Pink Parrot a good make of saxophone? The internet has launched a staggering array of unknown instruments of mysterious brands and colours onto the market. If unsure, ask an unbiased repairer who will quickly tell you with a shudder which instruments are totally unrepairable. In the foyer of the Broken Hill Musicians Club, hanging from the ceiling in pride of place, is a chandelier made out of 12 brand new shiny saxophones. I have met many other saxophones that I would like to add to this work of art.

Another skill is being able to asses the quality of second hand instruments on the behalf of students. What may seem like a bargain may well turn into an instrument that is off the road more days than it is on. Even new instruments from reputable makers may have small faults – nothing must be taken for granted. Repairs to an instrument bought second hand can sometimes turn a bargain into a costly embarrassment especially if it’s a saxophone.

One assignment I used to give to all of my woodwind pedagogy students at the Sydney Conservatorium was to go and test drive as many student instruments as they could and then write a report on each of the different makes and models. These reports made for hilarious reading and what the music retailers didn’t realise was that students were all competing for a special prize for the best bit of retail spin they could possibly find.

Teaching can seem incredibly repetitive at times but there are so many things as a teacher you need to know so make it your mission to gain even more expertise by being able to fix your instruments and try to find time to test the myriad assortment of new instruments that are flooding our music shops and supermarkets.

My best tip – if you ever need a new instrument case it will probably be much cheaper to buy one of these cut-price new instruments. Hang the instrument on the wall and enjoy your new bargain case.

As this new website takes shape I did ponder last week what I would have thought if I had stumbled upon it three year ago whilst I was still on the staff at the Sydney Conservatorium. I think the answer would have been total disbelief. It just was not on my radar that I would write three Children’s musicals let alone write so much music. My composition until that date was purely teaching studies and two liners for my Off to A Great Start Book.

But within this short space of time I have recorded a whole CD of my own pieces which amazed me almost as much as the fact that people seem to like them and other musicians want to play them. The set work for the clarinet section of the Australian National Band Championships was “Snakes Alive” — who would have thought it?

Instrumentation

 Catastrophic Winds will play challenging repertoire, especially written or arranged for the group by Mark. Rehearsals will be kept to a minimum as the music must not interfere and ruin the conviviality of Catastrophic Winds.

Catastrophic Winds On the Road Out West Concerts:

Gilgandra & Coonabarabran Festival May 2009
Mungindi Music Festival 2009

Catastrophic Winds Inaugural Series rehearsals will be held in central Sydney on;

Sunday March 29th 4 – 6pm
Sunday April 26th 4 – 6pm
Sunday May 10th 4 – 6 pm

Rehearsals may well finish early for important debriefing!
Music will be sent out in advance.

My arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance Overture had its first performance nearly 20 yrs ago at the Sydney Summer School back in 1989 but last week’s performance was enhanced by the complete range of woodwind instruments playing.

The picture on the home page is a touching reminder of our horn player Jan with young Joe who informed all of his school mates and all of us that the French Horn was the most difficult instrument to play.