2011 through the eyes of a blog

Posted on December 30, 2011 by ryanyouens

And just like that, another year is gone! Here is a look at my posts for the year.

The blogging year started in March with my favourite book arriving, “Behind Bars”, which I preordered in 2010. It is definitely the most used book on my shelf! I then talked about two approaching projects:

In April I introduced my new work, “blimp”, and reviewed two projects – a song I helped a friend create and my work at the BOP music school:

May was a busy month, so in June I talked about what I had been up to – writing 31 microscores and the premiere of “blimp”:

In July I posted the video I worked on with Sideways Productions:

48 hours to say “Goodbye Gilbert”

In August and September I covered my involvement in the KBB Music Festival and some composition tutorials that I held in Kerikeri:

October was the kick off of the Rugby World Cup here in New Zealand, I talked about my involvement in the opening ceremony and also made a post about what exactly I do when “preparing music” and why you would need someone like me to do it:

December means Christmas and I posted some Christmas carols that I prepared for my students. I also composed a new “holiday” piece for my Christmas post:

Happy New Year everyone, bring on 2012!

Composition tutorials in Kerikeri

Posted on September 1, 2011 by ryanyouens

I had the pleasure of going up to Kerikeri High School on the 22nd to 23rd of August to work with my good old mate (also the Head of Music) on some professional development and with the students – providing some composition tutorials.

DAY ONE
This was a teachers’ only day and the perfect opportunity to talk through the music equipment and classroom setup – focusing on how new technologies can be implemented in the department. We also spent some time working with Sibelius and seeing how effective it can be in education… one of my favorite things!

DAY TWO
Heralded the return of the students! I gave two one-hour talks on composition and another session where I went through many of the students’ compositions with them.

The focus of these talks was “back to basics” – how do you go about starting a composition and developing your ideas during it. We had fun looking at many different variation techniques and how they are used in different pieces of music. Most of the examples were from the 31 microscores I wrote during May this year.

It was a fantastic few days. Please contact me if you would like me to come to your school!

2010 through the eyes of a blog

Posted on December 31, 2010 by ryanyouens

It is December 31 and I just wondered “what exactly has happened this year?”

So through the eyes of this blog, let’s have a look. We’ll start with January and the tail end of our South America trip, along with the workshopping and recording of my music in Brazil.

January 4th Leg Four – Argentina to Paraguay to Brazil
January 11th Leg Five – Rio de Janeiro to Paraty to Auckland
January 12th A day with Sphaera

After spending too many hours hunting down good repertoire for my school orchestras, in February I explored the efforts of conducting. I also set up my newsletter with MailChimp.

February 20th Conducting – 90% perspiration, 10% exhilaration
February 26th Automating the monthly issue

It was a plentiful month of posts in March, many on great discoveries I recently made but also highlighted a new piece, Picture for Emily, for my niece.

March 14th Sibelius First – if you’re so inclined
March 15th Moana Ataahua programme launched
March 16th Picture for Emily – aiming for the small market
March 16th Scoring Avatar
March 18th My indispensables
March 19th If Lake Taupo was a piece of music, what would it sound like?

In April it was all about preparing Moana Ataahua for its massive premiere at the ERUPT Lake Taupo Festival.

April 24th Moana Ataahua set to ERUPT in May (article from SOUNZ)
April 28th Moana Ataahua, the rehearsals begin

I explored digital music stands in May, how they compare and how I wanted one. Do I still want one now? That is another post!

May 15th Digital music stands, hook me up – Music Pad, Music Reader, eStand

I summed up the Moana Ataahua premiere in June and did a very popular post on music apps for your iOS devices.

June 1st Moana Ataahua, the premiere
June 2nd iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps for the music professional

It was great to see plenty of music getting performed through July.

July 12th Wild Daisies premiere
July 18th Breathe In, Breathe Out – a concert of overtures and finales
July 27th SoundCloud, move your music
July 29th Three pieces performed by Brazil’s Sphaera Ensemble

The Auckland schools orchestra festival happened in August, so did some pondering on music theory.

August 27th Sounds great! I want it, I want it now
August 30th KBB Music Festival 2010, thumbs up
August 31st Music theory, do we need it or not?

Spent a fantastic few days in Wellington in September recording Rakaia with the NZSO. Also, Rhian Sheehan’s amazing score for The Cult, which I helped out with, won best score!

September 9th More iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps for the music professional
September 20th The Cult wins at Qantas Film and Television Awards
September 23rd NZSO/SOUNZ Readings 2010

In November I did a three part post looking at music printing, engravers, copyists and how things are changing. I also hooked up Sibelius users with some great resources!

November 29th So, you’re a Sibelius user?
November 30th Music printing, a journey for engravers (part 1 of 3)
November 30th Music copying and confusion (part 2 of 3)
November 30th Changing times for music preparers (part 3 of 3)

As you would expect, I got festive in December but also looked at a new feature for sounz.org.nz.

December 7th A Christmas wish list for composer-musicians
December 24th SOUNZ moves forward, again
December 24th Merry Christmas and very best wishes for the New Year

Happy New Year everyone!!

A day with Sphaera

Posted on January 12, 2010 by ryanyouens

Recently in São Paulo, Brazil, I had a great time working with the very fine Sphaera Ensemble and writing with their conductor and arranger Alexey Kurkdjian. I got to know these guys a few years ago and since then have done several arrangements for them and in 2009 they had two of my pieces in their repertoire, giving several performances. Initial plans were made to have a concert together, but early on we decided to take a different path. We decided to get together for a day and rehearse my music, introduce some NZ classics and then make a recording of our work together. This I was very happy with.

The Sphaera Ensemble consists of:

Bebel Ribeiro – Flute
Will Tomao – Clarinet
Alexey Kurkdjian – Violin I
Luiz Cadorin – Violin I
Mariana Ribeiro – Violin II
Wagner de Souza – Viola
Pablo de Moraes – Violoncello
Douglas de Freitas – Double Bass

The music we worked together on was:

Reclusion (2005, revised 2009)
In Their Light (2008)
The Attic (2005, revised 2009)
Pokarekare Ana (arr. Ryan Youens 2009) – classic, they loved it.
Te Haranui (arr. Ryan Youens 2009) – it was Christmas after all, went down a treat.

It was wonderful to meet the players and have a very productive and rewarding afternoon. They will perform my three pieces as part of their 2010 repertoire. During the afternoon I even managed to get a new piece requested by Will Tomao and his clarinet and double bass duo, Sopro do Contra.

The second project for the trip was a collaboration between Alexey Kurkdjian and myself. The piece is to be premiered at the major New Music Festival in Brazil during August/September 2010, and is for solo violin, flute, clarinet, two violins, viola, cello, contrabass, electric guitar and drums. Fun! Over the week I was there we worked on the piece most days and it shaped up extremely well. It’s a wild fusion between Brazilian and New Zealand rhythms and harmonies. Stay tuned for more on this project.

Some photos from our day together (for the full album visit here):

Sphaera Ensemble, conductor Ryan Youens, 20th December 2009, São Paulo, Brazil. Photos by Laira Dalileia and Wendy Youens.

A few days in Wellington

Posted on September 15, 2008 by ryanyouens

Hey all, well I’m on my flight back to Auckland from Wellington, enjoying a wine with cheese platter – how posh is that, AND it’s with Air NZ. Impressive. I was down for this years NZSO / TODD Young Composer Readings. It was a great few days with the orchestra and of course seeing all the other young composers at this years event. Below is a picture taken during the readings.

NZSO : TODD 2008-28

Well I came down on Sunday afternoon, ready for the welcome dinner on Sunday evening at Nicolini’s Bistro on Courtenay Place. They have it there every year and if you’ve been there you’ll know why. Absolutely beautiful. YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY.

Monday was the first day of recordings. The morning was great, with two very good pieces in particular. I was first after lunch and was very happy with how it all went. Of course the first run through is always a little bit hairy, but once a few things were clarified and we worked on some passages, it started to sound pretty good. The final tracks laid for the recording were excellent and I can’t wait to get it. As well as from the composer mentor, Ross Harris, I had fantastic feedback from the players, saying how enjoyable and rewarding it was to play, and that it was very professionally produced (parts etc). This was fantastic as is what I am aiming for. How ridiculous to write a piece that the players and audience will not enjoy…

Scattered through the two days are some workshops with players in the orchestra, pretty much getting to know them and their instrument(s) a little better. These are always fun and is great to talk to NZ’s finest about their instrument.

The second day of recordings again had some very good pieces in. The day ended with some drinks, nibbles and “awards”.

So a successful few days – big thanks to the NZSO for looking after us all very well.

NZSO / SOUNZ Readings May 2008

Posted on May 17, 2008 by ryanyouens

Hey everyone.

Well last weekend Wendy and I headed down to Wellington for this year’s readings with the NZSO. It started with a lovely weekend, we chilled, ate great food and experienced Wellington. Then it was Monday.

I was first up in the morning session and so all the players were fresh and ready for anything. “Rakaia” is not too much of a challenging piece, although plenty of notes for the strings. First read through they did fantastically well. The huge brass and percussion sound was just fantastic. After working with Ken Young and clarifying a few things both he and I wanted to work on, they pulled it apart a little and started work. Was wonderful seeing them work on my music once again. This piece is very clearly written and is enjoyable for the players and this definitely show through the rehearsal.

Later in the day was the recording session. After the long day this final run through and recording wasn’t as tight as they had it earlier in the morning, but still a remarkable performance.

I had wonderful feedback from the players. Complimenting the colourful textures, energy and effective writing. Also a comment about the likeliness of this piece to the music of Don Davis. A bit of a surprise, but came from a guy who used to play in Don Davis’ scoring orchestra, so I gratefully took his word.

The rest of the workshops were enjoyable. Was nice to get mine out of the way. Monday had a selection of other young composers which were shorter works. All very different and extremely well written. Tuesday had two longer works.

Check out photos from the workshops here.

Thanks heaps to SOUNZ and the NZSO for the wonderful two days.

Orchestral Workshops

Posted on September 13, 2006 by ryanyouens

I’ve been thinking about a few things to do with orchestral workshops. Firstly, some pieces make the orchestra do silly, cheesy or comical things which are musically totally unnessary. This is not saying things need to be “serious serious” … of course, but the ideas need to be set within a “real” musical context. I’ve heard a few things lately in pieces, but they just cheapen the music so much. Personally, I don’t feel as though its a joke to be getting the NZSO … for example … to do stupid things. I may be wrong … let me know.

Secondly, the lack of respect for the players has been driving me nuts. There have been numerous examples of composers during rehearsals talking condescendingly and with no respent towards the orchestra. This drives the players crazy. I was talking to a player in the Auckland Philharmonia, and they as well have had some examples of this lately.

I don’t know, I mean, these are professional orchestras, and it costs a HECK of a lot of money to have them operating. Also the players are often rehearsing for many hours on end. I guess I’m just wondering how necessary it is for the presence of these two elements. I just think that composers should fully respect any professional performers they are working with and they should treat orchestral workshops as a rare and an extreme privilege.

NZSO/TODD Readings

Posted on September 13, 2006 by ryanyouens

Well well well. The latest NZSO/TODD young composer readings were great. They were on 7th and 8th September at Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington. The event opened with a dinner with the sponsers and also representatives from SOUNZ, Concert FM and the NZSO. This was fantastic to catch up with other composers who flew in from out of town for the workshops, but also of course to talk with people from the various organisations.

So … the workshops. There were some really outstanding pieces. Of course there is never enough time to properly rehearse the pieces, but most came out sounding really great. My piece was … good. It was a really hard piece, and I was really pleased how some bits were sounding, but disappointed about other parts. I’m happy with how the parts were written, it was more about having enough time to tighten things up with the orchestra. Anyway it should be a reasonable recording I get back from it so fingers crossed. It was commended at the end of the workshops so am pleased with that.

The workshop was brilliantly organised once again by Penny Miles. The new additions this year, sessions with instrumentalists and and the NZSO librarian were great. It was a great few days and I look forward until next year.

Ryan Youens

music composer, copyist, arranger

Tag Archives: workshop