Christmas greetings!

Well, another year has come to an end. A massive thank you to everyone who has made this year a great one. It's been busy for sure, so much so that my newsletter and blog posts took a forced rest. I hope to write about a few of those things I've been up to in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, I'm taking a holiday. The car is packed, Christmas Day awaits us tomorrow and summer fun looms. This time last year my wife and I went to Midnight Mass at Salzburg Cathedral and the absolute highlight was hearing Silent Night sung by candlelight, as it was originally intended, in the town it was written. I took a field recording, have a listen below, it's extraordinary.

So, Merry Christmas to you all. I hope the season brings you great times with family and friends, time to recharge the batteries and maybe even time for some music.

I'll be back at work from the 5th of January, and I look forward to working with many of you again in the New Year.

Captain McBoyle docks at the APO

Ahoy there me hearties!

Back in September I had the great pleasure of orchestrating five songs by Captain Festus McBoyle - the star of this weekend's four APO4Kids Christmas concerts.

On Wednesday it all came to life as the APO, conductor David Kay and all of the performers rehearsed and ran the show.

The Festus McBoyle tracks are:

• A Pirate's Life
• Bogey Bogey
• Hoist The Jolly Roger
• Sonia The Snake
• Walk The Plank

I also wrote two new arrangements of some classics to highlight some different instruments in the orchestra:

• O Tannenbaum (for solo bassoon and strings)
• Feliz Navidad (for solo tuba, singers and orchestra)

There are a few others on the programme too. It's sounding fantastic.

Captain Festus McBoyle and his pirate colleagues are stranded in Auckland just before Christmas. They have lots of songs to sing and stories to tell, but do they actually know what Christmas music sounds like? Let’s all dress up as pirates, polish our voices and give them a surprise! These interactive sing-along, dance-along, conduct-along concerts are for children age 2 – 5 and their families. And at the end, go for the famous walk through the orchestra as the musicians play and capture your costume on film with the pirate-themed photobooth provided by Voyager Maritime Museum.

Can life get much more fun than that? Not really, so gather your scallywags smartly, weigh anchor and set sail - I can guarantee there's a joke or two for the adults too.

CONCERT DETAILS

• Saturday 29th November, Auckland Town Hall, 10am (already sold out) and 11:30am, $15 for all
• Sunday 30th November, Massey High School, 10am and 11:30am, $15 for all

Merry Christmas

And just like that, another year is coming to an end. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported me in some way this year - that may have been with work, with ideas or just with conversation.

It has been an incredible time of music making for me with many wonderful opportunities, inspiring people to work with and some stunning ensembles and musicians to bring the music to life. Some of these include:

Auckland Philharmonia, New Zealand Symphony, Auckland Symphony, Christchurch Symphony, Auckland Youth Orchestra, St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra, Manukau Concert Band, Victoria Kelly, Neil Finn, NZTrio and Horomona Horo, Tecwyn Evans, Michael Norris, Leonie Holmes, John Rowles, Ben Hoadley, Val Landi and Scott Hunt (USA), Bluebird Avenue, Fatcat & Fishface, Alexandros Pappas (Greece), Sideways Productions, Elizabeth Mandeno and David Kelly, the Polkadots, the KBB Music Festival and The Big Sing.

Next year is going to be a big year and absolutely business as usual so get in touch to get me involved with your projects - either as a music preparer, typesetter or editor, or as an arranger and orchestrator.

Over Christmas and New Year I'll be fishing and eating too much near here, chill-axing and probably still eating too much here, and then tramping and working off the Christmas food here. I'll be back working full-time on Monday 6th January, but feel free to get in touch over the break.

To leave you with some music, earlier this year I received the New Zealand Symphony recording of my original work, Rakaia. Auckland Symphony commissioned it in 2007, the NZSO workshopped it in 2008 and then this is their recording from 2010:

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/5080029" params="color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

Enjoy, and have an absolutely wonderful Christmas!

Some merry arrangements!

Over the last few weeks my Christmas arrangements have been popping up all over the place. The concert I'm most looking forward to is...

AUCKLAND SYMPHONY CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Tonight the Auckland Symphony Orchestra give their hugely popular and FREE Christmas concert at the Auckland Town Hall. The 90-strong orchestra team up with the Choir from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, along with combined Auckland church choirs, in this annual Christmas Celebration under the direction of Peter Thomas.

Each year I orchestrate a selection of the stunning choral arrangements by Niu Syddall and they also include some of my own arrangements.

This year they are:

• "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"
• "Hark the Herald"
• "Silent Night"
• "The First Noel"
• "Who Would Imagine A King?"

The orchestra is also performing my arrangement of Snoopy's Christmas in their Sunday concert in Milford.

Last night's dress rehearsal sounding mightily impressive so get there if you can. Click here to find all of the details, be early, it fills up fast.

AUCKLAND PHILHARMONIA APO4KIDS XMAS

It was great to see my arrangements of "Little Drummer Boy", "Snoopy's Christmas" and my new "Frosty the Snowman" for solo bass trombone and orchestra got outings at the hugely popular APO4Kids Xmas concerts recently. They performed them at Massey High School on the 24th November and two concerts at the Auckland Town Hall on the 30th.

"Frosty" seemed a particular favourite, thanks to Tim Sutton on bass trombone for his superb efforts, and to my good friend, conductor David Kay.

ARRANGEMENTS TO SWEDEN AND THE UK

This year I shipped a number of Christmas arrangements off around the world. By shipped, of course, I mean whizzing PDF through cyberspace. They were to Stockholm in Sweden:

• "Joy to the World"
• "Drummer Boy"
• "When You Wish Upon a Star" (I agree, not entirely Christmas)

And to the UK:

• "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"
• "Lullaby for Christmas Eve"
• "When You Wish Upon A Star"

CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR SOLO VIOLIN

Each year my violin students get a book of Christmas Carols to play leading up to Christmas. There are thirteen in total, they are easy, bowed and jolly good fun, so feel free to download the PDF below. If you want them for another instrument, let me know and I'm sure my arm could be twisted.

Download it here and have a very Merry Christmas!

I survived 2012. This is how it was!

The New Year means it's time to have a look back over the past year and see, through my blog posts, what has taken shape and what I have to say for myself! January started with a very well deserved "Shout-out to VaultPress" after they marvellously got my website back up and running after a meltdown!

February is the start of the school term and I posted about the preparation work I do for schools.

My typing fingers must have been tired at the end of March - it started with two popular posts, iOS apps for music professionals and Digital music stands vs iPads, following on from, again, two very popular posts I did in 2010.

Following that were four posts on current projects - "Working on workshops" looked at some teaching workshops I was involved with, "An opportunity to make the floor rumble" talked about my upcoming new work for the Auckland Philharmonia and the Auckland Town Hall Organ. I conducted at the Bay Of Plenty Music School once again and my post, "Bay Of Plenty music school hit Rotorua!", pre-empted my visit there, and finally "Opening up an orchestra" reviewed the first two Auckland Philharmonia Open Days were I ran the "meet the composer" area.

In April I reviewed my time at the Bay Of Plenty Music School in "Making music in Rotorua" and posted photos in "Checking out the pipes" after an inspiring tour of the Auckland Town Hall Organ.

May is music month and "A month of New Zealand music" checked out the events me or my music was involved with. It's also 48 Hour Film Festival time and our film this year was "My Confession…".

In June I talked about my involvement with Auckland Symphony's "Night Of The Proms" concerts in "Promenading in the colony" and I posted "Questions for a composer" after answering questions for a student's school assignment.

In July I posted my one word review of each piece from the "Nelson Composers Workshop 2012" where I was very happy to go this year as a mentor.

August is KBB Music Festival time and I also posted on the ongoing saga regarding the future of Sibelius in "What the heck is happening with Sibelius!". My piece, Tiraki, started to take shape after another workshop with the Auckland Philharmonia.

September was rather dormant on the blog front but in October I reviewed “What Lurks Among Saints” after being invited by a student I met earlier in the year.

In November I had the privilege of "Playing my role in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", and I posted about the experience.

December was busy with a number of projects. In "Little pieces of Christmas" I talked about a bunch of Christmas arrangements I did for the Auckland Philharmonia and Auckland Symphony orchestras. I also talked about a film I was involved with, called "Sounds Perfect" and its selection into the Tropfest final in “Sounds Perfect” to be in a final". I then prepared music for some very fine New Zealand singers and talked about it in "Preparing for some legends!".

Finally, no year is complete without a "Merry Christmas" post thanking you for all of your support during the year and the compliments of the season.

Another year ticked off the list, another year doing my absolute dream job - let's get ready for an even better 2013!

Merry Christmas

And just like that another year is gone! Thank you all so much for your support this year - for coming to concerts, for the opportunity to write you music, for being let loose on your own music, for letting me teach you, for your emails, for commenting on my blog, for the tweets and posts, and for everything else.

I hope you have a wonderfully relaxing Christmas, don't eat too much and enjoy spending time with your family and friends.

This time last year I was late night shopping and battling the crowds - culminating in writing "A Holiday Thought":

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/31108271" params="color=19c540&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

This year, however, I am feeling more along the lines of this - ready, chilled, content:

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/16536009" params="color=19c540&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

I look forward to connecting with you all again in 2013 and making some music!

Merry Christmas!

Little pieces of Christmas

Christmas is looming and I have been busy doing new orchestral arrangements for two of the many Christmas concerts that will fill December. Last Saturday the Auckland Philharmonia had their first APO 4 Kids Christmas concert at the Auckland Town Hall which was a great success. It was hosted by Kevin Keys, featured Tim Beveridge and was conducted by David Kay. They performed my arrangements of:

• All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth - Don Gardner
• Joy To The World - George Frideric Handel
• Lullaby for Christmas Eve - Pete King
• Snoopy's Christmas - George David Weiss, Luigi Creatore and Hugo Peretti
• The Little Drummer Boy - Henry Onorati, Katherine K. Davis and Harry Simeone
• When You Wish Upon A Star - Ned Washington

This coming Friday (7th December) the Auckland Symphony give their impressive annual Christmas Celebration, again at the Auckland Town Hall, and featuring the mighty choir from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They will be performing my arrangements of:

• Angel's Carol - John Rutter
• Who Would Imagine A King - Mervyn Warren & Hallerin Hilton Hill with words for introduction by Ivoga Green & Fredda Sorensen, arranged by Niu Syddall (orchestration only)
• Snoopy's Christmas - George David Weiss, Luigi Creatore and Hugo Peretti

Get festive, throw on some tinsel and come along and enjoy a wonderful evening.

2011 through the eyes of a blog

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:

• An exploration “Behind Bars”
• About to bop at the BOP Music School
• Microscore May

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:

• "blimp", for orchestra
• A recipe for Soul Food
• Great company, excellent food … and some music

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":

• May Microscores – a ginormous month of tiny things
• “blimp” lands in Auckland

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:

• KBB Music Festival stretching its legs
• Composition tutorials 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:

• Kicking off the Rugby World Cup 2011
• Music preparation – what and why!

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:

• Christmas carols for violin and viola
• Happy Holidays

Happy New Year everyone, bring on 2012!

Happy Holidays

It is that time of year again - the crazy season! I hope it has been a wonderful year for you. A big thank you to everyone I have worked with this year and to those who have supported my music in some way. 2012 is shaping up to be a very exciting year with some amazing projects in the pipeline, so stay tuned!

A reminder that you can download the 17 Christmas carols I collated and edited for violin and viola through this post here. Enjoy.

Also, be sure to check out my piece below, "A holiday thought" - some thoughts I put to music for this holiday season:

As always, keep in touch over the break at either facebook.com/ryanyouens or twitter.com/ryanyouens.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas carols for violin and viola

Christmas is getting close and no doubt you are in the mood to play some Christmas music or your students are asking for some! Recently I collated and edited 17 Christmas carols for my students to play through this season. The carols, in order, are:

• Angels we have heard on high
• Joy to the world!
• O little town of Bethlehem
• We wish you a merry Christmas
• It came upon the midnight clear
• O come, O come Emmanuel
• O come, all ye faithful
• Jingle Bells
• O Holy Night
• Away in a manger
• God rest you merry, gentlemen
• Silent Night
• While shepherds watched
• Hark! the herald angels sing
• Once in Royal David's City
• We three kings
• The First Nowell

There is a version for violin and one for viola and can be read without trouble by younger students as well as providing a lot of enjoyment for more advanced players. They are set clearly on each page along with dynamics and bowing where required.

• Download Christmas carols for violin here.
• Download Christmas carols for viola here.

You are welcome to download either copy (PDF document) and enjoy playing or passing on to a student or friend.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

2010 through the eyes of a blog

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!!

Merry Christmas and very best wishes for the New Year

A huge thanks to everyone who has supported anything to do with my music this year, people who came to concerts, those I have worked for and worked with, the many who have left such positive feedback on Twitter, SoundCloud and Facebook, readers of this blog and everyone else - it has been a fantastic year. I hope it has been the same for you and that things are heating up for another great one next year. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your family. Make sure you put your feet up, relax, eat lots of food (don't feel guilty) and enjoy everything this season has to offer.