The Wonderfish Collective live with strings!

Tomorrow night is the first of two ‘Songs from the Wonderfish Collective’ shows… with a 16-piece string section!

I’ve been chipping away at this project for a few months. Basically, these guys are a bunch of singer-songwriters who perform several gigs a year, usually at The Victoria Theatre in Devonport and Galatos in the city. Frequently they include a string duo or quartet, plus a horn section… often making them a 15-piece on stage. Funky as.

On this occasion they decided to go big, getting a full 16-piece string section to accompany them on stage. And that’s where I came in. While the first half of the show will be the band in their usual format, for the second half I’ve written eight new arrangements which will be performed by members of the Devonport Chamber Orchestra and Auckland Symphony Orchestra, and will be conducted by yours truly.

We’ve knocked out a few rehearsals and it’s sounding fantastic! These guys are talented writers. Come along and enjoy.

THE BAND

• VOCALS/GUITAR/MANDOLIN/BANJO - Al Baxter

• VOCALS/GUITAR/UKULELE - Nick Edgar

• VOCALS/GUITAR - Alex Mckegg

• VOCALS - Robbie Mckegg

• DRUMS - Rusty Knox

• BASS - Glenn Coldham

• CONDUCTOR / ARRANGEMENTS - Ryan Youens

• VIOLIN 1 - Helen Crook, Michael Hunter, Helen van Druten, Glynn Sergeant

• VIOLIN 2 - Emily Allen, Soren Wislang, Alex Laubli, Arthur Ranford

• VIOLA - Robyn Strange, Joseph Chen, Judith Gust, Andrea Smith

• CELLO - Maxine Cunliffe, Claire Postlethwaite, Michelle Caldicott, Mary Greig-Clayton

THE DETAILS

6th April - The Vic, Devonport 8pm (tickets here)

13th April - TAPAC, Western Springs 8pm (tickets here)

See you there!

A festival, a premiere, an award

My annual pilgrimage to the KBB Music Festival was a little more exciting this year. Firstly, a new premiere!

Grammar Virtuosi, from Auckland Grammar School, commissioned me to write a new work for strings and percussion this year to mark the anniversary of when Grammar men went to the battle of Passchendaele in the first world war. It's called Foray.

"foray: a sudden attack or incursion into enemy territory"

It's been great popping along to some of their rehearsals and working with them on the piece, once such occasional pictured above. Huge thanks to their director, James Donaldson, and tutor, Boris Kipnis, for their tremendous support of the piece.

Secondly, a bonus performance!

St Cuthbert's College Concert Band and their wonderful director, Sally Tibbles, gave another performance of my piece, Bubble. I wrote this piece several years ago for the Bay of Plenty Music School and it's had several outings since then. It's a cool little piece and I am SO happy it got a performance by this group.

Thirdly, a gold award!

Let's start at the very beginning.

The Rangitoto College Concert Band is directed by the tremendous Beverley Brockelbank. Unfortunately she was away on tour with another school and was unable to conduct them, so I got the call.

Hold the truck! 'Déjà vu', I hear you say? Yes. Spot on. Earlier this year Bev was unable to take them to Hawaii, so I had that arduous(!) task. Reminisce with me here...

http://www.ryanyouens.com/2017/04/09/hawaii

So anyway, back to KBB. Bev and I worked together with the group in the lead up to the festival and then I took them through festival week.

They performed SO WELL. Like, completely blew my socks off. And they were awarded with a very shiny GOLD award. Hugely proud. Here are some pics:

Next year I may well be back to my committee duties of managing the website, online entries and honours programme, but I'll do my best to make it another extra exciting one.

Rhapsody Rotorua 2017

So I just got back from a seriously good few days in Rotorua, adjudicating at the Rhapsody Rotorua Music Festival, alongside the rather legendary Owen Clarke. It's a festival populated by mainly Australian groups, popping across the ditch for some music and adventure, but it always has a collection of New Zealand groups, and is a great performance opportunity for local groups from the Bay of Plenty region.

Days one and two are adjudicated sessions directly followed by clinics with an adjudicator - this was good fun, great to hear and work with so many groups.

These two days finish with rehearsals of the combined and honours groups. I took the combined string ensemble of 61 players. It was mammoth - 15 firsts, 22 seconds(!), 6 violas, 13 cellos and 5 basses. We enjoyed working on Sibelius, Holst and Leonie Holmes. Here they all are...

Day three is mainly a day of instrumental workshops with specialists. As a bit of difference I said I'd do one along the lines of 'composing for your school ensemble'. I thought I'd get 5, perhaps 10 people max. About six people turned up in the first wave, and I was about to shut the door, then I heard footsteps and I ended up with about 70 students all super excited and ready to hear some tips. We had a medium sized dressing room and were packed to the absolute brim, with people out the door too. Here they all are...

Concerts Thursday and Friday nights complete the festival, and the groups have concerts elsewhere too.

I managed three pretty impressive dinners while I was there, so I thought they deserve a mention. First night was Indian Star Tandoori Restaurant - super, super delicious, and it's located in the impressively modern Eat Streat precinct. Second night was Sabroso Restaurant - Mexican, heathy and completely hit the mark. Third night I hit the Rotorua Night Market - I remember having an almighty feast here when I was at the festival last time, but this one topped it - completely blew my socks off - glorious, fresh and great atmosphere too.

A really fun few days. Hopefully I can go back again one day!

Recording Mission Ferrari

Back in October 2015 Rhian Sheehan asked me to help out on the music he was writing for a new rollercoaster ride at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. Yesterday it all came to fruition with five hours of recording down in Wellington with some of NZ's finest musicians. There was a 10-piece brass section and 19-piece string section from Stroma FilmWorks. Absolute credit must go to these amazing musicians who perform at such an incredible level, yet between cues are so friendly and enjoyable to work with.

Rhian Sheehan wrote the music, the brilliant Tane Upjohn-Beatson came on board as co-writer and co-arranger, the legendary Graham Kennedy and John Neill recorded and engineered the session, and I conducted, with some co-arranging, orchestration and music prep along the way.

Speaking of that small job of music prep, here are some stats for those delightful few who appreciate such things:

29 musicians, 16 cues, 48 scores (3 copies of each), multiple layers totalling 305 different instrumental parts, equalling 494 copies of the parts, 551 copies of scores and parts combined, don't ask for the number of actual pages, and thank goodness Jetstar didn't weigh my carry-on.

By far the best part of my involvement in this project was following it right through from early stages to recording. So often I prepare everything and then pass it on to be printed and conducted, but this time it was great to be printing and taping parts, and then seeing it on the stands and taking the musicians through it. Need more of this, it's good for the soul.

So, now we just need to go to Abu Dhabi to experience it.

Hawaii!

Let's be honest, we always proceed cautiously when someone asks you for a favour... but when they're asking you to go to Hawaii it's a completely different story! I'm in, 100%. To make it even better, it was with the wonderful students and staff of the Rangitoto College Music Department, conducting their concert band for a friend who sadly could no longer go. Also on the tour was the orchestra, chamber orchestra and big band.

We were there as part of the Pacific Basin Music Festival, with groups from USA, Philippines, Australia and New Zealand - about 700 people in total. Events were at the Sheraton Waikiki, Pacific Beach Hotel and Hawaii Theatre, as well as performances at the incredible Ala Moana Shopping Centre, as well as the Hard Rock Cafe for the big band.

A highlight was working with the band from the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts for our exchange session - a truly amazing band. They absolutely loved the 'kiwiness' in David Woodcock's Forest Sketches, and we had a healthy argument as to whether they are crotchets or quarter notes...! I won.

I haven't done a huge amount of conducting in recent times as I've had other priorities, but wow what a joy to be back and working with such great people. I was super proud of their focus and sound in the adjudicated performance - it was late and at the end of a very long day - and most definitely it was the best I've heard the group play. They, along with Rangitoto's two other competing groups, received silver awards for their efforts.

Congratulations to Rangitoto College for a most wonderful tour. If anyone else needs a last minute conductor for their Hawaii tour, call me and I'll say yes.

Going digital with forScore

While conducting the wind band at the recent Bay of Plenty Music School I finally had the chance to test using digital scores. I’ve always been intrigued - have already blogged about it twice - but only with a new iPad have I had the chance of taking the full digital leap. Here are my thoughts... GETTING UNDERWAY

An iPad Air 2 sits, charged, ready for action. I already had some of the scores as PDFs which was a great start. Then I scanned the rest using Scanner Pro which kindly then drops the file into my Dropbox. Then in comes forScore - a sheet music reader app and the absolute hero of the equation - I import the files straight from Dropbox and then it’s all ready to go.

WHAT I LOVED

• Magnetic to stand - my iPad lives in an Apple Smart Case and to my surprise it latches itself to a metal stand so you can place it nice and high and it won’t fall off if knocked.

• Markings and highlights - I had loads of fun marking up my score, highlighting and bringing out the important info (see photo).

• Linking - okay, so we’ve got repeats and codas and so on - I set up links so you just click on the spot and it will take you there immediately. Fantastic.

• Metronome markings - not so much during the rehearsal, but while I was looking at a score in downtime, I really appreciated having the built-in metronome set on the tempos for each score.

• Setlist - once I knew the concert order I made a setlist and everything was there ready to go and flows from one score to the next. You can even remove title pages from each score so it’s just what you need.

• Plenty more features to explore in the future - you can bring up an onscreen piano to perhaps play a passage, you can click to record your ensemble playing, and much more.

WHAT I LEARNED

• No auto contrast - we rehearsed in a room with loads of natural light. During a massive climax in a piece the sun went behind a cloud, the room went dark and so did the screen on the iPad... couldn't see a thing. Lucky I knew the score, and I turned off the auto contrast after that.

• Battery life - to be honest, if the iPad isn’t on WIFI then that battery will last for ages. But, I took this for granted and late afternoon I needed an emergency trip back to the motel to pick up the charger.

• The screen size - I understand this will be an issue for some, but it really didn’t bother me. While it is obviously a little smaller than an A4 page, the clarity of the retina display made everything so clear and with the annotation, you can easily highlight what is important or write on the score in any colour of the rainbow. And of course with a quick gesture you can easily zoom in to more closely analyse a chord, rhythm or whatever.

WITH OTHER HATS ON

• As a composer/arranger and general creator of many (many!) scores, I used to print them constantly just to take to rehearsals for reference and to write on. I’d then look at the comments at home before putting it straight into the recycling. Not anymore… used digital scores at a recent rehearsal with the Auckland Philharmonia and it works a treat.

• As a teacher, having a variety of material available to students is important as well as having reference scores and so on. The close integration forScore has with Dropbox (or Google Drive or iCloud Drive) makes this usage even more trippy.

FINAL VERDICT

I thought there would be issues, but that the connivence of it would outweigh them. But, apart from those obvious things to consider with any digital device, it’s a dream. It's fast, effective, a little flash, and I think the best thing is that, as I briefly mentioned, I once printed excessive amounts of music at home - but now I print barely anything. Yay, save the planet! I'm a complete convert.

Bay of Plenty Music School, Taupo 2015

Last weekend was the Bay of Plenty Music school and what a great weekend to be in Taupo making music. It was my fifth year conducting the wind band and it was perhaps the biggest band we've had yet. We focused on these beauties...

• Arabesque - Samuel R. Hazo
• Earth Song - Frank Ticheli
• The Great Locomotive Chase - Robert W Smith

...and had a few others in the mix also. While we were a bit short on full band rehearsal time this year, we managed to pull together a great sound and have loads of fun doing so.

This year I ditched real scores and went digital - what a revelation. You can read more about this in my post here: Going digital with forScore.

The orchestra, conducted by Rupert D'Cruz, and the choir, conducted by Peter Watts, also did some wonderful work.

After two years in Taupo, next year it moves to Whakatane and is on the weekend of 22nd to 24th April (ANZAC weekend). Mark it in your diaries!

Here are some pics from the weekend taken by Skylar Orr...

'Rakiura' premieres in Auckland

Last week I had the pleasure of conducting the premiere of my new work, Rakiura, at the Auckland Town Hall and then at the Bruce Mason Centre. It was tremendously well received and I am thrilled. I initially posted about this project here, when we were asking for help via Kickstarter to bring the project to life. Well, we got there, and in early October I got to work.

With the music following a movie of images I had a task getting my head into the story, so I printed out the book and spread it out on my floor and it all started to come together.

Here's the programme note:

“Rakiura" is a story of life on Stewart Island, Rakiura, a remote island at the southern end of New Zealand. The piece was commissioned to accompany a photographic album and exhibition by Keri Moyle and follows the album’s five distinct sections. Warm strings pay tribute to the beauty of the scenery, woodwinds evoke the magnificent birdlife, foreboding brass builds apprehension as humans arrive and make their mark on the land, and then as humans withdraw the land flourishes once again with its harsh yet tranquil beauty.

The guest conductor and my good friend, David Kay, kindly gave me the opportunity to conduct the work (photo above). It was wonderful to put it together with the musicians and they really did a great job performing it.

A big thank you to everyone who supported the project and to those who came to one of the concerts and gave such a positive response.

ANBOC conference 2014, Melbourne

This year seems to be all about upskilling for me and attending the Australian National Band and Orchestra Clinic in Melbourne from the 12th to 15th of September was a decent part of it.

ANBOC brings together professional development, outstanding performances, and networking of directors. A distinguished collection of international and domestic presenters, conductors, and performers form the core of the conference program.

It only happens every few years and combines conducting masterclasses, repertoire forums, rehearsal techniques, instrumental pedagogy, large ensemble composition, and more.

It was a great mix of everything I love and to have some of the best thinkers and doers in these areas was very inspiring. I went thinking it would be all about directing groups but I was amazed at how much composition material there was too - I hit the jackpot!

Frank Ticheli (composer, conductor, legend) was an absolute standout and other highlights included Benjamin Northey (conductor), Stephen Chin (string guy), John Lynch (wind conductor) and Tim Fisher (composer for young people).

Looking back on my notes - all 4,000 words of them - there are so many great things I will take away from the few days. But it was also great to hang out with some friends from NZ, who also attended, as we checked out some of Melbourne I hadn't seen before.

One of those friends used a piece of mine, 'Dancing Thistles' in her conducting masterclass. It was very well received - I sold a few copies in the following week. Yippee!

What a wonderful few days, get to the next one, if you can!

Music school magic!

I am just back from working with the concert band at another superb Bay of Plenty Music School. What a great weekend - there is something so great about gathering at the beginning of a weekend, meeting new people, working hard and presenting a wonderful concert together on Sunday before returning for another week of the real world.

I had a really fantastic group this year including a solid contingent from Auckland University which gave great depth to our woodwinds in particular. We ditched the easier pieces and launched into the challenging repertoire and with fine results - our set at the concert was so tight and I think the most technically advanced and polished performance since I've been conducting the group.

Our concert set was:

• Stalter – Ignition
• Shostakovich – Folk Dances
• Berlin – Alexander’s Ragtime Band
• Kahelin – Clown Act

There was also some wonderful results in the orchestra (David Adlam) and choir (Peter Watts), as well as some impressive combined performances - which I was most happy to hand the baton on for this year and feature only in the percussion section!

The combined works were:

• Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture
• Mozart - Requiem (excerpts)
• Copland - Hoedown
• Brahms - Symphony No.3

Congrats to the Taupo organising committee for a very fine job, thanks to all the players for your efforts and I hope to see you all again next year!

Bay of Plenty Music School hits Taupo

I'm super excited about the Bay of Plenty Music School this year as it hits the shores of Lake Taupo. This year will be the 45th year of its existence making it the largest surviving music school in New Zealand which is fantastic.

I am conducting the concert band once again and our repertoire includes:

• Stalter - Ignition
• Shostakovich - Folk Dances for Concert Band
• Whitacre - Seal Lullaby
• Williams - Theme from ET
• Kahelin - Clown Act
• Berlin - Alexander's Ragtime Band

Some really great pieces which I look forward to putting together with everyone.

It's going to be great to get back to Taupo - one of my favourite places. In 2010 I worked with six of the school and community groups to create Moana Ataahua for the ERUPT Lake Taupo Festival (read more) - a project made possible by the SOUNZ Community Commission. I've been back several times since giving workshops (read more).

My two fellow conductors are David Adlam (orchestra) and Peter Watts (choir) and I know they have some wonderful repertoire to share with their groups.

It's on the 25th-27th of April and will be held at Taupo-nui-a-Tia College and the Anglican Church of St Andrew. If you're interested in attending visit the music school website for all of the information and registration details.

See you there!

Workshops in Taupo

I was invited down to Taupo to work with the Taupo Concert Band and thought it was a good opportunity to bundle some other activities in too. I went down last week, here's what I got up to: TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Presented a workshop for the music students and staff at Tauhara College. It was also great to see the staff from Taupo-nui-a-Tia College there as well.

We went back to basics and explored the six things we need to create a great composition (and get a good mark too!). Loads of ideas, plenty of talent, good fun.

TUESDAY NIGHT

I had a four-hour session with the Taupo Concert Band. They are working towards a big concert so were really keen for an intensive evening! They may be a smallish band but make an incredibly good sound and with some versatile musicians - and the new drummer turning up during the dinner break - it made for a really great evening of music-making. We worked on:

• "Oregon" by Jacob de Haan
• "American Overture" by Joseph Willcox Jenkins
• "Symphonic Dances" from Fiddler on the Roof by Jerry Bock (arr. Hearshen)
• "Granada" by Agustin Lara (arr. Longfield)

WEDNESDAY MORNING

I headed up to Reporoa to give two further workshops.

1. The first was for their gifted music students - we talked about finding your place in the world of music and it was great to be able to share some stories and listen to some music from various projects that I have been involved with.
2. The second was actually part of their science curriculum - we looked at sound. After working out what it actually is and exploring sound waves, we launched into the fun of playing loads of different instruments, discussing how they make their sound and categorising them.

Here are some pics from the session:

It was a great two days, hoping to do a similar trip again next year.