Well, yesterday I got back from the 2008 Opononi Summer School. Wow. What a week. I was conducting and it was my third year there.
It started off being one of the hottest weeks up there, after conducting each piece it felt like (and looked like) I had just run a marathon. But thankfully it cooled off a little as the week got on.
The first two days were basically just playing through ALOT of music. I think we had about 25 pieces out, covering classical, jazz, musicals, movies and so on. The group this year had such a great sound. No weak links in the flutes or clarinets, had three percussionists who were all VERY good, and a full bass section of two tubas, euphonium, four string basses, four trombones and two baritone saxes.
Scattered throughout the week of course were many talks, warmups and activities. One very successful activity was in groups performing the same short tune it in four different styles. VERY amusing, I shall put these videos up on YouTube soon. Also, it was great to let people have a turn at conducting. They could chose from three pieces, and then run it or rehearse it for a few minutes. They all did pretty good. lol In fact, one of the young girls gave the percussionists a good telling off for not keeping in time. SUPERB!!
Days three and four were a little more focused on the collection of pieces that would make the final concert. Some of the pieces were Bernstein’s Candide Overture, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, Bizet’s Carmen Suite, Eric Coates’ Dambusters March and a large 13 minute Charlie Chaplin suite. Some of the other pieces included suites from Cats and Fiddler on the Roof, John Williams Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, and some lighter numbers including Mamma Mia, The Flintstones and Big Band Classics.
It was an interesting week compared to normal, as everything and everyone was so relaxed. At some rehearsals, everyone seemed to be there 30 minutes beforehand, and yes, including the first morning when everyone was there ready to play at 5.30am for the 6am rehearsal. Another morning it was going to be a hot afternoon, so an extra long rehearsal meant more time in the afternoon to spend at the beach or reading in the sun … mmmm yes.
The pre-concert dinner was almost a non event. The gas cookers kindly stopped working 25 minutes before dinner was due. So the cars were packed up with the food and headed down to the local Copthorne hotel who very kindly cooked it in their facilities. Thank goodness. We had dessert first and when dinner arrived there was a very relieved bunch of hungry teenagers … in fact, everybody.
Well we made it to the concert, and what a concert it was. We performed 15 works, had two items and it all went so well. The cooler evening, shorter program than usual and fantastic standard of the players spouted comments from many saying it was the most enjoyable concert in years. The night ended with a mad scramble of returning music, getting others’ cellphone numbers and photos. Most went home, but some stayed for a final “Pooh” story and night at the Marae.
2009 brings the 25th year of Opononi and many fantastic ideas are floating around of how to celebrate. You shall have to stay tuned to find out exactly what those celebrations will be.
To see the full blog with photos, visit here:
www.ryanyouens.com/blog
11
Hey, my music is going great thanks! i'm learning all these new things on the saxophone! and i play the trombone now! haha! so, Team Sax is going to invade the trombone sections next! mwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
How about you? done any more sweet compositions lately?
hey ryan! miss opo much??! congrats for the wedding!
Hya hope the concert went well... We are in LA and are a day behind and Im really not sure but the day is in NZ!!! Hope the whole week went well.... Really bummed that I missed it!!
Hope the wedding goes well!!! Are you going to Josh and Annas wedding????
Three weeks before your wedding! Congrats thats awesome!
Better make sure youv'e ticked everything off your list though!! You'll be in trouble otherwise.
Bit sad bout David, its feeling like quite a depleated year already, but I suppose priorities change lol, even Kate's leaving early to get to parachute which wouldv'e been such a travesty last year.
I suppose on the bright side, there is more possibility of not having tio have a bed in the middle of the marae, which could mean limited sand in my bed. Now that would be a treat.
It'll still be great, we don't need everyone there to have a good week, but who knows, maybe you'll be conducting a lone bari sax player to our usual audience. (If this occurs however i refuse to play anything in 2/3 time! haha)
Take care,
Cynthy
hey ryan!!
Hows it looking for your presence up north in jan?
tga contingent is dropping like flies this year, but I'll be there!!
heard from david and vanessa?
Yeah I know it felt weird cos I rehearsed with them leading up to competitions and felt so ready to perform but then I couldn't so that was odd!
Hope all the concerts go well. And that's great that you have music work coming in cos it could be a pretty hard career without the regular work like other industries aye! My brother will probably be a poor musican now that he's got his degree lol. Although he's got the entreprenurial thing going on so maybe he can get rich through investing haha! So that's awesome for you to be able to make a living out of music!!
Well I don't know how much luck I'll have trying to be a dog psychologist, but I should at least be able to get some sort of job! Haha.
I know I'm SO excited cos I've always wanted to learn to dance! Just never found a guy I could drag along until now lol!
Your orchestras are very lucky to have you conducting them I reckon!
I better leave you alone now, but I hope you've had an awesomely good birthday surprise!!
Happy Birthday Ryan!!!
Hope You have a good day!!
Haha yes it does sound like it will be a big day!
Yeah I always keep out of trouble
I've just started singing in the rivertones womens barbershop chorus this year and they just won nationals which I couldn't go to cos I'd already booked flights to go to my brother graduation on the same weekend which was gutting. But anyway they won so now we will be going to Nashville, Tennessee at the end of next year for the internationals!
Apart from that and uni choir I'm not doing anything else musical which is sad, but I probably wouldn't have time anyway with all the uni work we have at the moment :s
Oooh and I'm starting ballroom and latin lessons with my flatmate (Cynthia's ex incidently) on Wednesday night which should be awesome! So if I come back to Opononi next year I'll be bloody amazing lol. Don't know if I'll be able to come though cos I'll probably be on a uni work placement over the summer
So what have you been up to lately?
So bebo tells me it's your birthday... Happy Birthday!!!!! Hope you have an awesome day
How's your year going?!
yes I did get your mailing list email! sorry i must take a more proper look at it sometime. i just kinda had a skim thru, starred it, and forgot bout it a lil. thanks for reminding. well that's way exciting!! must be the life man. before going to uni i've always had a wee dream of wanting to be a world class musician.... but thought that unpractical ( for me) and went ahead with my other passion - science and helping people ( thus med). but sometimes i still wonder what it might have been like if i went down the other path.
oh and i dunno if i've ever told ya, but i love your compositions. i've only ever heard 2 live. ( one in dunnerz at concert with kathryn, then at opo) you're mint Ryan
and heading back down south ( where my tan will faaddde) tomorrow. hmmm wish me luck packing lol.
Yeah there's been some awesome pictures that have arisen from opo this year! Spose it does help when you have your own camera!!
Hows life after the best week of your year?!
yep Marcel's so mint. coolest guy ever. I can't wait til i can say that i've been playing my flute for 40 yrs, like he has.
what have you got planned for the year?
Yay thanks for the love
Oh well!
There is a photo of me and him as the cover photo for the 'My Album' photo album on my page and his name is James Mason. Yeah it was great having them to stay cos they're funny guys! It was rather sad last night though cos they were awesome but hardly anyone came to the gig! I think it was a combination of the early start, weird location, short notice, door charge and the fact that town was really dead all night
Well I hope you have a great weekend! I'll be slogging at work for most of it dammit...
Haha I seriously couldn't imagine it but couldn't resist checking cos that would have been hilarious!
He was at Vic campus in 2006 as well, and it was classical comp as far as I know cos he specialised in sonic arts last year. But there would have been so many people there that you probably never saw each other.
We had his whole band staying at our house last night cos they had a gig in Tga so that was fun!! Have a great day.
Yeah I'm pretty good, hope you are too
Hey Ryan really random question... Did you used to have longish green hair?? Cos my brother has just finished his degree in music composition at the NZ school of music, and he thought the photos of you reminded him of someone he had seen around uni with green hair
I couldn't really imagine it but just had to ask lol!
haha i'm So glad you are now converted to bebo too!! i mean, it was quite young-en sorta but it's colourful n cool and i find easier to use than facebook. plus majority of my mates use bebo. great way to keep in touch!
tricky flute solos ay? i woulda enjoyed the challenge i think. i totally miss concert bands. this year i'm not with the DYO anymore, i'm gonna join the symphonic band down there ( which is equivalent to concert bands, from what i've heard) which should be totally awes. can't wait to pick up my flute again. i miss making music so much. listening to it just aint' the same.
can't wait to check out the Opo photos for this year
what have you got planned for the year?
i head down south soon. Med 3 here i come!
hey!! so glad you got bebo too now! coz i use bebo a lot more than i look at my facebook.
how was Opo? I was gutted i couldnt' be there but parachute was TOTALLY amazing. switchfoot rocked. and i got to 3 meters away from the lead guy Jon Foreman!
oxoxo write back
hey ryan! awesome music camp this year it rocked thanks for adding me!