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Ryan Youens <ryanyouens>
"This is I"


Professional composer, copyist & engraver, orchestrator & arranger. I also freelance as a conductor, teacher & instrumentalist.

Producing and publishing music for film, concert hall, publications, other artists and ensembles. Keeping busy, check out my website for full details ... www.ryanyouens.com.

Also visit me at: www.ryanyouens.com/blog, www.myspace.com/ryanyouens, http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan_..., www.twitter.com/ryanyouens, www.flickr.com/ryanyouens, www.youtube.com/ryanyouens, www.nextcat.com/ryanyouens.

Music
Film soundtracks, everything classical, good popular stuff, of course music by ME
Films
The Princess Bride, Swiss Family Robinson (the original), School of Rock, Hairspray
Happiest When
Listening to music, writing music, arranging music, orchestrating music, typesetting music, playing music and conducting music.
Gender   Age
Male25
Last ActiveProfile Views
4 days205 times
Share the LuvRelationship Status
7
Engaged
Hometown
North Shore, Auckland, NZ
Ryan Youens's URL
http://www.bebo.com/ryanyouens
Member Since
January 2008

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Opononi 08
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
0 Comments 222 days ago
 

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Gabriela
not sure which night we r playing i think we r playing with the apo
yep its at the bruce mason
yep ill let u kno
hav fun
13 weeks ago
Gabriela
kai ora
how have u been
congrate on being engaged
me good. im enjoying uni being involved in music.
i am composing some jazz pieces
so wat u been up to
o r u going to the concert the last of the proms with the apo coz i will b playing with the city of sails pipe band for the show
13 weeks ago
Abbie
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!

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! :) 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!!

I better leave you alone now, but I hope you've had an awesomely good birthday surprise!! :D
13 weeks ago
Nicole
Happy Birthday Ryan!!!
Hope You have a good day!!
13 weeks ago
Abbie
Haha yes it does sound like it will be a big day!

Yeah I always keep out of trouble :D

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?
13 weeks ago
Abbie
So bebo tells me it's your birthday... Happy Birthday!!!!! Hope you have an awesome day :)

How's your year going?!
13 weeks ago
Alex Yun Lee
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.

:)
29 weeks ago
Nicole
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?!
30 weeks ago
Alex Yun Lee
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?
30 weeks ago
Abbie
Yay thanks for the love :)
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 :( Oh well!
Well I hope you have a great weekend! I'll be slogging at work for most of it dammit...
30 weeks ago
Abbie
Haha I seriously couldn't imagine it but couldn't resist checking cos that would have been hilarious! :P 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.
Yeah I'm pretty good, hope you are too :) 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.
31 weeks ago
Abbie
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 :D I couldn't really imagine it but just had to ask lol!
31 weeks ago
Alex Yun Lee
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!
31 weeks ago
Alex Yun Lee
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
31 weeks ago
Bryn V
hey ryan! awesome music camp this year it rocked thanks for adding me!
31 weeks ago
Lauren Riddle
Opo's legendary i cant believe i wasted the whole first camp i went to being a loner lol.
yes not having to get up at 5.30 is a real luxury lol
31 weeks ago
Kate Maggie
Ryan!
Parachute was fantastically amazing I had the best time :D There is such a great atmosphere there, and I only got a minmal amount of teasing for the fact that I had gone there straight from Band Camp! Once I had assured everyone that I did not play the flute or trumpet it was all good though.
HOwever, mosh pits are dangerous to your health... I am down one toenail!!

Hope your trip home was sweet... including your stop at the river in the Kauri forests!

Kate
31 weeks ago
Gemma
lol .i added you on msn messenger.. it seemed to work. lol!

umm the beatboxing is going not so good. haha. although i got further with the flutter tongueing today than i have before :D
yay. you'd think that after playing for 36hours or so that I'd be sick of the flute for a while but you know the first thing i did when i got home? ..tried to remember some of the songs and did what Ray Palmer told us to do with the scales.!

How often do you play viola?
31 weeks ago
Gemma
it sure did make sense.haha. =]

ummh im a bit technologically retarded when it comes to this kinda stuff. lol. :P .. msn messenger?
31 weeks ago
Nicole
Oh you should! You never know a model scout could be browsing bebo and see your really sexy pic (hahaha) and could start you on your way to fame . . if not exactly in the way that you originally desired .. bu hey it would all be thanks to moi!! :L tehehe jj.
Yes well personally I didn't see you standing in the river (which sounds really hilarious but still on the boarder line of being sane considering the week that we had just had) but that's what Kate said! Anyway sure it was lovely! I think a break would have been nice around that time anyway as it gets rather windy on that road!
31 weeks ago
 

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