Australian Youth Orchestra

Two tremendous Australian trumpet players took part in National Music Camp 2019 – David Elton, principal trumpet in the London Symphony Orchestra, was Artist-in-Residence, and Brent Grapes, his counterpart in the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, was trumpet tutor. Words About Music participant (and occasional trumpeter) Christopher Healey, grasped this rare opportunity and talked to these outstanding musicians about their work, their technique, their practice routine…and of course mouthpieces.

Written, produced and edited by Christopher Healey

With thanks to David Elton and Brent Grapes for their time, and Phillip Sametz, Jakub Gudasinski and the 2019 AYO Words About Music team for their assistance.

David Elton and Brent Grapes recorded Lassus’ Fulgebunt justi sicut lilium especially for this podcast.

The excerpt from Saint-Saëns’ Septet was performed by tutors and Artists-in-Residence at AYO National Music Camp: Anna Goldsworthy, piano; David Elton, trumpet; Helen Ayres and Lachlan Bramble, violins; Stephen King, viola; Tim Nankervis, cello and Phoebe Russell, double bass.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Kaurna Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

Adam Weitzer in conversation with camp participants Kate Mostert (oboe) and Jason Henery (double bass), and tutor Sharon Grigoryan (cello).

Performance anxiety affects performers of all ages, both student and professional. In this podcast Adam Weitzer, of the NMC Words About Music program, sat down with some musicians from the orchestral program to hear their perspectives on how performance anxiety affects them, and how they deal with it.

Written and produced by Adam Weitzer

Edited by: Adam Weitzer

With thanks to Jakub Gaudasinki, Phillip Sametz, and Jim Atkins

Beethoven Symphony No. 4 performed by the Alexander Orchestra conducted by Giordano Bellincampi at NMC 2019

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Kaurna Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

Ahead of her performance of Max Richter’s Recomposed with Momentum Ensemble, violinist Miki Tsunoda joined us to discuss the growing art of reworking classical greats into modern masterpieces.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Eora Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

AYO Chamber Players Artistic Director Piers Lane joined us to talk about what's in store at our upcoming chamber music concerts at Elder Hall.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Eora Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

Conductor Courtney Lewis will lead the Australian Youth Orchestra as they perform works by Britten, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. Ahead of the concerts, we caught up with Courtney to find out a little more about the repertoire we'll be hearing.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Eora Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

Benjamin Britten's 'Sinfonia da requiem' and Rachmaninov's 'Symphonic Dances' have one thing in common – they both feature a saxophonist! Alice Morgan joins AYO's woodwind section to perform these pieces at our upcoming concerts, and we caught up with Alice and her tutor James Nightingale to hear their thoughts on the use of saxophone in an orchestral setting.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Eora Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

AYO violinists James Chen and Emily Beauchamp took part in a masterclass with Anne Harvey-Nagl from the Australian World Orchestra. Hear them chat about their experience in our AYO podcast.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Eora Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

Simone Vitiello chats to AYO tutor Lucy Reeves in episode 7 of AYO’s podcast. Lucy is a harpist, and performs with many orchestras around Australia and New Zealand. She also runs a private Alexander Technique practice in Brisbane, which she tells us about in this podcast.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Yuggera Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

Sarah is in her final year at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and brought along to camp her witty personality and determination to experiment with new musical ideas. The most appealing part of coming along to camp, for Sarah, was the incentive of being able to work alongside some of the industry’s leading performers during the creation process. The result of her two-week stint at camp was Flint, a composition based upon a poem by English poet Christina Rossetti. The poem tells of the beauty of precious stones, and yet how, whilst they are beautiful, they do not possess the fire and passion of flint, albeit less pleasing to the eye.

Hear Sarah as she talks in detail about her new work, and her time at AYO National Music Camp.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Kaurna Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.

For Christopher, one of the attractions of AYO National Music Camp lay in the rare chance to spend an uninterrupted block of time creating music, without the inevitable distractions that come with everyday life. He approached his new work very mathematically; from the two-week duration he was given for its creation down to the careful planning of the piece’s structure. 136199 Eris is a musical representation of the dwarf planet of the same name, fondly known as simply “Eris”. Christopher explores themes of isolation, remoteness and strife in this musical depiction of a distant world, resulting in a rather eerie and intriguing work of art.

Christopher tells us more about his experience at camp, and his new work, 136199 Eris.

We'd like to acknowledge we’ve recorded this podcast on the traditional lands of the Kaurna Nations and pay our respects to Elders both past, present and future.