Lane Cove Surprises With Women's Close-harmony Barbershop Singing
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday December 14, 1995
LANE COVE DISTRICT MUSIC CLUB
St Andrew's Anglican Church, Lane Cove
December 5
RADIO 2MBS-FM 20TH ANNIVERSARY CD LAUNCH
Dougherty Centre, Chatswood
December 4
SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM
Award presentations and other activities
NORTHSIDE MUSIC ORGANISATIONS
Concert dates for 1996
THE very name is enough to make the competition squirm: Sydney Town Chorus Of Sweet Adelines International.
Not that competition is numerous, for these 30 ladies sing close-harmony barbershop music, and entertained the Lane Cove District Music Club with it last week.
While they sing, they perform little gyrations, kindergarten style, with hands and body.
Oddly, these doughty amazons they have a male conductor, David Coburn, to act as an inspirational beacon.
Their repertoire is not much to my taste, but they sing it very nicely.
I heard nobody query whether these are the kind of musicians you might expect at one of the Federated Music Clubs - but then, I left before they started the carols. And the weatherproof audience was encouragingly large.
Pianist, Li-Ya Dai was the supporting artist, playing Chopin with sensitivity, and Bach/Busoni with architectural grandeur.
He comes from Shanghai and is now at Sydney Conservatorium. A recent award-winner, he is a pianist worth watching.
The exhibition Les Fauves (The Wild Beasts) with pictures by Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and others, which is on view during summer at the Art Gallery of NSW, was publicised somewhat incongruously with a concert of Russian 19th century music at the Opera House earlier this month.
The Sydney Opera House Orchestra was conducted by veteran David Josefowitz, whose direction of Capriccio Italien by Tchaikovsky and Pictures At An Exhibition by Mussorgsky was slack, as if his batteries were low. Better was the Tchaikovsky violin concerto for which the soloist, Dene Olding, set the pace with a performance of warmth and fieriness as required.
The pioneer of FM broadcasting in Sydney, perhaps in Australia, is radio station 2MBS-FM, run largely by community volunteers, dedicated to classical music with a substantial Australian content, and based on headquarters in St Leonards. You will find it on the FM band at 102.5.
Late in 1994 and early in 1995, 2MBS-FM celebrated its 20th anniversary, and many local composers wrote new works to mark the occasion.
Now 13 of them come together on a new CD which was launched joyously last week. The composers are Ray Lemond, Richard Austin, Dorothy Dodd, Miriam Hyde, Eric Gross, Ann Carr-Boyd, John Colborne-Veel, Richard Charlton, Colin Brumby, Robert Allworth, Dulcie Holland, Paul Stanhope and John Veale.
The CD, titled An Anniversary Bouquet, makes a significant addition to recorded Australian music; it plays for 68 minutes and includes helpful documentation.
Its number is MBS34 and it is available from the station at 76 Chandos St, St Leonards, telephone 439 4777.
Also launched at the same time was a CD and cassette version of the first LP released by 2MBS-FM in 1974, a collection of organ music played by distinguished Sydney organist David Rumsey, and titled Deus ex Machina.
Four of the five young musicians who were awarded, at a ceremony late last month, the $1,000 Reuben Scarf Awards for "excellence in achievement and character" while attending the Sydney Conservatorium, came from the north of Sydney.
The 1995 winners, chosen by the Conservatorium Principal, Professor Sharman Pretty, and given their cheques by Mrs Mary Scarf, widow of Reuben Scarf, who died in 1993, were clarinettist Matthew Larsen of Frenchs Forest, who studies with Peter Jenkin; flautist Elizabeth Scott of Thornleigh, who studies with Michael Scott; percussionist Tim Paillas of East Roseville, who studies with Daryl Pratt; pianist Laura McDonald of Church Point, who studies with Elizabeth Powell; and violinist Kirsten Le Strange of Strathfield, who studies with Alice Waten.
Since the inauguration of these awards in 1983, a total of $65,000 has been given to the Conservatorium winners.
The award function is held under the auspices of the Sydney Conservatorium Association.
Two more awards presented under Conservatorium Association auspices recently were the Don Banks Award for composition, won by Damien Ricketson of Wollongong, who studies with Martin Wesley-Smith, and the Marsh Prize for excellence in singing, won by Han Lim, who studies with Maree Ryan.
My review on November 9 of a Manly Music Club recital stated that the cancellation of two songs was due to pianist Michael Black forgetting to bring the scores. He has written to me to say it was not he who forgot them.
My information, which appears to have blamed the wrong musician, came from the club's president. The singer was Marie-Cecile Henderson.
Here are the 1996 dates for various northside music groups which you may like to enter on your computerised reminder system or in your pocket diary.
Sydney Mozart Society: 498 4459. March 15, April 12, July 12, August 30, October 4, November 15.
Hunters Hill Music Club: 817 4843. March 10, May 12, further dates to be announced.
Macquarie Trio: (at Macquarie University) 850 9447. March 17, June 9, August 11, October 20.
Hills District Music Club: 634 2284. March 6, April 17 or 24, May 29, August 28, October 9, November 27.
Wyvern Lindfield Music Club: 417 4876. March 15, June 7, August 2, October 4, November 29.
Willoughby Symphony Orchestra: 413 4921. March 22, May 24, July 26, September 20, November 8. These are Friday evening dates; the concerts are repeated on Sunday afternoons.
In next week's Northern Herald, which will be the last one in 1995, I will be provocative and reckless enough to nominate the 10 best northside performances at which I happened to be present this year.
© 1995 Sydney Morning Herald