GLAD MY TEACHING DAYS HAVE FINISHED !

Yamaha C3 Grand

During the mid 1970’s, a significant part of my music career was involved with teaching piano to a diverse  group of students, most of whom were taking lessons at the request of their parents.  Needless to say, the enthusiasm level was not always of great significance with most of the young students, and the teacher’s main role was encouraging them to practice regularly.  VERY hard work indeed, and it’s the main reason I no longer teach.  I have discussed this with many other teachers, and found it to be very common – it’s now called burnout !

THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE  [ AND HOW ! ]

Hanon - a foundation of piano technique

One day a 15 year old student named Ashley Irwin commenced lessons which  usually lasted 30 minutes.  This was due to a severe rolling off of concentration after that amount of time – typical of his age group.  Ashley rewrote the 15 year old ” concentration and application to task “  rule book in a way I’d never encountered before, and in no time the lessons increased to an hour, 2 hours, 3 hours and eventually all afternoon.  I guess it was a repeat of Chuck Yates generosity of time when I studied with him.  [ See an earlier blog Vale Ed Thigpen for the whole story ]

His thirst for knowledge, his  intelligence, and his incredible work ethic blew my mind. He was the most stimulating student I have ever had !  We worked on playing the piano,  jazz improvisation,  arranging, scoring, composing and discussed ethics in music at great length.

SUCCESS IN HIS CHOSEN FIELD.

Obviously someone who works that hard deserves to succeed and very rapidly. By 17 he was a full time working musician, composer and arranger, and had a residency as pianist in the hit show Jesus Christ Superstar. On top of that work he was frequently called to compose, arrange and play in the Sydney studio recording scene – anything from a jingle for soap powder with a small band to a full orchestral session.

He came to the attention of an American  composer / arranger named Bill Conte who was recording  in Sydney, and next thing I knew he was off to Los Angeles to work in conjunction with him.  The rest is history. I’d  like you to checkout his website which is a magnificent success story in its’ own right.

www.ashleyirwin.com/

THE SKYPE SESSIONS

Skype Logo

Over the last year, we have had some delightful conversations, for up to 2 hours at a time on SKYPE.  What a wonderful way to communicate after many years. As you have seen from his website, he’s been a regular at the Oscars and the Emmies, but this year decided to come home to Australia to work in Perth, Western Australia during that time. The ” GIG ” was to conduct the Western Australian Philharmonic  Orchestra for a season of Disney music at the Perth Zoo.  Sure makes me very proud. I’ll let the media release tell the story.

Disney In Concert

Zaccaria Events and the WA Philharmonic Present

Disney In Concert

An Australian Premiere

Perth Zoo
Sunday March 7th, 2010

NOTE: NOW AT PERTH ZOO.

2 Giant Screens. An 84 piece orchestra. 4 amazing singers.

Kids come dressed as your favourite Disney character! Prizes and Giveaways! Special appearance by Fat Cat!

Disney in Concert is a magical journey through Disney’s classic animated movies, projected onto the big screen with the original score played LIVE by the WA Philharmonic Orchestra and accompanied by live vocals and narration by George Houvardas, featuring very special guest Elliot Spencer…

Outstanding movie scores to be featured during this magical evening include Aladdin, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and more. Check out the latest TV ad!

Hosted and Narrated by Channel 7 personality George Houvardas.Born in Sydney on January 3, 1982, George Houvardas has become an overnight star in his role as “Carbo” in Channel 7’s hit series Packed To The Rafters.  George trained at Screenwise in Sydney before attending his first audition which was for the role of “Carbo”. One of George’s acting heroes is Marlon Brando, especially his earlier work like “On the Waterfront” and “Streetcar Named Desire”. He also admires the work of Anthony Quinn.

Elliot Spencer is an energetic performer and writer who excels in character performance, audience interaction, interviewing and highly imaginative comedy. After five years as host and writer of Roller Coaster on ABC TV, Elliot has clocked up over 180 hours (1124 episodes) of new Australian content and is now ready to share his unique style of entertainment with a broader audience.

The WA Philharmonic Orchestra was established in 1993 for the purpose of recording film scores.  At that same time Lucasfilm chose the WA Philharmonic to record the score for “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” that achieved six Emmy awards for the score and since that time the WA Philharmonic have worked on many film productions.  Due to the huge growth of innovative live orchestra performances worldwide, the WA Philharmonic is not only dedicated to recording live film scores, but also to performing movie music live for the visual arts.

The WA Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by Ashley Irwin, an Emmy award winning composer from Australia who resides in Los Angeles.

Concert Master will be Perth’s own Ashley Arbuckle, former co-leader of the London Symphony Orchestra and also past Concert Master of WASO.

To add to the fun and glamour of the evening, the promoters invite children ‘of all ages’ to dress as their favourite Disney character.  These ‘special guest’ appearances will be captured on camera and projected onto the big screen for all to see, with interviews by a celebrity roving reporter.

GENERAL EVENT INFORMATION:

Kids come dressed as your favourite Disney character! This is a fully licensed event. Minors (children under 18 years of age) may only attend the event if they are accompanied by their parent/step-parent or legal guardian. We play rain or shine. No umbrellas permitted. This is a family friendly, smoke free event. No admittance to any child under the age of 18 unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian

Ashley Irwin has warned the singers in Disney in Concert that when they hear the orchestra strike up around them, it will take them back to their childhood.

“Standing up there on stage, you feel like a total kid again,” says Irwin, who will conduct the WA Philharmonic Orchestra in this event under the stars where a collection of famous and favourite songs from Disney movies are brought to life by the 84-piece orchestra and four singers.

Disney in Concert makes its Australian premiere at Perth Zoo next week and to date is the only show scheduled in the country. The songs are drawn from much-loved family films such as Aladdin, The Lion King, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid and giant screens will simultaneously screen clips from each movie.

“There are a set of songs that go together and have a structure and a story plus they have strong images. We go right back to Mary Poppins and through to the Pirates of the Caribbean. We’ve also found these wonderful drawings of the artwork from early cartoons where they are creating the characters, which work in as well.”

Originally from Sydney, Irwin is a four-time Emmy-winning composer and arranger who has been based in Los Angeles for two decades. His credits include music for the film Rocky and scoring Hitchcock’s The Lodger to celebrate the filmmaker’s 100th birthday.

“I’m very excited about this,” says Irwin, who remembers his first professional gig in Perth around 1975 playing keyboards in Jesus Christ Superstar and returning five years later as Garry McDonald’s musical director.

Irwin has been arranging music for the Academy Awards for almost 20 years, was back in Australia late last year working on music for television coverage of the Winter Olympics, and works regularly in film, but says lately he’s been returning more to conducting.

In the US, Irwin has worked with Disney a lot, being involved with large-scale movie launches.

“They often play songs from the movie first or do a greatest hits and then screen the premiere of the movie. The beauty of Disney is that as cliched as it is, in terms of the great American songbook, no one else is adding songs to the standard repertoire anymore. These are actually great songs.”

Irwin is looking forward to working with the WA Philharmonic Orchestra and says he is already impressed by their formidable achievements.

So, there you are – do you understand why I’m proud ?

Baldwin Concert Grand Piano

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