pianist
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Oh no, my dog-ears are tearing already!
Oh no! The folded corners of my pages are tearing already, and the show doesn’t go live until Friday! Continue reading
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To the Boss! With love
June Gemmell is the musical director of Dusty The Original Pop Diva, and took me on in 2013 as pianist for another musical Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. June is bossy, precise, and quite magnificent. She can say all sorts of things to the singers (which I would have trouble saying) without offending anyone.… Continue reading
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Dusty The Original Pop Diva rehearsals start!
The cast of Dusty The Original Pop Diva gather at the Sunnybank Theatre. Continue reading
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Celebrating the world Under This Sky!
It’s been a week since the 85-piece orchestra, that my Melodica and I were so lucky to be part of, performed in Under This Sky (UTS) on Aug 1 and 2 2015, out on the playing fields of Logan Brothers Rugby League Club. I intended to review Under This Sky until I realised that I… Continue reading
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UTS tech rehearsals. Brrr!
BRRR! Under This Sky (UTS) tech rehearsals into the cold night! The lights are blue, like our hands. Steve Francis plays a haunting bass clarinet solo in one of the early scenes in the show. Steve composed this piece in a songwriting workshop last year, and the QMF team sought him out and asked him… Continue reading
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QMF “Under This Sky” is in 2 weeks! Go Melodica!
There is an overwhelming sense of community being part of this production. Under This Sky pulls people together for orchestra, choir, dance and drama. Everyone in it is from Logan, this thing is happening in my neighbourhood! Continue reading
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Orchestra rehearsal: awesome band and a touch of greatness
In this week’s orchestra rehearsal for the Queensland Music Festival “Under This Sky” event we were joined by music heavyweights. Continue reading
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Melodica goes to orchestra rehearsal!
Look at that! Scores for my beautiful melodica to play in a Queensland Music Festival orchestra in Logan! The pdfs arrived in my inbox a day before the first rehearsal. “You have arrived at your destination,” said my GPS, on the Brown Plains Road with trees everywhere and not a sports centre in sight. Aw… Continue reading
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Fascination and Czardas with Sophie VIDEO
Sophie Van Aerde and I has the opportunity to play together again, at Datuk Ibrahim Laiman Diki’s 60th birthday party at the Grand Ballroom in 1Borneo, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. January 2015. Continue reading
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Breaking Up Is Hard To Do – almost Opening Night
Tonight is preview night for Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. Opening Night is this Friday. All matinée performances are sold out, and over 80% of all tickets are sold. I can’t write a long post, I’ve got a few hours of piano practise to do before teaching. Continue reading
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Klasik Elastik PHOTO VIDEO
Klasik Elastik is a duo made up of Sophie Van Aerde (violin, recorder) a doctor from France, and me (piano, melodica). We play mostly classical and gypsy songs. Sophie likes to be very expressive, varying the speed of the music when she feels like it. She has taught me how to listen and follow her.… Continue reading
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Jeff Usher, jazz pianist
Everyone has heroes. Jazz pianist Jeff Usher’s is the maverick genius Thelonious Monk. The uncompromising quirkiness of Monk’s music just blew Usher away. “It was his personality,” said Brisbane-based Usher. “When Monk played, it sounded like he was having a great laugh at everybody, because of those harmonies of his. It sounded like he was… Continue reading
About Joanna
Joanna is British Australian. Her early career was in financial news in London. That ended in 2008. Joanna moved to Sabah, her parents’ birthplace, where she wrote a blog about musicians, which became a book. Joanna came to Australia in 2012 and started this blog — her second. These days, she writes mostly about music, her garden, and trips to Sabah. Oh, and Wookie the Havanese.
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