Category: General posts

VALE CHARLIE DANIELS

Charlie Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame who sang “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” recorded with Bob Dylan and was a vocal supporter of U.S. veterans, died Monday morning after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.

By the time the Charlie Daniels Band topped the charts with “Devil” in 1979, the instrumentalist, singer and songwriter had long established a remarkable, multifaceted career in Nashville. As a session musician, he played on three of Bob Dylan’s albums — including the revolutionary “Nashville Skyline” — as well as recordings for Ringo Starr and Leonard Cohen.

Charllie Daniels with the GFA's own
Pixie Jenkins in Tamworth 1997 — Charllie Daniels with the GFA’s own
Pixie Jenkins in Tamworth 1997

He was a fixture of the touring circuit for the next 40 years, became a tireless advocate for servicemen and women, and entered the information age as one of country music’s most outspoken conservative voices.

Nanaimo fiddle instructors recognized for contributing to city’s culture

Nanaimo fiddle instructors recognised for contributing to city’s culture

Fiddle instructors Trish and Geoff Horrocks are recipients of this year’s Honour in Culture Award. (Josef Jacobson/The News Bulletin)

For more than 10 years this duo has been writing and publishing fiddle and piano music books under the Cross Canada Fiddle banner, which soon added a teaching side and their flagship ensemble, Fiddlelium. Now Trish and Geoff Horrocks have been presented with Nanaimo’s 2020 Honour in Culture Award.

Last year fiddle instructors Trish and Geoff Horrocks attended the City of Nanaimo’s Culture and Heritage Award ceremony and this year they’re winners themselves. They were there with their Fiddelium ensemble, which performed during the event.

For video and more on the story…

General posts

Unleash the ’Gong boy

2020 marks 30 years of Richard Tognetti as Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Image:
(ACO: Andrew Quilty) — Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Richard Tognetti at home, in Manly, Sydney.

Unleash the ’Gong boy

Richard Tognetti has been staying up until 3am — not with jet lag, not rehearsing, not in post-performance celebrations. Tognetti is up reinventing his orchestra.

June should have seen the Australian Chamber Orchestra playing Mahler’s Song of the Earth and preparing for the debut of one of Tognetti’s own compositions. Then, plot twist: COVID-19. The tide went out.

In this interview specially commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Kate Holden speaks to Richard Tognetti about his 30 years leading the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and the crisis that has forced him to reinvent again.

Mass shooting victim’s favourite instrument donated in her memory

Mass shooting victim’s favourite instrument donated in her memory…

Music teacher Shawn MacDonald, who taught Nova Scotia shooting victim Emily Tuck, plays a fiddle donated in her memory.

Emily Tuck was the youngest victim of the mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 22 people, including her mother Jolene Oliver and father Aaron Tuck, in April.

Touched the by teen’s talent, Nadine Sarty of Bridgewater, N.S., raised funds to purchase a fiddle, along with a year of free lessons, which she has donated to MacDonald to be gifted to a student in Tuck’s memory.

A Brief History of the Violin

A vielle, an ancestor of the modern violin, appears in a 1330 fresco. Museum of Navarra, Pamplona.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIDGEMAN/ACI

A Brief History of the Violin

Italian musical masters took the violin from fiddle to first chair

Strummed, plucked, or bowed, violins had been making music for centuries before Andrea Amati and Antonio Stradivari brought them to new heights in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The violin is arguably the world’s most popular instrument. Its expressive tones suit a variety of musical styles, from fast and furious to slow and sanguine. Becoming popular in the 16^th century with both commoners and nobles, the violin has remained a democratic instrument, universal and versatile. (See also: 1,700-year-old musical instrument found, and it still works.)

At 87 Years Old, Al Schahn Began Restoring Violins. At 88, He Became a Violin Maker.

It's never too late. At 87, Al Schahn took on a new career.Karen Gavis — It’s never too late. At 87, Al Schahn took on a new career.
Karen Gavis

At 87 Years Old, Al Schahn Began Restoring Violins. At 88, He Became a Violin Maker.

As a boy, Al Schahn knew that the handmade violins his “papa” created made a distinct sound. Now 88 years old, Schahn began patiently restoring musical instruments last year and has since refurbished more than 20 violins, he says, including 13 that his father made.

Million-dollar Strads fall to modern violins in blind ‘sound check’

The secret of Stradivariuses like this one, the "Penny" Strad, may be that there is no secret beyond the great musicians who play them. BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS — The secret of Stradivariuses like this one, the “Penny” Strad, may be that there is no secret beyond the great musicians who play them.

BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

For more than a century, violins crafted by Stradivari and members of his family have been thought to possess acoustic qualities that new violins simply can’t match. (Violins fashioned contemporaneously by members of the Guarneri family are similarly revered.)

Is this still the case….read more!

General posts

Annual Donegal Fiddle Festival goes online to beat crisis

Fiddle players from all over the world attended last year's Donegal Fiddle Week. — *Fiddle players from all over the world attended last year’s Donegal Fiddle Week.*

With the Covid-19 lockdown many of the events organised by Cairdeas na bhFidiléirí have been forced to go online.

Organisers of the annual Donegal Fiddle Week say they are determined that the pandemic won’t force them to abandon this year’s festival.

The week-long carnival dedicated to the fiddle music of Co Donegal attracts ‘trad’ enthusiasts from across the world. Organised by Cairdeas na bhFidiléiri (Friendship of Fiddlers), it has become a firm fixture in the Irish music calendar since the first festival in Glencolmcille 35 years ago.

Why is Arthur Edward Smith considered Australia’s best violin-maker?

Arthur Edward Smith and Isaac Stern in Sydney, 1947.
Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia — *Arthur Edward Smith and Isaac Stern in Sydney, 1947.*
*Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia*

Today in both Australia & the wider global community, Arthur Edward Smith is considered the most important violin-maker to have been active in Australia. After migrating from London to Australia in 1909, Smith’s reputation began to grow. As his reputation grew, so did the prices for his violins, with one such example selling for USD $84,000 at a 2017 Tarisio auction.

After passing away in 1978, certainly no other domestic maker has been so well regarded as A. E. Smith, despite there being a number of local violin-makers over the years. What is it then that sets Smith apart? Why are his instruments so well regarded & sought after, both locally & internationally?

At 87 Years Old, Al Schahn Began Restoring Violins. At 88, He Became a Violin Maker.

It's never too late. At 87, Al Schahn took on a new career. — It’s never too late. At 87, Al Schahn took on a new career.

When pondering why he had waited until the age of 88 to build his own violin, Schahn says, “I was busy.”

To read more about this amazing man…….

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Nanaimo fiddle instructors recognised for contributing to city’s culture

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Unleash the ’Gong boy

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Mass shooting victim’s favourite instrument donated in her memory…

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A Brief History of the Violin

Italian musical masters took the violin from fiddle to first chair

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At 87 Years Old, Al Schahn Began Restoring Violins. At 88, He Became a Violin Maker.

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Million-dollar Strads fall to modern violins in blind ‘sound check’

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Annual Donegal Fiddle Festival goes online to beat crisis

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Why is Arthur Edward Smith considered Australia’s best violin-maker?

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At 87 Years Old, Al Schahn Began Restoring Violins. At 88, He Became a Violin Maker.

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