Gamelan, Glass and Guitars

An immersive musical experience not to be missed. Pajajaran will perform the Metamorphoses of Philip Glass arranged by Kerry Watson for gamelan degung ensemble and 5 string violin. EphenStephen guitar duo will play music by Ivanovic, Thorneycroft and Houghton.

7:30 pm, 14 October 2016.

New England Regional Art Museum
106-114 Kentucky Street
Armidale, NSW 2350

Ticket information and bookings here.

Last Concert for 2015

Tonight marks our last concert for 2015. We’ve had lots of fun exploring a wealth of new & old repertoire through the concert series this year & are very much looking forward to what we can find for the series in 2016. We are already planning a new transcription for the New England Bach Festival in May and some other fun collaborations – we’ll keep you posted!

A special thanks goes out to Kez Watson for hosting our whole series this year – so to say thanks we had an excellent whisky celebration at The Welder’s Dog recently along with some friends from various distilleries… In order of appearance:

First round: Penderyn Peated

Second round: Lark, Laphroiag Quarter Cask, Big Peat

Third round: Talisker Storm, Talisker Port Ruighe and the 10 year Talisker

Fourth round: Octomore

We staggered home feeling fantastic! Thanks to Tom & the guys from The Welder’s Dog!

Tonight’s concert features some favourites that we’ve discovered from the repertoire we’ve explored this year, a new piece, and a couple of old favourites by local composers. The new piece which has really stood out to us this year (that we’ll also be playing tonight) is ‘Still the Sea’ by Welsh composer Steve Goss. What a very special piece of music that we’re just starting to discover and which will stay with us for a long time. Please come along (if you haven’t signed up already) and join us, although seating is very limited.

We look forward to seeing you there and also for the series next year. Happy Christmas and New Year!

Trio of Five

It’s time again to stretch some musical boundaries with another ‘Trio of Five’ night this Friday, 7th August at The Armidale Club. 5 musicians, 3 ensembles – hence the name**! EphenStephen will kick off the proceedings, accompanied on a couple of numbers by Steve Harris and Ash Hall (guest artists from Caution Horses and The Ash Hall Trio), followed closely by The Ash Hall Trio featuring Ash Hall (trumpet), Tony Elder (vocals) and Steve Thorneycroft (guitar). Caution Horses will round off the evening – Steve Harris (drums & percussion), Ash Hall (trumpet) and Stephen Tafra (oud, banjo, fretless guitar, accordion).

We’ll make sure as many musical stones are turned as we possibly can!

IMG_2118

 

**NB The name actually came about because of S1’s renowned mathematical skill…

A plucking good time

Had a rehearsal with our quartet ‘Totally Plucked’ last night. We’ve got an upcoming concert on the 30th August as part of Armidale’s long-standing ‘Music on a Market Sunday’ series, organised by Benjamin Thorn. Rehearsal was great fun – Matt & Ed were both on fine form, as was S1. S2 had some trouble counting the 8 strings and brought too many guitars along. Can you ever have too many guitars? Probably not. But strings, yes! Scarlatti & Bach may not have been amused…

Our programme will include Bach, Scarlatti, Tommis, Cruz and York. Sunday 30th August at 12.30pm in the Armidale Uniting Church. Put it in your diaries!

Concert Series 2

Yesterday we gave the second concert in our 2015 series (that’s the year, not number of concerts!). Held again in Kez’s studio – guitars sound so great in there.

This was our all-Latin programme. We can’t help including some twists though, so we figured a tango by an Aussie composer and some English music arranged by a Cuban composer would be ok! No-one seemed to mind! Programme below.

ES 2015 Concert 2

Wallangra Festival

The Wallangra festival was incredible! Massive thanks to the committee for inviting us to play both as EphenStephen and Wirrycow. What a fantastic night of music – so much young local talent & great to meet up with The Mae Trio & Martin & Adam from Wombat Tracks. Get behind this festival – such a GOOD thing they’re doing and we’re absolutely looking forward to next time. Bring it on!

http://wallangransw.com/wallangra-festival/

http://www.inverelltimes.com.au/story/2979024/wallangra-comes-alive-with-debut-festival-video-and-gallery/?cs=1271#slide=22