Escape from the rat race with world renowned flautist Jane Rutter who presents The Concourse Lunch Hour Series, a showcase of classical music set against the backdrop of the Concert Hall on The Concourse, Chatswood.

Featuring Simon Tedeschi, Cho Ki Wong, Rick Price and Taryn Fiebig, The Concourse Lunch Hour Series will commence from Wednesday 17 April until Wednesday 11 September, 2013.

Known for her classical, multi-media and cabaret performances, Jane Rutter has appeared as guest soloist with prominent artists such as Richard Bonynge, Michael Crawford, David Helfgott and Slava Grigoryan.

“The site of The Concourse has many wonderful memories for me – as a child I remember performing at the Willoughby Town Hall and studying with the legendary Victor McMahon at his studio on Victoria Avenue,” said Jane. “It gives me great pleasure to present world-class music in what will always be one of my favourite stomping grounds,” she said.

The Concourse Lunch Hour Series:

French Kiss – An Australian in Paris

12.30pm – 1.30pm, Wednesday 17 April

Featuring Jane Rutter (Flute) with Cho Ki Wong (Piano)

Gershwin and Me

12.30pm – 1.30pm, Wednesday 15 May

Featuring Simon Tedeschi (Piano)

PS I Love You

12.30pm – 1.30pm, Wednesday 19 June

Featuring Taryn Fiebig (Soprano) with Jane Rutter (Flute)

Rick Price Unplugged

12.30pm – 1.30pm, Wednesday 17 July

Featuring Rick Price (Vocals) and Band

Beethoven and Chopin

12.30pm – 1.30pm, Wednesday 21 August

Featuring Choki Wong (Piano) with String Quartet

An Irish Fantasy

12.30pm – 1.30pm, Wednesday 11 September

Featuring Jane Rutter (Flute) with String Trio and Harp

For more information, please visit The Concourse website

Our wonderful, talented and irritatingly hipster friends over at Design Federation nabbed themselves an exclusive interview with The Dandy Warhols at Harvest Music & Arts Festival in Melbourne last week.

Just too cool for school. Congrats to them and yay for us!  They have let us share and share alike. Enjoy

Interview by Paris Thompson.

A great little Aussie band “Skipping Girl Vinegar” are starting their “Chase the Sun” tour and if you haven’t heard them before, they are definitely worth checking out, the perfect music for summer.
(Check out the very cool animated film clip below)

www.skippinggirlvinegar.com

Read all about the Chase the Sun Tour!»

икони на светцииконография

Have you always dream’t of being Britney’s back up dancer, soft shoe shuffling like Fred Astaire or free styling like Usher?  Well here’s an event that will have you tapping your feet in no time.  From September 16-18 Homebush Olympic park will transform into one big dancehall for the 2011 Australian Dance Festival. A dance extravaganza that celebrates the best of the best of dance in one weekend of performances, competitions and dance workshops.

Professional and non professional’s dancers can get involved in classes including Hip Hop, Contemporary, Break Dancing, Jazz Funk, Broadway, Lyrical Jazz, Tap, Free-Style, Musical Theatre,Bollywood, Wacking/Voguing, Latin, Musical Theatre, Krumping and Acrobatic Dance the whole gamut of dance styles all under one roof!  This is an event unlike any other dance event in Australia and brings together best of the best dance teachers and choreographers this country has to offer.

Australian dancers are some of the most talented in the world if you don’t believe me check out this clip from last year’s event! We really can fly!

http://youtu.be/2UFfkw9Xyms

There will also be a Guinness Book of World Record attempt for The World’s Largest Remote Dance Class which involves a group of people coming together to perform a routine they have been taught ‘remotely’ (via the internet).   The song of choice this year will be Lady Gaga’s hit track ‘Born This Way’ in support of the Festival’s signature charity ‘The Butterfly Foundation’*.  All donations from the attempt will go to the charity. A community based charitable organisation that supports eating disorder sufferers and their careers.

You can jump online and join in on the attempt by learning this routine by Patron of the Festival Jason Coleman:

http://youtu.be/i9nMruMOq28

Brisbane quintet Topology are proud to present their album “Airwaves”.  Created in collaboration with Melbourne based trio Loops,  the album pays homage to some of the most influential broadcast speeches of the first century in radio and sets them to music

To make the album the group collected over a hundred of the most iconic broadcast speeches of the last 100 years, and after meticulously determining each speaker’s distinctive musical qualities, emotional context, key etc. then set about composing and orchestrating music to accompany each.

Importantly, the speeches have not been altered in any way; they remain at the same pitch and timing as they were delivered. The end result is that “Airwaves” is all the more impressive, the music flowing with the original emotion and timing of the speech. For example Gough Whitlam speaks in B-flat major and in a waltz rhythm; Charles Kingsford-Smith on the other hand speaks in E major.

You can check out some of the speeches at the following links:

Bill Clinton – ‘I did not have sexual relations…’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBzd_RqHSdw
Gough Whitlam – ‘Well may we say’:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ZccNJjrVk
Martin Luther King – ‘I have a dream’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUu1BPMdzu8
Gandhi – ‘Spiritual message as music’:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb5tDpLo9Yw

You can also catch Topology perform the album in its entirety at two select shows: Saturday August 20 – Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank and Sunday 2 October – Brisbane Powerhouse.

Boy & Bear has announced their highly anticipated debut album Moonfire will be released on Friday 5th August through Island Records Australia.

“We were in the tour bus last year and Jake (bassist) went into a chemist and bought a $2 DVD for the journey. It was called Moonfire. It was about these truckers taking on a Nazi in Mexico. Though I swear the Nazi never turned up in the film and to have a swastika on the DVD cover seems a little extreme for its un-related subplot, and by no means are we endorsing swastika’s or truckers fighting in Mexico or whaling. Oh yeah and so what was the point of that story???… Well we finally decided to name our debut album coming out this August Moonfire” said Boy & Bear via Facebook and Twitter this week.

Recorded in Nashville with producer Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes, White Stripes, The Shins), Moonfire is an evolution from their acclaimed debut EP, With Emperor Antarctica.

First single ‘Feeding Line’ has already claimed the #1 most played position on triple j.  Filmed in the USA, the breathtaking new video takes a scenic journey from Nashville to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.  Watch the video here

Boy & Bear have just hung up their worn boots after their sell-out autumn national tour which included three shows at Corner Hotel in Melbourne and two shows at Sydney’s Metro. Next stop, a return performance at this year’s Splendour In The Grass festival.

BOY & BEAR
New single – FEEDING LINE – available digitally now.
Debut album – MOONFIRE – out Friday 5th August

WIM have emerged on the scene out of relative obscurity. There have been whispers about them for years following their wondrous live shows; and now their haunting tunes will bring them into the limelight.

WIM’s debut, self-titled record has been a creative meeting of minds, having been produced by local legend Tony Buchen (Andy Bull, Ray Man 3, Kid Confucius) and mixed by industry aristocracy Bob Clearmountain (Springsteen, Roxy Music, INXS) in L.A. The result is an album that encapsulates the best of classic song writing and modern ideas, executed in a phenomenal fashion. The record itself doesn’t ooze of a buzz band way ahead of itself but rather a gradually growing group of musicians doing what they do best.

From the stomping album opener ‘Colossus’ to the poignant first single – ‘See You Hurry’, the band exudes confidence, style and prestige. The album takes many turns, a journey is formed with tracks like ‘America’ and the tribal tinged ‘John’. You not only listen, but feel this music. With every listen, your senses open up and take in what is a densely beautiful album.

WIM don’t create buzz through cheap stunts or Twitter; rather, they excite and amaze with long sets, great tunes and glitter. Check out more right here.

The sharpened edges of the black, flat-brimmed Stetson hat glistened menacingly from the dark recesses of the bitterly cold, largely empty ANU Bar. Something important was going down, of that much I was certain. But what? Cowering as I was in a fit of shame and fright in the farthest, safest corner of this glorified university shed, closer inspection of the Stetson or, indeed, its owner, was proving impossible. The edges of the Stetson glistened with urgency but mercifully, perhaps, I could see little else. All the while the questions lingered, like memories of sweet love lost. Who was this demon? Why had it come? Or indeed, why had I? In the icy darkness little was being revealed and even less was making sense. Even in the gloom of this horrific bleak nothingness though I searched valiantly for clues, an eager young pro bono Wordsmith (though I hate U2) conquering his fears. I eyed the shadowy figure in a panicked grasp for clarity but I saw nothing, nothing at all. Perhaps it was for the best. The likely tell-tale stains of the bloody refuse of the prior slain remained hidden; submerged in darkness along with the violent history of its anonymous owner. I, along with the other frightened stragglers joining me in the dumbstruck audience, could do nothing but wait.

Mercifully, the sound signalling the beginning, as it were, of the end, came suddenly; a ukulele began to strum and a chain, heeding the call of its jauntily plucked Master, began to rattle alongside in a foreboding, unified rhythm. Above it all, the Stetson suddenly began a slow tilt towards the heavens above, the shadowy figure underneath seemingly positioning itself for some manner of stern address. It moved with slow and deliberate assurance, seeming confident of its authority among the few lost, desperate souls gathered in this funereal pit of visible breath and shivering trepidation. As the Stetson lifted, an untraceable light illuminated the form atop which it sat. I gasped deeply as the eyes appeared; piercing and alive, tinged with sadness. I was soon after clinging desperately to a stranger alongside as the face of a being weathered but composed, solemn but unbowed, loomed into view.  It was the face of a story teller, a messenger: a Man who had seen it all. An immortal.

(more…)

She has performed regularly with her mentor James Morrison, sung backing vocals for Michael Buble, and now, on the eve of headlining appearances at both the Stonnington and Melbourne International Jazz Festivals, Sarah McKenzie is releasing her first solo album. Produced by Chong Lim, the album entitled Don’t Tempt Me marks a crucial milestone in the rapidly-developing career of the Bendigo-born, Melbourne-raised, Perth-educated McKenzie, whom critics around the country have identified as a once-in-a-generation talent.

At 23 years of age, the pianist, vocalist and composer is a graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts where Hugh Jackman, Marcus Graham, Lisa McCune and many other leading Australian musical and theatre performers also trained.  While in Perth she completed a Bachelor of Jazz (Composition) degree, won the Jack Bendat Scholarship, the Hawaiian Award for ‘Most Outstanding Jazz Graduate’ and the Perth Jazz Societies Award for leading the ‘Most Outstanding Group of the Year for 2008’.

Now based back in Melbourne, her rise through the ranks of the Australian music scene has been spectacular, aided by frequent appearances at venues like Bennett’s Lane, The Paris Cat, and at major festivals. Her musical pedigree is impeccable, having been mentored by legends like Graeme Lyall, Jamie Oehlers, and especially James Morrison, whose Scholarship she won after six consecutive years of involvement in Morrison’s Generations in Jazz talent development programme, where she performed alongside him at major concert venues including The Basement in Sydney, The Stonnington Jazz Festival and The Stones of the Yarra Valley.

“Sarah McKenzie is a musical marvel. She sings with the kind of phrasing that only a true jazz singer can come up with while her groove of the piano is the stuff that makes people want to play jazz. Don’t miss a chance to hear this lady perform live!” James Morrison. Don’t Tempt Me contains extraordinary takes on classic pop, blues and jazz tunes, from the barnstorming first single You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To, through a smouldering rendition of the classic Summertime and onto a unique bossanova take on Elvis’ Love Me Tender which sounds as if it’s come straight from the soundtrack of an uber cool bar scene from TV show Hawaii Five-0.

Sarah McKenzie’s debut album ‘Don’t Tempt Me’ is now available.

The call is out for bands and filmmakers in the 2011 Music Video Mash Up – a yearly competition that pairs up and coming musicians and directors across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.  Following on from a huge inaugural year last year, The Music Video Mash Up filmmaking competition is back for 2011- and with the addition of Sydney and Melbourne to the competition,  bigger and better than ever.

There’s a stack of info @ www.mvmu.com.au and below but in short: MVMU is a time-based music video making competition. It’s simple:

•    Bands and filmmakers register (for their respective city – Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane)
•    They are then paired up randomly and given just THREE days (Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend (June 10-13, 2011)) to create, shoot, edit and submit a music video.
•    Bands – all you need is a recorded original song (no covers)
•    Filmmakers – all you need is a camera and a crew

There are stacks of prizes to be won including the winning clip playing on Video Hits, PLUS a representative from the winning band and filmmakers will be flown to the Video Hits set to be interviewed on air!  All entries are also showcased at a special premiere at Palace cinemas in their respective cities.