National Music Camp

1. Composers in Time
(About WAM/Writings)

...ecame the foundation for a five to eight minute work for untuned percussion and any combination of a 14-piece orchestral ensemble. Their compositions were written for performance by ensembles (made up...

2. Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...ether at different intervals frame a brass chorale, arguably one of the most majestically striking moments in orchestral repertoire. Bartók originally envisaged the title Presenting the Couples...

3. Kate Salvatore: Alumni Profile
(About WAM/Writings)

...here it was premiered in 1913. In what way do you consider your role essential? There is great need for good orchestral managers. It can be a very demanding role and there is often a high turnover. W...

4. W. F. BACH (1710-1784)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...compositions belongs in the realm of the improviser’s art; a palpable sense of the unexpected. No other orchestral composer before Haydn so consistently toys with our sense of musical expectatio...

5. Anton WEBERN (1883-1945)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

... bass) underlies the music. A student work written some 20 years before Webern’s first strictly serial orchestral work, the language of the Passacaglia has its roots in the late Romanticism of ...

6. Orchestral Concert Week 2
(Gallery/Photo Gallery)

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7. Orchestral Concert Week 1
(Gallery/Photo Gallery)

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8. Banquet in six courses: a report on the first Staff Concert
(News/Latest)

...e horn (one of the most famous solos for the instrument) which compelled one to consider the impact a lack of orchestral “padding” can have on the way these lines are performed. From here...

9. The Power of Rhythm
(News/Latest)

...thm as the theme of this year’s camp: “Apart from my darling family, the two loves in my life are orchestral music and rhythm.” “The power of rhythm is all around us: in the st...

10. An orchestral appetiser
(Gallery/Video Gallery)

Individual parts lie open on music stands, pencils are sharpened, the orchestra is tuned and the musicians quietly await their conductor to lead them to the music – it’s time for another r

11. Bedrich SMETANA (1824-1884)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...de as conductor of the Royal Provincial Czech Theatre, where his output was consequently operatic rather than orchestral. It was while writing his fourth opera, Libuše (1869-72), inspired by na...

12. John ADAMS (born 1947)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...f the opera. This piece was omitted from the final opera, but has since become one of Adams’ best-known orchestral works. The setting (as described by the opera’s original director, Peter ...

13. Sergey PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...he palpable mutual loathing of The Montagues and the Capulets, the exuberance of The Young Juliet (a spritely orchestral vivace), the comic introspections of Friar Laurence (played aptly by the bassoo...

14. Ronald Gaynor: An Orchestral Personality
(About WAM/2010 Participants)

...an independent (and essential) line in the music, and one that is inevitably noticed when it emerges from the orchestral texture. “It’s not often in the spotlight, but what it has to say c...

15. Radio Features
(Static Content)

...rds About Music participants produce two radio features, which are broadcast in conjunction with the Saturday orchestral concerts.   This year's features will be broadcast on the evenin...

16. Samuel BARBER (1910-1981)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

Summer Music, Op. 31 [1955] Summer Music is intended to depict a summer’s day in quiet American suburbia. In the words of Samuel Barber himself, the music reflects “well-kept lawns&helli

17. Dag WIRÉN (1905-1986)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

Serenade for String Orchestra, Op. 11 [1937] I           Preludium II          Andante espressivo III&n

18. Martin MATALON (born 1958)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...sitions at various institutions. Matalon’s musical output includes film, chamber, solo instrumental and orchestral music. His film score for the movie Metropolis [1995] is an important part of h...

19. Get your sing on
(Archived/News/Latest)

...th conductor Carl Crossin. Although only 45 minutes in length, these small diversions proved to be a hit with orchestral musicians and music journalists alike. ...

20. The Promise of Music
(Archived/About WAM/Writings)

Documentary by Enrique Sánchez Lansch “Youth orchestras [in Venezuela] train you as a person, not just a musician.” This was the message of the young musicians whose experiences in

21. Vision of greatness
(Archived/News/Latest)

Torelli. Gade. Piazzolla. Gardel. Hindemith. Elgar. And what a soundscape it was. The first orchestral concert for National Music Camp was a huge program, involving 250 young musicians, three c

22. Staff vs. Student Cricket Match
(Archived/News/Latest)

...faced off in the annual cricket match: an event almost as highly anticipated as the first of the camp’s orchestral concerts. ...

23. Staff Chamber Concerts
(Archived/News/Latest)

Two violins, a viola, cello and a clarinettist took the stage last night to bring the beauty of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor to an enthralled music camp audience.

24. Selection of Tangos, arr. Fionnuala HUNT [2005]
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

Carlos GARDEL (1890-1935) Tomo y obligo Astor PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992) Oblivion Jacob GADE (1879-1963) Jealousy  For an Irish violinist with a repertoire consisting mostly of the classics and works

25. Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...llegro II   Turandot Scherzo: Moderato III  Andantino IV  March Often described as an orchestral tour de force, Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis after Themes by Carl M...

26. Forging a musical nexus
(Archived/News/Latest)

Don BANKS Nexus III. Third Movement Every morning the Words About Music program begins their day with a listening session.  Here the students will listen to provide commentary on a piece of musi

27. Everybody loves green eyes
(Archived/Snippets/Snippets)

... Fiedler's recording with the Boston Pops Orchestra became the first ever million-selling disc of a light orchestral work. An arrangement of Jealousy by Fionnuala Hunt will be performed by the Mil...

28. Campers Depart 'City of Churches'
(Archived/News/Latest)

One could have easily formed an impressive impromptu chamber orchestra within Adelaide airport lounges and queues on Sunday morning, as National Music Campers of 2007 commenced their journeys home.

29. A Match Made in Heaven
(Archived/News/Latest)

This is the second year in a row faithful volunteers Michael Hallit and Cameron Harker have kept the camp library running smoothly, the mini buses speedy and the musicians laughing heartily.

30. Bush Dance Boogie!
(Archived/News/Latest)

...getic whirl around the lawn. Led by rousing caller John Patrick, and accompanied by a spirited band including orchestral participants, the campers learnt several dances that burnt up any energy remain...

31. If it's Monday, it must be Japan
(Archived/News/Latest)

...nning each day of the WAM course with an hour or so of listening to selected pieces of music – not just orchestral works, but chamber works, contemporary music, musics from popular and folk trad...

32. Orchestral Concert 20 January
(Archived/News/Concerts)

When: 4:30pm - 6:00pm; 7:30pm - 9:00pm

33. Orchestral Concert 20 January
(Archived/News/Concerts Promo)

When: 4:30pm - 6:00pm; 7:30pm - 9:00pm

34. Orchestral Concert 13 January
(Archived/News/Concerts)

When: 4:30pm - 6:00pm; 7:30pm - 9:00pm

35. Orchestral Concert 13 January
(Archived/News/Concerts Promo)

When: 4:30pm - 6:00pm; 7:30pm - 9:00pm