News
FLUTE WORKSHOPS
Last week, we had a visit of a gentleman Krzysztof Kaczka from Polland. He’s a professional musician. He’s been playing in a big orchestra for many years and his main instrument is Flute.
He’s visiting morning and afternoon classes and gave some very important basic information of flute and some techniques and idea how to play flute, air control, etc. After a few minutes of explanation and demonstrations, the students had a chance to try to experience it individually. It was amazing that we found many talented students who were able to do the exercise completely.
At the end of the workshop, Krzysztof Kaczka also played some songs for the students and improvised some Lao songs and got the students to sing it. Thank you Krzysztof Kaczka the students really enjoyed it!
MUSIC WORKSHOPS BY ALI AND MATT
After the saxophone performance Ali and Matt spend their last morning to do music workshops with the students. They tried to use the guitars and saxophone to make many different sounds of animals, cars, etc. It’s very creative and interesting.
GOOD NEWS
Beer Lao BAND Challenge for Lao only!!!
SAXOPHONE PERFORMANCE
Great Performance Ali and Matt!!! Thank you for sharing your new music at MES. It’s very interesting seeing your performance and listening to new music. Looking forwards to seeing your next performance at MES Laos.
About halfsound
http://www.halfsound.com/
halfsound is a contemporary saxophone duo formed by Ali Fyffe and Matt Hinchliffe based in Melbourne, Australia. We primarily perform notated art music with a strong focus on new and innovative works, particularly by young Australian composers. We believe the performance of new music is important in order to ensure the continued evolution and development of musical expression. We also appreciate the value of connection and collaboration with local, national and international artists in expanding and challenging our artistic practice and regularly work with a range of artists.
As collaborative partners, we have worked together for seven years as halfsound as well as in other ensembles. We have undertaken numerous national and international tours, commissioned a wide variety of music for saxophone and won a range of awards. We have a particular interest in the new and experimental music of South-East Asia and undertook an extended self-directed residency in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2014-2015 where we learnt a lot about artistic practice in the region.
Recent performances include a performance at Meta House in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in partnership with the Australian Embassy in Cambodia and a performance in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at Space.Toccata, a leading hub for the contemporary arts in the region. We were also featured in the 2016 Tilde New Music Festival where we both presented a program of music for saxophone duo, electronics and video and also collaborated with other festival artists in an improvisation setting.
We are currently preparing for our upcoming South-East Asian Tour in which we will present concerts across the region. We are working with 10 young Australian composers for this project who are writing new music for us to present.
WELCOME TO THE MINI PERFORMANCE
Friendship Forever Song Cover
Students practicing how to play Friendship forever song at MES.
HAND MADE DIDGERIDOO
Do you know the instrument called didgeridoo?
“It’s an Australian Aboriginal wind instrument in the form of a long wooden tube, traditionally made from a hollow branch, which is blown to produce a deep, resonant sound, varied by rhythmic accents of timbre and volume.”
Yesterday, we made one at MES. The idea was brought in by Coco. Coco is from France and he’s visiting Luang Prabang for some days and he’s learning how to play piano. He wanted to volunteer and help the kids at MES, but he cannot play any instruments, except his few basic piano chords.
Just then, he realized that he can also play a little bit of the didgeridoo and he wanted to make one for MES. We then looked for some materials and luckily found some bamboos and needed materials.
You can make one at home! What you need is a bamboo, some tools, saw, and papers, a drill. The longer bamboo gives you longer and deeper tones.
MORE STUDENTS IN THE MORNING AND AFTERNOON CLASSES
The summer holiday of public school is starting and more students come to MES for morning and afternoon classes. The holiday is about 3 months, which is from now until the end of August. However, the upper secondary school year 7th have not had their exam yet and there will be more coming in the next few weeks.
LEOT’S 10th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT @MES
Congratulation LEOT for the 10th anniversary concert last Saturday. And thank you for the 10 metres of the blue carpet donation to MES!
ANDREW DOEY FROM AUSTRALIA
Big thanks Andrew for your time helping the students learning how to play the piano last week. We hope you had a good time with our students as they had a lot of fun learning with you. And thank you for sharing your music https://soundcloud.com/andrew-do-9/sapphire . It’s a great music and we like it. It’s also very inspiring our young students to write their own music.
