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Interview with Bec van Bilsen

April 1, 2024 by Kaye Remington Leave a Comment

Bec has volunteered to fulfil two important roles this year. As Stage Manager for the workshop she will be around to keep everything on track during the workshop and also, as an experienced musician, she will fulfil the role of repetiteur to help new and inexperienced players with timing and tuning.

Interview with Bec

Bec conducting a small violin chamber group at the Sunday afternoon ‘Concert for Us’.

Tell us about yourself.

Apart from being privileged to live in this beautiful Valley, I and a keen gardener and proud to be a member of the volunteer bush fire brigade. I like to contribute to the local community in lots of ways, but particularly with music. After leaving school I knew I wanted to do something with music so at university I did a combined degree – Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology followed by a postgraduate diploma in Music Therapy. I worked with adults with an intellectual disability and as a CEO of an organisation for adults with an intellectual disability. In 2022 I needed a break and am now back working with adults and children providing music therapy and behaviour support.

Why music therapy?

I believe that anyone can play music, with their breath, such as chanting or singing, or with an instrument, such as a drum or a bell, and it is a way that you can communicate with people that is less invasive that verbal communication. You can work with music therapy across all life spans. Music helps people develop their fine motor skills, it helps people with dementia, it helps with social skills, such as sharing and taking turns, imitation, validation, identifying and practising emotions through music. Your body is an instrument. If for instance a person is fully quadriplegic and cannot move any part of their body they can still breathe and still respond to rhythms.

Why did you decide to participate in Strings at St Albans in 2023?

Last year was my first year participating in Strings at St Albans. It was about me fulfilling my passion of playing the violin with an orchestra. I met fabulous people and great musicians and was able help a group of violins to play a piece that they really wanted to play. People were struggling with the timing; so they asked me to conduct. It was both ends of the spectrum for me. I was an absolute beginner at the violin at one end and an experienced musician in other respects. My main instruments have been piano and saxophone, but I had always wanted to try a stringed instrument.

What did you enjoy about Strings at St Albans?

St Albans is all those wonderful things that we often take for granted. It is the beautiful location, the immersion in music for three days and the social aspects – meeting interesting people. Putting on the concert for the community was a buzz. On Sunday we played for ourselves. It was great to hear the different strings sections play together. It’s a special kind of indulgence. On Sunday morning, we got together in small chamber groups, chose some music, practiced madly, then after lunch we played just for us and a few invited friends. It is a delightful way to finish off the weekend in time for the drive back to wherever.

A Cacophony of Cellos? As a collective noun that might be a misnomer because they sounded great. The courtyard, part of the old gaol, has perfect acoustics for small chamber performances

Why are you coming back to volunteer this year?

This not-for-profit workshop is run by a group of volunteers who share a love of music and a love of the beautiful Macdonald Valley. They work hard and I know their efforts are appreciated. I hope they do.

I also love to volunteer for community events. This community has been through so many traumas in recent years; surrounded by fires then devastating floods. Events like this help the community to restore itself.

And it’s great fun!

The Sunday afternoon Concert for Us at the 2023 Strings at St Albans workshop involved groups of different composition, like this quartet. It is the most enjoyable kind of picnic; lolling about listening to music in an ideal setting.

Thanks Bec and many thanks for volunteering to help us again this year.

By playing the violin, I can now do numbers

October 21, 2019 by Kaye Remington Leave a Comment

The most remarkable thing has been happening since I took up playing the violin at the age of 62. I can now do numbers. Why is this remarkable? It is impressive because I have always referred to myself as numerically dyslexic.

Number dyslexia is a term sometimes used to describe having trouble with maths. However, according to Bob Cunningham, EdM, using the word dyslexia in this case isn’t correct. The term dyslexia refers to difficulty with language, making it hard to read and spell. But sometimes it’s wrongly used as a generic term to describe other difficulties, like problems with numbers and maths.

More correctly termed dyscalculia, the condition involves trouble with something called number sense. Kids might struggle with maths concepts like biggest vs. smallest. They might not understand that the numeral 5 is the same as the word five, and that both represent five separate items or groups of items. They can also struggle to remember mathematical facts.

In my case I unconsciously reversed numbers, which has the effect of almost doubling my phone bill. In addition, I find it difficult to remember strings of numbers. Four number sequences are usually the limit. These two characteristics meant that arithmetic at school was hell for me. Doubly unfortunate when your mother was an accountant who could not understand why her daughter was so dumb at arithmetic, her own favourite subject! In the days before calculators, or adding machines, my mother could add up an enormous column of numbers in her head, getting a perfect answer every time. When I went to ‘help’ her in her office during the school holidays my mother used to give me columns of numbers to add up. It was a task that I loathed. I would add up a column of numbers five times and get five different answers!

When I started high school, my life changed. I began to study mathematics. Letters and symbols replaced the offending numbers and I found that if I attacked the mathematical problems from first principles, I could organise the problem so that I only had to substitute numbers at the very end of the problem. Then it was a simple task, to slowly and methodically check the last few substituted numbers, as many times as necessary, to get a consistent answer. I came to love trigonometry and especially calculus.

Nevertheless, numbers continued to plague me. As an architect I had to triple check everything each time and I used to become extremely tense when I had to do my accounts. My life changed for the better when finally there were enough commissions to be able to afford to employ a life saver. Lisa, my new accountant, understood that some people were numerically challenged and she sees it as her vocation to relieve sufferers of their numerically imposed distress.

Enter the violin. When I started to practice playing the violin regularly I noticed strange cognitive and personality changes. My Jekyll and Hyde relationship with numbers started to dissipate and I stopped getting into a complete state of anxiety when I had to sit down to do my accounts. Recently I have noticed another change for the better – I discovered I was now remembering longer strings of digits. No more do I have to write down every number beyond four digits, in order to transfer it to another document. I can remember up to about six and even eight digits.

Much has been written about brain plasticity (neuroplasticity) and although it is conventional wisdom that musicians can also be good at maths, I cannot find any direct evidence that music assists with maths ability, in adults. However, according to Sarah Wilson, Associate Professor, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, there is an emerging idea that music provides an experience which helps to integrate the many functions of our brain. In an interview on ABC Classic FM, she says “This concept of neuroplasticity is where the brain changes with repeated use or … when we listen to music or engage in music.”

Obviously the jury is still out, but it would be great to hear of others who have experienced similar “brain” changes through playing music.

Some definitions of terms used in this post:

dyslexia: a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence.

dyscalculia: severe difficulty in making arithmetical calculations, as a result of brain disorder.

number sense: can refer to “an intuitive understanding of numbers, their magnitude, relationships, and how they are affected by operations”.

Reflections on organising the first St Albans Strings Workshop

August 3, 2019 by Kaye Remington Leave a Comment

Friday in St Albans Village

I peered out from under the covers to discover that the sun was shining. It had been raining off and on, all week, and the three organisers had been holding our collective breath, hoping that the weather would improve in time for the first workshop session to be held that evening. Most of the players were arriving in the afternoon. The St Albans Strings workshop, the first in what we hoped would become an annual event, was finally about to launch. I am writing this blog partly to record the lessons learned from that initial experience.

First, I should introduce the protagonists. We are three amateur string players who had been burning the midnight oil for months to get this event on the way. We are all in our late ‘60’s or early 70’s and we are all working, if not full time, nearly full time, so taking on an event like this in our spare moments was a challenge. Dianne, the initiator and driver of the project, is still practising as a GP. Michael, an artist, graphic artist and web expert, had calmly volunteered for the enormous task of creating the web site and blog site and generally provided excellent advice on communications and marketing. Me, a sometime architect and university lecturer, took up the rear guard. Our passion in common is music. We play in one of the community strings orchestras in Sydney, organised by the indomitable Beverley Fox, and aptly named Innominato Strings, however Dianne and I knew each other before joining Innominato Strings.

Lesson One: Recruit some more helpers! We tried to do it all by ourselves.

Dianne and I are both lucky enough to live part of the week near an idyllic little village north of Sydney, called St Albans. St Albans village comprises an historic sandstone pub, a fire shed, a tiny sandstone church and, across the river, a nineteenth century sandstone courthouse with cells and that is all. The closest shop is located in the village of Wiseman’s Ferry, about twenty minutes’ drive or thirty minutes if the ferry arrives on time. Wiseman’s Ferry is about one and a quarter hour by car from North Sydney. However, the relative isolation of our village has attracted a diverse but tightly knit community, where eccentrics are not only tolerated but whose various acts of eccentricity rapidly become absorbed into local legend. Locals call the area ‘The Forgotten Valley’ – so close to Sydney and yet so isolated. When my late husband and I moved to the area my son offered this quip: “The Forgotten Valley! It sounds as if you are going to live in a soap opera.” How accurate a description of our wonderful valley!

Back to the main story. We had decided to hold the first strings workshop at the historic St Albans Courthouse, mainly because the Courthouse had several breakout rooms, ideal for practice sessions:

The first violins had the elegant Victorian parlour and dining room as a practice room.
The second violins ended up practising in the gaol. What more can I say, but we did have the fabulous Cheryl Pfeiffer as a tutor.
The cellos and double base were in the studio. They, of course, needed much more space.
As usual the poor violas got the left-over space, as they were few. They were relegated to a bedroom, and a verandah, but they coped magnificently. Viola players are made of stoic stuff!

What we hadn’t banked upon was that the Courthouse comes with a resident goat, who goes by the name of Fred. Fred obviously had his sights either on becoming a musician, or sabotaging the event, because he continuously tried to sneak in through any slightly open door and consume anything in his path, including sheets of music!

Lesson Two: Lock up the goat!

The final concert on Sunday was held in our historic School of Arts Hall, a quaint corrugated iron shed, built by local farmers in the 1930’s. Our main concern was the hall’s very bright acoustics, but Paul Taylor, our conductor worked hard to help us to modify the orchestral sound to take advantage of the acoustics. We had agreed that concert should be in aid of local schools’ music programs and the performance on Sunday began with the local primary school music group performing several percussion pieces. It was a delightful addition to the concert. Not only was their performance excellent, their behaviour was exemplary. So, all that advice about never using children or animals in a performance is just not true, goats being an exception.

St Albans Strings Workshop inaugural Concert held in the Community Hall in St Albans village.

Lesson Three: Leave it to the children! They are much cuter than us.

Choosing the repertoire was a challenge. We wanted to find pieces that stretched everyone but could still be learnt in ensemble over a rehearsal period of just under two days. We had to send out the music and MP3 files several weeks before the workshop to allow people time to practice. We sent them out just before Christmas, which was a mistake as most people ignore non-essential emails at the busiest time of the year. On top of that we had to choose a repertoire that would keep the audience entertained. Eight pieces to find, from different genres, so there was something for everyone, so that together they created a balanced repertoire and so that they were within the capability of a group of amateur strings players. Our players ranged in ability. Some were very good, teachers and people who had reached eight grade and above. Thank goodness they were there! Then, there were people like me. I took up the violin in my ‘60’s and I fully understand that the most useful contribution I will ever be able to make to any orchestral performance is as a member of the audience.

Lesson Four: Send the music out earlier so that the organisers also have time to practice before the St Albans Strings workshop, but do not send it out just before Christmas.

Choosing the conductor was not difficult, but managing him before the workshop was! Paul Taylor is the very popular conductor of Innominato Strings. Paul has the ability to keep a group of amateur players motivated, he has a deep knowledge of musicology and he is funny. However, the photo he sent of himself, and his little son, for the website, did not exactly give the right kind of message. The photo looks as if he is about to punch the photographer and his son looks equally cross. It was getting very close to the deadline so I asked Paul if he would mind if I took some photos of him when he was conducting Innominato Strings. He was fine with that, but have you ever tried to take photos of a conductor during a rehearsal without a decent camera? This is a man who laughs frequently and is naturally funny. I was sitting in the violin section and out of about 70 shots I managed to get just one of him with a smile on his face. Then, of course, there was a delay in getting permission from other orchestra members who were in shot. I ended up cropping the photo considerably. Kaye Remington interviewed Paul Taylor about what it’s like being a conductor amongst other things.

Lesson Five: Employ a professional photographer!

How to cater for about thirty people over two days was also a challenge, especially when the only food outlet in the Village is the pub, and the nearest shop is a fifty-minute round trip. We decided to have the dinner on Friday night at the historic sandstone pub. It was fun. For the Saturday night we organised a couple of local and very talented cooks to put on a dinner at the Courthouse. For lunches on Saturday and Sunday Dianne and I decided that each of us would make a huge pot of soup to serve with bread and fruit. We were mad! Making soup on top of organising everything else was an insane decision. However, money was tight, and we were trying desperately to break even with the first workshop. Not many people had booked for the Saturday night dinner. We wanted to enhance a sense of camaraderie, so, at the last minute we threw fiscal caution to the wind. We decided to provide drinks and substantial nibbles at the end of the practice sessions on Saturday afternoon. Our two cooks, Jan and Claire, rose magnificently to the occasion. It was the best decision. Nearly everyone stayed around to chat and have a glass or two of wine. It was so pleasant chatting to fellow music lovers, in the sunset, on the terrace of the Courthouse, overlooking the Macdonald River.

St Albans Strings Workshop practice on the terrace at St Albans Village

Lesson Six: An orchestra plays on its stomach and camaraderie is part of what we were all there for! Organisers of this kind of event should not also make the soup!

St Albans Village is a tiny village but along the winding Macdonald River there are many places to stay, ranging from camping to accommodation in very comfortable guest houses, restored historic cottages and the St Albans Courthouse itself offers accommodation. We decided that part of our task was to help people find accommodation. We also even managed to find some free accommodation with friends who live in the Valley and Dianne and I put people up in our homes. However, there were some interesting aspects to this part of the service, like trying to guide someone wonderful historic farmhouse in the dark, after Friday night at the pub, and rescuing another person, whose car was unable to negotiate the gravel roads. The car got stuck on a steep bend of my driveway, trapping me in my property, and just before the event was about to start when I was desperate to get back to the venue to organise things. We were saved by a local hero who responded immediately to my phone call and winched the car to safety. However, the ‘free’ accommodation took a great deal of organising and tipped our budget into the negative, because we felt that we should invite the hosts (and heroes) to the dinner to thank them for their hospitality. These people are our neighbours. They were very generous with their support and we want to make sure that they continue to support us.

Lesson Seven: In future “free” accommodation for players might come with a small $ tag to cover costs of inviting hosts and local helpers to the Saturday night dinner, or in lieu of some help.

In order to broaden local interest in the event we decided to include a ‘Hands on Harp’ workshop on the Saturday with a harp piece in the concert. Hayden, the son of one of our tutors, Justin White, agreed to play violin back up for the harp ensemble, and with almost no rehearsal. All was sort of going to plan until I received a call from Jan Couchman, the harp tutor, to say that she had to go into hospital for ‘minor’ surgery on the day before the workshop and that she might be a bit weak after the surgery. At this news my concern for Jan went out the door as my mind raced ahead planning what to do if we had to cancel at the last minute. Thankfully we only had a couple of people registered for this workshop. Jan must have heard my sharp intake of breath because she immediately assured me that she would be absolutely fine by Saturday, and would I mind if she drove up on the Saturday morning rather than arrive on the Friday evening as originally planned. I was not convinced but underestimated Jan for the trouper she is. At about 9.30 on the Saturday morning she arrived on time, her small car bursting with three very large leaver harps. How she got them into the car I have no idea.

Lesson Eight: Never underestimate musicians, especially Innominato Strings players. The show nearly always goes on!

At this stage I should mention that there is no mobile phone in or around St Albans village. We are in one of those non-existent mobile black spots and contacting people means driving to somewhere that has a land line or driving to the person’s home. This is great when you want to get away from everything and just play music, but it creates a bit of a challenge when trying to organise an event of this kind. Neither the old Courthouse building, nor the School of Arts hall has a landline so if you forget something or need to get a message to someone it is a case of walk or hop in the car. On top of that we had arranged to borrow chairs from the church. Coincidently, because of the recent rain, there had been a minor accident the day before, putting several trucks out of action. It was very late on the Friday afternoon and raining when Dianne’s husband, James, who had the only truck that had not been damaged, and Peter Inman, our local Minister, arrived with the chairs. We unloaded in the rain, just in time for the first arrivals. Happily, the rain cleared up over night and we had perfect weather for the weekend – as well as something to sit on.

Lesson Nine: Insist that all the trucks in St Albans village are never again rendered out of action just prior to the event! Borrow some ‘walkie-talkies’ from the Fire Brigade.

The concert on the Sunday afternoon was terrific. The audience was enthusiastic, the players enjoyed themselves and the local school children were exemplary. Grapevines are very efficient in the small St Albans village and we suspect that next year it will be standing room only, for the audience, that is. However, we promise that all the players who need them will have seats! The hall is not huge, and the orchestra took up about two-fifths of the space. It is traditional in our village to invite the audience for afternoon tea. This posed a bit of a problem regarding the location of the urn and the tea things in relation to the players and their instruments. It is amazing what people will try and step over in order to get to a Lamington. Luckily no one and no instrument suffered.

Lesson Ten: Relocate the afternoon tea table so that everyone can get a Lamington!

Players and audience departed very happy, but we forgot to organise one important thing. There were no helpers to pack up and clean. Dianne and I were left to do it all. I remember staggering around the hall afterwards with a broom, hardly able to stand up. Finally, we sat down on the terrace of the Courthouse, in the late afternoon sun, hardly able to raise a glass of wine, accompanied by Fred, the goat, who is probably also an alcoholic. Dianne and I looked at each other and smiled but, unusual for us, we couldn’t speak, we were so exhausted. James and Peter kindly picked up the chairs the next day. You never know next year we might be able to afford to hire a cleaner. In fact I will put that cost in the budget immediately!

Lesson Eleven: Back to lesson one!

Reflections on organising the first St Albans Strings Workshop, (in the beautiful St Albans Village) from the three protagonists from Innominato Strings who learnt a number of lessons about what to do and not do next time.

Paul Taylor Conductor of St Albans Strings Workshop

February 12, 2019 by Kaye Remington Leave a Comment

Paul Taylor, Conductor interview by Kaye Remington

Paul, you are a professional cello player, but obviously you really enjoy conducting orchestras. Do you have a preference?

Do I have a preference? I really miss playing in an orchestra. Conducting is something I have just fallen into and it turns out that I am not bad at it. I seem to get results. I miss playing the cello a lot, however, conducting gives you more of a creative outlet and it is much more intellectually demanding – quite challenging, in fact. Playing and conducting feed off each other. I enjoy them both but, at the moment, I do more conducting than playing.

You have a really good, light-hearted approach, which is grounded in a deep knowledge of music. It seems to get people through the most challenging of situations and, at the same time, we learn lots.

One thing that has always bugged me is the stiffness around music. I got so sick of how seriously people took themselves in music. The idea is to make music and not be stuffy or take ourselves too seriously. If you play a few odd notes it does not matter. On the other hand, people have to try to get it right, particularly if you are working professionally, but we are not working professionally, and it has to be enjoyable and accessible at every level. Music does not have to perfect to be accessible.

You have a natural sense of humour which pervades everything. Where did you get your sense of humour?

The orchestra I conduct regularly, Innominato Strings, is full of professional people who are very accomplished in their own fields. I have so much respect for them and for the fact that they want to play music. They should enjoy it. Also, I have never taken myself too seriously. I grew up in a Scottish family. Scots are not funny people! Scots are really serious. Billy Connolly is an exception. When I go to Scotland I offend my entire family. I think I developed a sense of humour as a reaction against the crazy seriousness of my own family. And my friends and I have always indulged in competitive banter.

Some of the music we play is really challenging. You take the pressure off by making other people laugh.

It has always been my teaching strategy to put people at ease and to create a congenial atmosphere during learning. The social aspect of learning is very important. Things learnt in context are well learnt. Also, it is very hard to take risks in a controlled atmosphere. And you have to take risks if you’re going advance. Einstein said if you have never gotten anything wrong you have never tried anything new. And that is what it is like with playing music.

You have been very enthusiastic about the St Albans Strings Workshop? What do you want to happen? What is your vision for it?

I don’t know of anything else that is happening on the north shore or anywhere else in or near Sydney. The St Albans Strings workshop fills a very important niche. In combination with Innominato Strings this workshop has the potential to become something special and provide an outlet for people who want to learn and play music as amateurs, rather than professionals. Playing music in a large group is really something. People cannot get that level of exhilaration playing by themselves.

Paul Taylor conducting innominato Strings

The repertoire spans many genres which is great for the audience and the players. Do you have a preference? What makes a good repertoire?

The more I play the more I am attracted to Baroque music because of the cleanliness of it. On the other side I am becoming more and more attracted to modernist music; stuff outside the box; more extreme forms of music; work that is investigating the nature of music. However, I also recognise that while a lot of music that tests intellectual concepts is interesting, few people want to listen to these pieces. For something like this we are looking for a nice mix of music. I teach HSC music and must cover everything, 14th century to now. I keep saying to my students that it is all just music; different kinds, but all just music. For example, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is a complex piece of music and Beethoven was actually a commercial writer. He wrote music so he could sell scores! He was the Andrew Lloyd Weber of his day.

You come across as passionate about the music and you communicate that passion to the players and the audience.

People do say I am a passionate musician, but I have never thought about it that way. I never find music hard work. I get an enormous amount of energy from playing and conducting music and I hope the players get just as much out of as I do. I am driven to do it. It is not like employment.

Many thanks Paul

Paul Taylor who conducts innominato Strings at the St Albans Strings Workshop

Paul Taylor, professional cello player, conducting the first St Albans Strings Workshop concert