Showing off

a couple of hours ago I realised that it's 2 days after the 30th anniversary of my conducting my 1st Symphony.

Way back in 1974 the CAE (Council of Adult Education) and the Melbourne Age jointly ran a competition for young composers. In 1974 I qualified . I submitted my composition and I won!

A couple of months later I found myself face to face with an orchestra. I had about as much idea of how to conduct an orchestra as I did of how to make pate de foie gras out of sawdust! Needless to say it was a disaster and the regular conductor stepped in (kindly I might add) and made the best of my composition. It was at best a pastiche of Mahler and Tchaikovsky but at the time it was my world.

And failure though it was I still treasure the day that I heard my symphony played at a public concert. There was a tape made of that performance but it's been 18 years at least since I last saw it; I fear it is gone forever.

I wrote 3 more symphonies, two string quartets and a sonata for flute and violin after that first symphony and I heard my second symphony played. I'm not sure the world is ready for my third .

Some years later I became 3rd viola for the South Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (an amateur orchestra). I would have been 4th viola if there had been 4 of us . It's impossible to describe to an audience member how it sounds to be a part of the orchestra - the soundscape is soooo different.

I've always loved music - always will.