Rehearsals at Musikhögskolan

New recordings and concert plans!

Yesterday, Charles Martin (of Ensemble Evolution) and I recorded two pieces in a xylophone/vibes duo combo. We plan to perform these pieces in a concert at the beginning of next month. Vibraphone and xylophone is a rare combination but it's working out very well!

Firstly, Nola by Felix Arndt. This is a very old ragtime piece written for piano solo. Working from the original publication (owned by Charles' great-grandmother!) I played the melody lines on xylophone and Charles made an arrangement of the harmony for the vibes. With a few tweaks we made something we were happy with! Scroll down to the soundcloud player at the bottom of the page to listen to Nola.

Next we did an old favourite - Fluffy Ruffles. Although we've both played this a billion times, we've never used the vibes/xylo combination. Please excuse the "broken record" effect two thirds of the way through - I forgot that Charles had a page turn there. He caught up! Again, scroll down for the recording.

We are currently thinking of doing three concerts. One will be at Framnäs (like post-high school and pre-university music TAFE) and will feature the students I have been working with. The date for this is tentatively set for the 2nd of February.
We want to do another concert featuring Ensemble Evolution and myself at the Piteå Accusticum (concert hall attached to the music school).
We'd like to do another concert as a duo but are not sure where. Fingers crossed!

Meeting in Piteå

Today we had our first meeting with students from Framnäs Folkhögskola and the LTU School of Music about our activities for the next few weeks. There are 6 students involved, plus me, and the three members of Ensemble Evolution, Charles, Jacob, and Maria. Today we assigned ragtime pieces for all the students and set a date for the concert - the 2nd of February. Then we ate cake and listened to recordings of their pieces. Next time we'll start thinking about the accompanying parts and do some workshops and lessons on ragtime style. A good session today!

On my way!

Christina: I'm just sitting in the departure lounge at Melbourne airport waiting for my flight to Singapore and then London. I'll catch all of the ragtime happenings in a day from now!!

Emerging from Canberra, Australia, the (soon-to-be) husband and wife duo of Christina Hopgood and Charles Martin are dedicated to playing fun music and being awesome.

For their first installment in 2012, Christina and Charles will be in Piteå, northern Sweden, to record new arrangements of music from the 20s and 30s and to hold a mini-festival of ragtime xylophone music in collaboration with Ensemble Evolution and students from Luleå University of Technology's School of Music and Framnäs Folkhögskolan.

Starting the rad percussion christina project!

In January, 2012, Charles and Christina will be working with Ensemble Evolution in Piteå, Sweden on a mini-ragtime festival!