by philip | Apr 2, 2017 | Blog
Hi to everyone, It’ s been a busy few weeks for The Marais Project and our sister electric viola da gamba group, Elysian Fields. The Marais Project – new CD and second concert for 2017 Producer Llew Kiek and I recently finished editing our latest Marais Project CD and...
by philip | Jan 30, 2017 | Blog
Another sad death, this time the wonderful Dutch instrument maker and baroque music expert, Fred Lindeman. I met Fred when I was a viola da gamba student in Amsterdam in the mid 1980s. He looked after my instrument when I was there and I bought my strings from his...
by philip | Jan 17, 2017 | Blog, General, Marin Marais, Maris Project Concerts
Last night I heard that Ben Hall (1935-2017) had passed away. Ben was a painter, an artist, a musician and a luthier (instrument maker). He was good at everything he did. You may never have heard of him but the Sydney Morning Herald published an on-line and printed...
by philip | Oct 13, 2016 | Blog, General, Marin Marais, Maris Project Concerts
Question: Of which French Baroque composer was it said: “Happy be ‘Composer X’ whose fertile pen can give birth without pain to a whole new book or piece of music every month!” Read on for the answer. We’ve had a great few rehearsals working way through this...
by philip | Oct 4, 2016 | Blog, General, Marin Marais, Maris Project Concerts
Who was André Campra? Campra was the son of an Italian surgeon and violinist and a French mother. He went on to be music master at Arles and Toulouse cathedrals from where he moved to the famed Notre Dame cathedral, Paris. In a radical move for the time, he added...
by philip | Aug 31, 2016 | Blog, General, Marin Marais, Maris Project Concerts, Non classical music
Musical ambassador meets a real ambassador! I am just back from three weeks of concerts, workshops and musical “fact finding” in Sweden and Norway. Although my grandfather was Swedish and I have visited many times over the years, this was the first time I...