Saturday in Hobart

One of my favourite pastimes is playing tourist. And one of the things I love about Hobart is that I don't even have to leave home to do it! Take today, for instance.

First I had to go to work, teaching my regular Saturday drawing lesson. As it was a nice day we spent a couple of hours outside in Princes Park.

drawing in Princes Park

Back at the Salamanca Arts Centre I found 40 Artists from the Island, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, textiles, assemblages and more, opening at the Long Gallery. This is one part of Rediscover Bruny, a three-part showcase of Bruny Island arts. It seems practically every artist I meet these days lives on Bruny, or at least has a holiday house there, and this event has almost a hundred participants – not bad, when you consider there are only seven hundred people living on the island.

Of course, they are not all visual artists. In the Sidespace Gallery beside the Long Gallery there is a charming exhibition of Childhood Treasures, precious items people have kept for most of their lives: teddy bear, puppet, building blocks, favourite books, each with an explanation by its owner telling us just what makes this particular toy so special.

40 Artists from the Island opens in the Long Gallery

The third part of the Bruny Island spectacular is As Time Goes By, written by Barry Weston and directed by Megan Weston, a theatre piece "written, directed and performed by Bruny Islanders for Bruny Islanders and about Bruny Islanders”, which played in the Peacock Theatre on 20^th and 21^st September. 

I was really impressed by the overall quality of the artwork in the main exhibition – some truly lovely work, and I took my time enjoying it, along with a glass of white wine and some super Bruny Island cheese.

Tall ships, a carousel,  live music, terrific food . . . 

Returning to the sunshine outdoors I wandered through Salamanca Market to the Tall Ships Festival. Lunched on a delicious goatmeat-and-elderberry-wine pie at Princes Pier, tried some apple, pear and cherry cider (more, please!) and strolled round listening to musicians, admiring ships and generally enjoying the atmosphere. Here are some of the things I saw.

This wonderful steam carousel, complete with calliope to provide music, always brings a lump to my throat, and true to form I had a little Stendhal Moment in front of it today.

Europa's figurehead caused some comment.
This old Greek tale of woe should serve as warning to all
young ladies not to believe that bull . . .

Is this the youngest jazz band in town? They played very well.

Of course, Preana isn't a tall ship, but she's so pretty another photo
of her doesn't hurt. And there's a real Tall Ship there, too.

Lots of history here at Constitution Dock - some of Australia's
oldest wooden boats and the old Customs House

The Vikings are back!

It was time to return to the car and head for home. Stopped for a while on the lawns of Parliament House to listen to the Hobart Old Time String Band along the way.

By now the market was closed and stall-holders were packing up.

The sky was beginning to cloud over. I made it home just before a brief shower of drizzly rain, tired but happy. Who wouldn't love this place?

just a little corner of  our garden

Playing the nyckelharpa

How does the music-loving daughter of musicians rebel against her parents' expectation that she follow the family calling? Josefina Paulson fell in love with a traditional folk instrument and music that was popular two centuries ago. 

Josefina Paulson at the Old Beach Studio

Thanks to modern communications the Swedish keyed fiddle, the nyckelharpa, is gaining popularity world wide, but it is still unfamiliar enough in Australia for the novelty of the instrument rather than the quality of the musicianship to attract attention. That is, until you meet Josefina.

If you attended the Woodford Folk Festival you might have seen her performing and you are probably still glowing from the enthusiasm and sheer joy of her music.

Roger Joseph from Arel Media Management
 welcomes the audience and
 introduces Josefina

Last night I had a rare treat as one of a very small and select audience at a House Concert at the Old Beach Studio. About thirty people, at least half of them musicians, arrived early for a barbecue with Josefina Paulson in the garden overlooking rolling fields below Gunners Quoin with a view down the valley to Mt Wellington.

Feeling happy and well-fed we made ourselves comfortable on bales of straw in the converted garage and were soon tapping our feet to some lively polskas.

Josefina composes and teaches music, and has received some prestigious awards for her musicianship. Her introductions and explanations added greatly to our enjoyment, but in the end it was the music with its percussive beat and haunting tonality that kept us spellbound. It is impossible to describe in words, so you should visit her website to see a splendid video.

Many of the audience members had also attended a music workshop with Josefina on Thursday night; in the privacy of this garden setting they were astonished and delighted to have the privilege of a “hands-on” nyckelharpa experience at the end of the performance.

Midj Jones, fiddle player with the Hobart Old Time String Band,
 tries out the nyckelharpa

Josefina Paulson's visit was arranged by Arel Media Management.

Arel Media Management website  for information about visiting performers and future House Concerts.

And the Band Plays On

Another weekend, another music festival. Today was the tenth annual Music Festival at St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church at Bothwell.

The Festival was inaugurated by Gwen and John Hardstaff who, with the help of willing volunteers from the community, have organised it every year for the past decade.

John’s membership of the Hobart Veterans’ Brass Band ensured their prominent position on the bill, and this year they were joined by the Bagdad Singers (that’s Bagdad, Tasmania, not the other one), St George’s Church Choir from Battery Point, violinist Doris Kouw and organist Diane Hallett.

The Bagdad Singers at Bothwell

violin soloist Doris Kouw accompanied by
Roslyn Langlois on keyboard

Bernard Gillon, former school teacher at Waddamana, read Seed Bed, a poem by James Patterson, Uniting Church minister Meg Evans read Psalm 98, the Rector, Rev John Langlois, led opening and closing prayers, MC Wayne Doran kept everything moving along, and after the concert everyone repaired to the Town Hall for afternoon tea.

euphonium solo by Eric Morgan 

If, however, you’re imagining one of those church fund-raising concerts we all know and dread – don’t. Nobody here is thinking about money. Today is wholly and solely about music.

Musicians invited to perform at Bothwell are far from being enthusiastic amateurs only included because they're the mayor's husband's niece. Many have played in brass bands in major competitions; some have played with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and others served as bandsmen in the military. A few have never worked professionally, but all take their music very seriously indeed.

Whether or not they still appear regularly in concerts around the state, the one thing they all have in common is their love of music and performance.  They may have retired from the pressure of travel and constant rehearsals,  but  the music goes on.

So we come along every year because this is music the way it was meant to be – played for pleasure to an appreciative audience of friends who just want to enjoy a pleasant afternoon’s entertainment in comfortable and familiar surroundings.  We are never disappointed.

Musical director Myles Luck conducts the Hobart Veterans' Brass Band