Monday, June 21, 2010

Coffee Day 21st June 2010

Another terrific Coffee Day at George and Jean Watt's home in Milford. 26 of our members gathered to enjoy a lovely day of music, social chat, good food and glorious weather! It was great to have such a selection of instruments to play with a choice of: Technics GA3 organ; acoustic piano; Korg Pa1X keyboard (one brought along by Gordon Sutherland and one by Ken Mahy); Yamaha PSR-900 keyboard (brought along by Alan Wilkins); and a Yamaha DGX-620 digital piano (brought along by Colin Crann). Lots of keyboard playing, singing and jamming - it doesn't get much better than this. Thank you George and Jean for making your home available and for all the preparation work. Also, thanks to the ladies for helping Jean out in the 'galley'.

Note: Hover your mouse over the photos to see text captions.

Our Past President and host for the day, George Watt playing his Technics GA3 organ   Colin Crann playing his Yamaha DGX620 digital ensemble piano

New member, Glenys 'Queen' Mary, singing along to her CD which was played back through the Korg Pa1X   Peter Littlejohn has a Technics GA3 organ at home so he was well familiar with George Watt's machine.

The luncheon banquet!   Peter Brophy (left) playing along with Rob Powell

Peter Littlejohn enjoying George Watt's acoustic piano   Club Secretary, Colleen Kerr, playing Gordon Sutherland's Korg Pa1X

Committee member, Ken Mahy playing his Korg Pa1X   Marlene Forrest playing Alan Wilkin's Yamaha PSR-900

John Beales playing Gordon Sutherland's Korg Pa1X   Barbara Powell enjoying Alan Wilkin's Yamaha PSR-900

 A rare gem! Peter Brophy, Club Musical Entertainments Bookings Manager, playing the Korg Pa1X with Jim Nicholson, Club Treasurer, accompanying on piano   Peter Jackson sang along to some midi files on the Korg Pa1X

Skip Eade on the Korg is accompanied by JIm Nicholson on the piano and Peter Jackson doing the vocals   Colleen Kerr playing Colin Crann's Yamaha DGX-620 digital ensemble piano

Peter Littlejohn accompanying Colleen Kerr     Peter Jackson with vocals and accompanied by Peter Littlejohn

Another rare shot! Peter Littlejohn showing off his vocal skills as Peter Brophy played the Korg   John Beales giving the Korg Pa1X a go watched-on intently by Skip Eade, Peter Jackson, Peter Brophy and Peter Littlejohn

Posted by North Shore Organ and Keyboard Club at 10:10 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Club Night 1st June 2010

Over 50 members attended on the Night and were rewarded by some pretty fine music provided by six of our members. George Watt, Jim Nicholson and Colin Crann had to step-in at the last minute to cover for members with winter ailments and they did a marvelous job too! The arrival music was most ably performed by Colin Crann on the Club’s Clavinova and followed by Jim Nicholson who played three very nice numbers with rhythms (also on the Clavinova) and followed by the debut of Warren Levick on the Clavinova - where have you been Warren - very well played! Next, George Watt played Doug Farr playing his magnificent Technics KN7000 replete with pedalboard and swell pedalthe GA3 organ for us with some lively numbers and followed by the debut of Alan Dadson on the  GA3 and the Clavinova - very nice arrangements and playing Alan. The second half saw our special guest artist, Doug Farr, who brought his magnificent Technics KN7000 keyboard replete with pedalboard and swell pedal. After some magnificent playing Doug then did an amazing egg trick followed by a silent movie accompanied by some carefully selected music played through his KN7000.

The raffle of a birdie chiming wall clock was won by Glenys ‘Queen Mary’. Thanks as always to the Committee for organizing the Night so well. A special thanks to Rob Powell, President of the Organ Society of New Zealand Inc., for helping members unfamiliar with the Clavinova set-up some great style arrangements on the fly.

If you hover your mouse over the photos then you will get some text captions.

 

 Colin Crann played the arrival music and then an additional three pieces during the first half as a stand-in for a sick member. Nice choice of songs and great custom arrangements as always Colin. Club Treasurer, Jim Nicholson, playing three pieces on the Clavinova. Jim made good use of the Styles to come up with nice orchestrations. 

 

Warren Levick on debut for the Club. Warren played four pieces and made good use of the styles despite being unfamiliar with the machine. Rob Powell was on hand to help him set-up the song arrangements.  Past President, George Watt, played some lively music on the GA3 and again made good use of the rhythm box.

 

  Alan Dadson, gave his debut performance for the Club and played a couple of tunes on the Clavinova. Nice touch Alan. Alan is also the Secretary to the Organ Society of New Zealand Inc. but obviously can't get enough of a good thing - enthusiasm personified!   Alan Dadson whilst being unfamiliar with the Technics GA3 organ nevertheless played four numbers on it very nicely indeed. What is remarkable is that Alan does not own an organ these days but concentrates on piano.

 

Another shot of Doug Farr playing his amazing KN7000 set-up. The tone and voice realism of the instrument were terrific. Doug reckons that the current set-up is a 'work-in-progess' and he will be working on lightening the enclosure stand and enclosing the many leads.             Doug is of the scientific 'ilk' and executed an amazing trick with three eggs. When he flicked the tray with a broom handle the eggs dropped into the glasses of water below. They were real eggs as well!

 

Club President, Gordon Sutherland, thanking Doug Farr for a great concert. Whilst Club Secretary, tries to take a photo with an unfamiliar camera. This photo is a video frame grab and so not as sharply in focus as desirable.

Posted by North Shore Organ and Keyboard Club at 10:30 PM 0 comments
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