Christmas Special Club Night

To round off a great year of music at the Club, our Christmas Club Night Special was a humdinger with each artist playing an extended 25 minutes which gave both variety and an opportunity for the artists to develop their play style. With a fabulous Christmas Cake baked by Peter Littlejohn and the visitation by Mr and Mrs Claus from Lapland everybody seemed to thoroughly enjoy the musical experience. A big thank you to Peter Jackson for playing the arrival music and to the guest artists in order of play: Alan Dadson; Denise and Brian Gunson; Bennie Gunn; Ben Fernandez, Jan and Kevin Johnston and  Peter Wilton (vocalist); Mr and Mrs Claus (Laurie Conder and Jeanette Beamish).

A big thank you to all our members for their generous donations to our Christmas Hamper Raffle. We had 8 buckets chocker with goodies together with a donated CD by guest artist, Ben Fernandez, and a knitted decorative ladies scarf made by Trudi Blok. Thanks to Sylvia Riddell for helping on door duties and to the Committee for making the evening run so successfully.

As this was the last Club meeting for 2013, the Committee takes this opportunity to wish all our members, friends of the Club, and musical contributors during the year, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. We look forward to lots more musical adventures brought to you by The North Shore Organ and Keyboard Club in 2014.

The Videos:

Click on the start button below to watch a YouTube embedded video of Alan Dadson playing at the Club on 3rd December 2013:

Click on the start button below to watch a YouTube embedded video of Bennie Gunn playing at the Club on 3rd December 2013:

Click on the start button below to watch a YouTube embedded video of Jan and Kevin Johnston playing at the Club on 3rd December 2013 with guest artists Ben Fernandez (on piano) and Peter Wilton (vocals) :

The Photos:

 

        

    

   

 

The Club’s Christmas Party at The Bays Club

A great venue for a great Christmas Party as The North Shore Organ and Keyboard Club starts to wind-down its many musical adventures during 2013. With over 50 members attending for the dinner and joined by an equal number of Bays Club members we had a ball! Between 3.30 pm and 6.00 pm members played the various instruments informally. Over dinner we had Ben Fernandez newly launched Christmas CD playing for us. After dinner we had three solo performances of half an hour duration by: Denise and Brian Gunson; Kuniko Nakatani; and Ben Fernandez. To cap-off a great Christmas Party, Jan and Kevin Johnston played some great dance music. The food, the location, the company, and the music all contributed to a wonderful Party. A big thank you to our Events Manager, Peter Brophy for organizing the event so well as well as the Committee members who lent support on the day.

Merry Christmas to one and all and a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year.

The Videos

Click on the start button below to watch an embedded YouTube video of Kuniko Nakatani playing at The Bays Club, Browns Bay for our Club’s Christmas Party on 17th November 2013:

Click on the start button below to watch an embedded YouTube video of Ben Fernandez playing at The Bays Club, Browns Bay for our Club’s Christmas Party on 17th November 2013:

The Photos

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

                      

Club Night 5th November 2013

A magical Club Night with a wonderful atmosphere and superb keyboard playing. It was a joyous occasion and a sad occasion as our member, Kuniko Nakatani, will be going back home to Japan at the end of November and so this was a celebration of her wonderful musical contributions for the Club over the last 6 months as well as celebrating her recent Birthday.

The arrival music was played by John Beales and followed by Ian Jackson on piano. Next up Laurie Conder entertained the audience playing his Roland G-70 keyboard. To finish the first half of the Programme, Kuniko Nakatani gave an extended cameo concert on our Clavinova CVP-509. The choice of music she played said it all really such as: Con te Partiro (Time to say Goodbye) and Memory. We were also treated to some serious concert pieces such as Chopin's Fantaisie - Impromptu which she played magnificently such that the whole house stood spontaneously to applaud her World class performance of this difficult but beautiful piece of music. As well as celebrating Kuniko’s Birthday we also presented her with a memento of our affection (a greenstone Koru necklace).

Our guest artist was the professional musician and pianist, Peter Parkinson, who entertained marvellously using a Korg Pa588 digital arranger piano. Peter demonstrated the wonderful style and arrangements on the instrument as well as playing some straight music (without rhythms) showing off the gorgeous layered sounds that this instrument is capable of. Peter is the Manager for Music Planet Botany Downs (located inside the Danske Mobler store) and specializes in quality acoustic pianos.

A big thank you to the Committee and support staff for a terrific job as always to make the evening go so smoothly. The Club will post some YouTube embedded videos of the evening is due course so watch this space!

The Video Clips:

Click on the Play button below to watch Ian Jackson playing the Club’s Yamaha Clavinova CVP-509 on Club Night.

Click on the Play button below to watch Laurie Conder playing his Roland G-70 keyboard on Club Night.

Click on the Play button below to watch Kuniko Nakatani giving a piano recital using the Club’s Yamaha Clavinova CVP-509 on Club Night.

 

Photo Highlights: