2015 notes

f you are in Sydney on the first Sunday in Novemember you might enjoy attending a concert at Macquarie University in North Ryde. "The Peacemakers" by Karl Jenkins is a beautiful piece.

I am playing guitar in it with the Macquarie singers (about 70 people) and a chamber orchestra. We had a great dress rehearsal on Sunday with a fine 20 piece orchestra under the baton of Sara Penicka-Smith and the 70-strong Macquarie Singers.

This is a wonderful piece full of engaging melodies and colourful orchestrations. As well as strings wind and keyboard the ensemble features some 'world music' colours with the Shakuhachi Tin Whistle Soprano Sax and Tablas. And guitar!

We had a great dress rehearsal on Sunday with a fine 20 piece orchestra under the baton of Sara Penicka-Smith and the 70-strong Macquarie Singers.

The guitar part by Jenkins was conceived as a fretless bass part which he transposes quite literally to the guitar. With the permission and oversight of the conductor Sara Penicka-Smith I took the liberty of adding more voices to some of the parts.

I will be playing my Gerard Gilet concert classical. This is the first time I've had the opportunity to hear it in an orchestral setting.

But what surprised me in rehearsal was how well the bottom three strings on this guitar sing melodically. The Gilet gives me awesome control of vibrato range and speed plus tone colour and allows the guitar to blend in really well with the ensemble, and then speaking out when required.