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Harvey takes his baton west

Dominic Harvey conducts Canberra Youth Orchestra

WHEN Dominic Harvey picks up the baton to conduct Canberra Youth Orchestra at Llewellyn Hall on Friday night, there will be a note of regret.

For Harvey, the acting head of Brass and lecturer in Horn at ANU School of Music, will be heading west after working with the orchestra and its flagship organisation Canberra Youth Music for 20 years.

He’s worked in ABC live broadcasts, with the Canberra Wind Soloists, the Canberra School of Music Brass Ensemble, the Canberra Chamber Singers, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, The Haydn Bande and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

Recently Harvey surprised everyone by enrolling in and completing an MBA at the ANU and now, with his wife Mary having accepted a job in Perth, where he is off to commence a PhD at the University of Western Australia in which he will investigate management aspects of music in Australia.

Yes, he’s looking forward to a different environment – almost like living overseas, he says – and no, he’s not gone forever, as he is just taking 12 months leave from the university. But conducting a marriage long-distance is no fun, in spite of Skype, and as a friend told him, “you can hug a computer, but it won’t hug you back”.

With two older children who are musicians (one classical, one rock), Harvey also has a 12-month-old daughter, so he’ll be enjoying some family time, along with the study.

“It’s coincidental, but it’s fortuitous,” he says. Harvey is relieved that the ANU has been happy to encourage him in upgrading his skills through a higher degree.

He’s been co-conducting Canberra Youth Orchestra with Max McBride for some years and describes it as “a great privilege”, because of the way they complement each other, allowing the students to get a broader view of music.

As for his favourites in the coming concert, “Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky and “Ameriques” by French-American Edgard Varese, he can’t pick, describing them as “both fantastic”.

Stravinsky, he says, was a great craftsman and orchestrator, a student of Rimsky-Korsakov. On the other hand, Varese was a new musical voice who, mightily influenced by “The Rites of Spring”, was experimenting with sound-scapes.

Canberra Youth Orchestra at Llewellyn Hall, ANU School of Music, 7pm, Friday, November 11. Bookings to 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au

 

 

 

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