A dinner celebrating the amazing musical talents of two local boys, William and Matthew Friend, will be held at The Arts Centre on Friday September 20. The twins have been playing since they were eight. They are now 18.
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Music should be given a higher profile at Cootamundra High School, according to the brothers, to develop the musical talents of local young people.
"If there were more resources devoted to teaching music I think we might get a lot more students who have talent," Matthew told the Herald.
"I just notice that whenever someone tries to learn something there's not really too much encouragement - they start off but then taper off and decide not to do it any more."
William agrees, saying having only one music teacher at the school limits what can be done, because the existing teacher, Mr Perry, can only do so much even working extra hours.
"If we had another two or three teachers it would really get it going and it would be a good look for the school to have those sorts of facilities," he said.
As an HSC subject music is regarded by some people as a "soft" option but it's actually quite hard - not only do students have to sit for exams by playing musical pieces, they also have to do two "vivas", which are 10-minute discussions about songs dealing with concepts such as texture, duration, expressive techniques, colour, structure and tone.
Matthew and William will be doing their HSC performances on September 17, three days before the concert at The Arts Centre.
William will play a medley from the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean and a study in C minor by Charles Edgar Ford, while Matthew will play six variations on a theme by Beethoven and the winter allegro by Vivaldi, a piece normally played by strings but arranged by Benjamin Gabbay for piano.
All four pieces are near the top of the range for secondary studies - there are eight grades need to complete before students go for tertiary musical qualifications, "AMus" (Associate of Music Australia) and "LMus" (Licentiate of Music Australia), highly regarded around the world and overseen by the Australian Music Examination Board.
The twins have been concentrating on perfecting the pieces they are being examined on, limiting their practice sessions to the two required pieces so they can focus on their other HSC subjects.
In addition to music, William is taking business studies, general maths, advanced English and information technology, while Matthew is doing chemistry, physics, advanced maths, extension maths and advanced English.
William is aiming for a career in information technology ("I'm just as passionate about that as music") but will keep studying and making music, especially music that fits in with something else, like film or drama. He's hoping his ATAR score will land him a place at the University of Canberra, which his agricultural scientist uncle has persuaded him is more down-to-earth and a better proposition all round than ANU.
Matthew hasn't made his mind up about which university he'd like to go to, but is keen on doing computer science or software engineering and perhaps integrating music into that so he can keep it up professionally.
The boys were originally encouraged to take up piano by their parents at the age of eight, partly because of a concern due to a recessive gene in the family causing vision loss.
"Mum and dad were concerned about us losing our vision, because it was gradually getting worse," said William.
"It's stopped now, but they wanted to give us a skill even if we were blind we could still do."
The boys' vision is far from perfect - they both wear contact lenses - and according to their teacher for the past ten years, Alison Paterson, they use their memory skills a lot to make up for it.
Mrs Paterson, a well-known local piano teacher, is among a number of other musicians who will perform at the dinner on Friday week.
She will play euphonium, with Sue Guy and Eliza Cowell on piano, Kay bird on flute, Phil Chadwick on saxophone and the Cootamundra Concert Band.
Like her star pupils, Mrs Paterson started learning early - at age seven - and also like the boys did music for her HSC, but then took a break.
"I didn't like some of the pushiness that went on with music, that turned me off, and my parents weren't the pushy kind either so they left it up to me and I decided to go into nursing," she said.
"When I came to Coota (from Melbourne) after being married there weren't too many nursing positions except for night duty - but people saw I had a piano delivered and then I got some phone calls to see if I would teach their children.
"So I thought surely I could teach the beginnings, and that's how it started.
"Very soon after that I was involved with a musical at the high school, and since then I've been involved with the drama group - I've been musical director for seven productions of musical theatre - and done lots of accompanying for exams and eisteddfods."
Alison has also taken I taken the Cootamundra Concert Band, which until recently had three ensembles but with the beginners moving up to the next rung how has two.
"I've taken people right from scratch on concert band instruments, so music's been a big part of my life."
Mrs Paterson returned briefly to nursing, doing a few locums, but when her second and third children were born sleepless nights made regular work difficult.
"I was just surviving there for a few years but I could fit music in in my own time and it's been my main occupation since, and it's been lovely.
"Most of the time it's been one-on-one which is really a privilege to spend that time with these young interesting people."
Mrs Paterson's met her husband Robert when he came to Melbourne to do a master's in agricultural science, after which he got a job as a consultant in Cootamundra and now runs his own business, Rural Management Strategies.
The September 20 dinner, a fundraiser for the Arts Centre, starts at 6pm. Tickets at $50 include a three-course meal and welcome drink. Bookings close September 12, call 6942 4773.
by Tom Gosling
