Welcome to the 'mobile-friendly' site of the Melbourne Philharmonic and Composer-Conductor Paul Coppens. Founded in 1973, the orchestra is a professional free-lance ensemble which works on a seasonal basis (currently in recess).
`An Australian Night At The Proms` took place on 5 October 2001 at the Sydney Super Dome in the presence of 12,000 enthusiastic 'prommers'. Based on the famous London concerts dating back to 1895 and performed in the Royal Albert Hall since World War II, this programme featured an all-Australian cast including the 80-member Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, The Proms Chorus and compere Bert Newton.
During 1999 it provided the orchestras for the Australian Tour of the English National Ballet's arena production of Swan Lake and in 1996 organised the Perth Orchestra for the arena production of Aida in that city. It was in 1994 that the Orchestra was engaged by the Freemasons Hospital in Melbourne to present 'The Beatles Revisited' in both Melbourne and Sydney as a fund-raiser for their Cancer Clinic.
In 1991 the Orchestra toured with Rudolf Nureyev on his last Australian Tour and in 1989 the Orchestra was engaged to perform at the Centenary of Freemasonry in Victoria Concert. During 1987 the Orchestra was involved in the three-month tour of the Bolshoi Ballet in Australia and New Zealand and accompanied them again in 1992.
In 1980 the Orchestra presented its first 'An Evening in Vienna' series at the Hobart Wrest Point Casino and in the following year commenced its Country Tour programmes which eventually took the Orchestra all over Australia and to two seasons at the Jakarta Hilton.
These tours covered over 150 different country centres throughout Australia, averaged thirty performances a year over a six-year period and reached an audience in excess of 160,000. All tours were generally sponsored by Rotary and/or Apex Clubs.
Programmes included 'An Evening in Vienna', 'The Best of Broadway', 'The Great Light Classics', 'An Evening of Comedy with Gilbert & Sullivan', and Handel's oratorio 'The Messiah'.
During this period, the Orchestra accompanied the initial 'Carols in the Domain'(Sydney), accompanied Abel Gance's 1927 silent movie classic Napoleon in both Melbourne and Sydney, and for three consecutive years was engaged by the Regent Hotels (Melbourne & Sydney) to perform a traditional Viennese New Year's Eve Ball.
The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra presented its inaugural concert season on 5th September 1973 in St Hilda's College, University of Melbourne, conducted by its founder Paul Coppens. Over the next two years it presented a series of concerts each year as well as accompany a number of choral, opera and ballet companies.
In 1975, during an interstate ballet tour with Ballet Victoria featuring Barishnikov & Makarova, it presented its first interstate concert tour, with concerts in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. It featured soloists Jiri Tancibudek (Oboe), Anne Care (Bassoon), Concertmaster Ladislav Jasek and cellist John Kennedy in Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante in Bb.
During the next decade, although it presented a number of concerts under its own name, its activities became more and more part of the Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, until 1989, when Rantos Collegium Inc. was given the rights to trade as the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.
Under the direction of Spiros Rantos, the orchestra rapidly gained a high reputation for its concert seasons in Melbourne as well as in country Victoria. It regularly accompanied the Victoria State Opera seasons in country areas and was frequently featured at the Melbourne International Festival as well as festivals in Italy, Greece, Korea and Japan.
In 1975, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra formed the nucleus for the inaugural concert season of the Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, at 'Summer In The City' concerts in January/February of that year (Concertmaster Ladislav Jasek) and during March that year performed for Rick Wakeman's Australian tour of Journey To The Centre Of The Earth.
Since then and until 1999 it accompanied most of the international ballet and opera companies which have toured Australia and New Zealand.
These included the Stuttgart Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet (three seasons), the Perm Ballet, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the London Festival Ballet (two seasons), the Stars of World Ballet (two seasons), the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and the Berlin Komischen Oper Ballet.
From 1977 till 1979 the Orchestra presented a series of Johann Strauss concerts for the Melbourne Moomba Festival in both Melbourne and Sydney (the Melbourne Town Hall and Sydney Town Hall).
The Philharmonic Agency Pty Ltd trading as | ||
|
MELBOURNE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
(ABN 89 005 664 095)
| ||
| Address: |
Office: |
62 Kerenjon Avenue, Buderim Qld 4556, Australia |
| Postal: | Same as above | |
| Email: | Paul Coppens | |
| | ||
| Telephones: | Office: | +61 (0)7 5445-4156 |
| Facsimile: | ||
| Mobile: | +61 (0)411 706 115 | |
| Director: | Paul Coppens | |
| YEAR | MONTH | LOCATION | PROGRAMME | WEEKS | TOWNS | PERF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | April | Tas | Evening In Vienna | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 1982 | August | Nsw & Qld | Evening In Vienna | 4 | 22 | 22 |
| 1983 | July | Nsw & Qld | Best Of Broadway | 5 | 27 | 27 |
| October | Jakarta Hilton | Evening In Vienna | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Oct-Nov | WA | Evening In Vienna | 3 | 16 | 16 | |
| 1984 | Jun-Jul | Nsw & Qld | Evening In Vienna | 6 | 32 | 32 |
| Aug-Sep | Nsw | Great Classics | 3 | 16 | 16 | |
| Sept | Jakarta Hilton | Evening In Vienna | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Sep-Oct | WA | Best Of Broadway | 6 | 30 | 30 | |
| 1985 | Feb-Mar | Vic & Nsw | Comedy with G&S | 3 | 17 | 17 |
| Jul-Aug | Nsw & Sa | Comedy with G&S | 5 | 25 | 25 | |
| Nov-Dec | Vic & Nsw | "The Messiah" | 2 | 8 | 8 | |
| 1986 | April | Nsw | Best Of Broadway | 2 | 8 | 8 |
'Melbourne Philharmonic' respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information and complying with its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988. Personal information is information about you, such as your name, contact details and records of your dealings with us. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal information, and the ways in which you can control, view and/or edit the personal information that we hold about you.
We will respond to all requests for access. On the rare occasions when we refuse access, we will provide you with a written notice stating our reasons for refusing access and the provisions of the Privacy Act on which we rely to refuse access. We may seek to recover from you reasonable costs that we incur for providing you with access to any of the personal information that we hold about you.
We will respond to all requests to correct your personal information. We are not obliged to correct any of your personal information if we do not agree that it requires correction and we may refuse to do so. If we refuse, we will provide you with a written notice explaining the basis for our refusal.
We also use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer our website, track use movements on our website, and gather broad demographic data for aggregate use, which we may share with our partners and advertisers. We note that IP addresses are not linked to any information that could identify you.
We may use the personal information that we hold about you, including your contact details, to provide you with information about activities, events and products that may be of interest to you, or to seek donations or support for our activities. This we do through our regular 'Newsletter'. You may opt out of receiving the 'Newsletter' at any time by clicking on the 'opt-out' line at the bottom of the 'Newsletter'.
As a service orchestra, musicians are placed in an accompanying role, and as such, the ensemble is available for hire in most capital cities in Australia, using local musicians to that city. For national projects, a smaller touring group is usually used and augmented by local musicians.
Composer - Conductor
Born in Brabant (The Netherlands), he emigrated with his family to Australia in 1955 and, after part time music studies and private tuition, he left Australia in 1970 for Europe, graduating in Conducting in 1972 at the Graz Music University, Austria.
In 1973 he returned to Australia and founded the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the nucleus of the Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, which he founded in 1975. He has since conducted this Orchestra in more than 350 concerts in almost 150 cities throughout Australia (mainly in co-operation with Rotary Clubs).
Between 1974 and 1999 he was Music Director/Assistant Conductor/Administrator of Orchestras with the Edgley organisation, working with many of the international ballet and opera companies which have visited Australia and New Zealand. As Conductor he has worked with many choirs and orchestras and has worked in productions of ballet, opera, operetta and musical comedy. Highlight was the arena production of 'Aida' (1996-97) which performed in Singapore, Perth, Auckland and Brisbane.
Rehearsing Anzac Dawn Chorus March 2015
From 1999 onwards he was Music Director/conductor of a number of productions including 'Australian Night At The Proms'(2001), two Military Tattoos(1999 and 2006), Concert Of The Century (Townsville 2006), 'Up The Tiber Without A Toga'(Caloundra 2010), 'A Buderim Cantata' (Buderim 2012), 'Gallipoli Dawn' (Sunshine Coast 2015) and a short film 'The Rosie Side Of Love' (2018).
Since then he has concentrated on translating his administrative experiences into a software programme which will also help and facilitate further performances of 'Gallipoli Dawn' around Australia and New Zealand.
Music will always be part of his activities so he did get involved in orchestrating some original folk music from Townsville. As well he wrote original music for the Currimundi Special School's Concert in November 2019 'Thunderstorm Dancing', inspired by the children's book of the same name.
Paul and David Crewe discussing 'Anzac Dawn' in November 2014.
Paul and David Crewe creating 'Alladin' in August 2011.
From 2010 to 2016 he composed and conducted the music for six pantomimes, Cinderella:The Untold Story, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Robin Hood & Babes In The Wood, Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp and Cinderella: The Sequel.
These were commisioned by the Maleny Players with the words by David Crewe, who also directed the productions at the Maleny Community Centre in December of each year. Since his departure from Maleny in 2016, sadly Maleny no longer produces pantomimes. David, now residing in Keri-Keri New Zealand, has continued with his work there.
Cast of 'Buderim Cantata' in Matthew Flinders Arts Centre Buderim November 2012.
During October 2013 he completed 'Buderim Cantata - I Am The Mountain', commissioned by the Buderim Male Choir (with generous financial support from the Buderim Foundation) celebrating Buderim's 150 Anniversary. The words are by David Crewe. It was performed in November 2013 in Queensland at the Coolum Civic Centre and at the Matthew Flinders Performance Centre, Buderim.
Performers included Hot Ginger Chorus, Buderim Male Choir, Classic Clarinets Of Brisbane, a percussion ensemble, narrator David Crewe, soprano Betty Stokes and baritone Eddy Weir. Highlight of the Cantata was the song "The Gingerbread Man".
In 2010 he wrote the musical comedy 'Up The Tiber Without A Toga' with playwright John Cundill, which had its world premiere season with five performances at the Caloundra Events Centre in October 2010 under the auspices of the Maleny Rotary Club.
Solo cast included Chris Fennesy(Marcus Antony), Sarah Knight(Cleo), George Symonds(Oraculus), Jenny Keys(Statilia), Jennifer Rousset(Donnabella), Helen Duffy(Octavia), Ellisa Finn(Lucretia) Michael Healy(Minimus), Darren Heskes(Maximus), Paul Richardson(Hilarius) and David Schulze(Ludricus).
Supporting cast included the 24-member Chorus, the 6-member 'Imanzi'(African Retine) and the Brisbane Chamber Orchestra with Concertmaster Spiros Rantos. Director and Choreographer was Virginia Mason and the Executive Producer was Bob Hall.
An original work by David Crewe and Paul Coppens
with massed choir, music, action and drama
to capture the ANZAC experience of Worl War 1
Now renamed for future performances
The audience sings the chorus parts. This programme toured in country towns in New South Wales and Victoria during 1985.
The Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Paul Coppens with Concertmaster Donald Hazelwood.
Soloists include Christine Anu, David Campbell, David Hobson, Gina Jeffreys, Glen Shorrock, Patti Newton, Simon Tedeschi, Yvonne Kenny and Compere Bert Newton.
Listen to Australian Night At The Proms 2001 audio tracks.
View the Australian Night At The Proms 2001 video tracks.
Taking a bow - Paul Coppens, Virginia Mason and John Cundill
Solo cast included Chris Fennesy(Marcus Antony), Sarah Knight(Cleo), George Symonds(Oraculus), Jenny Keys(Statilia), Jennifer Rousset(Donnabella), Helen Duffy(Octavia), Ellisa Finn(Lucretia) Michael Healy(Minimus), Darren Heskes(Maximus), Paul Richardson(Hilarius) and David Schulze(Ludricus).
Supporting cast included the 24-member Chorus, the 6-member 'Imanzi'(African Retine) and the Brisbane Chamber Orchestra with Concertmaster Spiros Rantos. Director and Choreographer was Virginia Mason and the Executive Producer was Bob Hall.
Listen and view scenes from 'Up The Tiber' filmed at the Caloundra Events Centre November 2010.
Since the demise of GigaStudio advances continue in the technology of sound reproduction, especially with the emergance of a free (open-source) programme - LinuxSampler, which utilises all the gigafiles left floundering by Gigastudio's disappearance.
There is also Vienna Symphonic Library, which does produce amazing results but comes with a hefty price-tag. The composer who still writes music using Finale or Sibelius benefits enormously from todays sampler. The creation of small or large scale works using this traditional method can be instantaneously realised, or 'played', with stunning realism.
For writing film scores, I use Finale v26 to write the music, Vienna Ensemble Pro6 to record the music, LinuxSampler (for recording choral parts), and uses Sony Vegas Pro 16 to match film with sound.
Film scenes may be emailed (in a reduced format) and can be returned by email (in reduced format) with the proposed orchestration. Working on-site when/where required is not an issue as the equipment consists of a computer (laptop) and music keyboard.
Below is the 16th century Italin 'folk' song used by the Dutch in 1626 to celebrate the release of 'Berg Op Zoom' from the Spanish. It was also used by the Afrikaners in the Boer War, and has now been used as the finale of a new music drama 'Gallipoli Dawn', to commemorate the ANZAC's role in Gallipoli during World War 1.
The orchestration is fully realised using Linuxsampler, Peter Siedlaczek's 'Advanced Orchestra' samples and Choir samples from 'Voices of the Apocalypse'. The choir samples come with separate vowels and consonants so programming the choir to sing did take some time.
Again, the technology is there for the benefit of those who are unable to 'visualise' a full score, for the composer to 'virtually hear' his creations almost immediately and to give this facility to anyone who may wish to hear the score.
Home Page(Creating-Editing-Reviewing Projects)
The aim is to build a trusted blockchain 'community' network using Hyperledger Fabric. It is where community organisations administer all their activities, share them safely with their membership, invite other 'trusted' community organisations to join the network and share only data according to mutual agreement.
Paul Coppens has been developing sofware to administer his orchestras since the 1970's. By the 1980's he was using Microsoft Access to do this and during the 1990's was able to contract, issue schedules and pay musicians by electronic transfer, as well as ensure all industry awards were met including superannuation and taxation regulations.
The technology has moved on and he is now transferring the code to a web-based programme, using PHP, Javascript, HTML5, MySQL and Smarty (for templates). These languages and formats have been combined into his own 'MEM Framework'. The software is totally modular and is initially aimed at the activities, events and membership of community groups.
Membership Attendance Page(Editing-Reviewing Member Attendance)
The Membership database can easily be populated with data from other rtf, csv or spreadsheet files. Members can pay their membership online (mobile device) and the organisation can check at a glance the membership status using a mobile device.
Member attendances at activities can be marked using a mobile device and their information easily updated. Members can log-in on their mobile device to update their information and print/view/download their activities summary for a selected period.
Events Page(Creating-Editing-Reviewing Events)
The Diary keeps track of all activities and events, including Committee/Board meetings, media launches etc. Each activity would depend on resources (a person, groups of people, equipment, venues, locations etc) which would all be entered into the database.
All resources have a cost item and details regarding availability, location and contact details. Once a resource is attached to a date, and if the resource happens to be a group of people, any one belonging to that group will be able to print/view/download the activity and all the relevant details to that person on-line.
Caltalogue Page(Creating-Editing-Reviewing Works)
Resources can consist of a single person, groups of people, equipment, venues, locations or all of them, depending on the size of the activity. A music library (catalogue of works) or a football field can be a resource. All resources are costed. When putting together a team of any kind, this is where to do it. This team can be an orchestra, band, football team, cricket team etc.
Payments Page(Creating-Editing-Reviewing Members Payments)
Payroll is always a critical area for any organisation and this module has been developed over a thirty-year period, finally taking this form. The data it produces can be used in most popular finance software. Payments are made to a person's bank account and payment advices emailed. Relevant awards and taxation requirements can be updated and forms/data required by the government are provided.
This example is from the 1999 'Swan Lake' Ballet Tour with the English National Ballet. The information seen here is readily available from any of the printed souvenier programmes of that tour.
Budget Page(Creating-Editing-Reviewing Project Budget)
Templates will contain different budgets for a variety of organisations. They provide a fast way of calculating the possible and impossible. Comparisons can continually be made between the budget and the actual costs so far for a particular activity.
This example shows the summary page.
Configuration Page(Creating-Editing-Reviewing Setup Data Used)
Each organisation will have different names and titles for their membership team. Although there will be a selection of templates to choose from, these can be altered to suit the inevitable variation required.
System Configuration basically includes details of most of the data used to structure all of the modules used in the software. This includes Classifications, Clients, Countries, Menus, Logs, Orchestrations, Project Data, Scrolltables, Tabs, Types and details of the SQL Modules.
An original work by David Crewe and Paul Coppens with massed choir, music, action and drama to capture and commemorate the ANZAC experience of World War I, especially the 1915 events on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.
It was originally created as 'ANZAC DAWN' for the main arena event of the Sunshine Coast Agricultural Show 2015 Nambour Show Grounds - June 12,13,14 and supported by the Queensland State Anzac Centenary Grants Programme and the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.
Further plans for this work will be announced as soon as the software (under development) has become useful enough to run the events.
Performances are planned in some of the capital cities in Australia and New Zealand in 2022. These will involve
major charities and crowdfunding using its own website.
An original musical work by Paul Coppens based on the children's story book by the same name. The book was written by Katrina Germein and illustrated by Judy Watson. The music is performed by the Melbourne Philharmonic Virtual Orchestra (computer-generated score using Vienna Symphonic Library) and narrated by Stephanie Cole with illustrations from the book.
A short film with an original score by Paul Coppens and performed by the Melbourne Philharmonic Virtual Orchestra (computer-generated score using Vienna Symphonic Library).
