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Since returning back to Australia, I have been attached to the local university as an Early Music specialist... but that only really involves taking the Early Music ensemble and the occasional workshop, masterclass, and that sort of thing.

... but I have taken an interest in the upcoming students... partly as I want to increase our pool of players, and re-establish our school of music... but also, I feel like I am at a stage of my career where I should be helping to boost up the next generations. I'm not done performing... far from it, but I need to train the next batch with the same ideals and approach that I hold dear.

So, I've given individual lessons and masterclasses and all of that... and gone to their recitals and performances, included them in our concerts when possible and pushed and recommended them to other groups. And they have really flourished... but some people have started to mistake me for their actual teacher... and I'm not!

It is crazily flattering... but all these students have their own main instrument teacher, and all I'm doing is providing the little finishing advice in the lessons and all of that... I'm not doing the hard yards of the week to week contact, I just get to do the fun bit!

Of course, some of that is just my specialist approach to Early Music mixed with my personal interpretation of it... and my individual approach to WHAT I think music is in general... and all of that seems to be giving a different approach to what the students might be getting from the regular university system. Enough so that they seem to have enjoyed the different viewpoint...

Now, there have been way too many instances where... after a recital or a performance that I've gone to, that someone has said... wow, are they your students... or this person is your protege? Sigh... no... I attend their concerts because I think it is super nice for the older generation of musicians to show their support of the younger generation by just FRICKING SHOWING UP!!!

And that leads me to the other gripe... where the $%^#$%^ is the rest of the older generation? Sure, sometimes there is a clash or something... but I have noticed that there are way too many times where I'm the only professional musician who is there... or at the only one that isn't being paid to be there.

And that extends to the rest of the concerts... professional musicians rarely are going to colleague's concerts unless they are offered complimentary tickets. And then they will turn around and complain that people don't come to their concerts... sheesh, if we only just went to EACH other's concerts, that would be already a huge bump in attendance. Plus, it would also look like we gave a crap...

... anyway, we are going to as many as we can... but generally, I am going to the concerts of the younger generation. These guys don't have the marketing and publicity machine of a PR firm or an orchestral staff... and it means so much more to them that there are people in the audience. So, that is where we (my wife and I...) are pulling our weight... that and the Early Music stuff, because that is the area of music that we are wanting to grow and support.

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