Links to images of Tony Amaral’s exhibition can be found on the following sites
http://fotos.sapo.pt/saponoticiastl/albuns/?aid=212
www.facebook.com/pages/Arte-Moris-Free-Art-School/126492667422096
if interested to buy art works, email admin@artemoris.org by the 8th October and shipping can be organised via Australia.
Dame ba rai neb’e maka iha problema - “Peace to this troubled country”
TonyAmaral is a Timorese Artist who is a recent graduate from the National Art School, Sydney, Australia. He is currently artist in residence at Arte Moris. His first solo exhibition opened at Arte Moris Gallery, Arte Moris Comoro, Dili, East Timor on September 24th. It will run for 2 weeks. Tony is an consummate artist, the exhibition is powerful, and deserving of international recognition. Tony says” We all know that the function of the news media in a democratic nation is an important one. For instance, the role of journalists is to help build a national conscience and affect social transformation. In part, the job of artists is the same. ” In his first solo exhibition Tony has used mixed media collages with a focus on newspaper clippings to create a retrospective on the past half - year. He has used Timor’s local papers along with bold colours and stencils to tell a story of a nation that, to his mind, is continuing to experience a crisis of faith in development and governance, which in turn is impacting people’s sense of harmony. Below is an image of the painting at the centre of the exhibition. The work is for sale, please do contact Tekee Media via email or artemoris through facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arte-Moris-Free-Art-School/126492667422096 for a link to full images please go to : or if you are a facebook friend of Ros Dunlop go to facebook for the album of full size images. There are still paintings for sale from this wonderful exhibition with prices ranging from $200 to $900 US. click on the thumbnails to enlarge. Better quality images on above sites.
IMAGES OF ART WORKS BY TONY AMARAL
Dame ba rai neb’e maka iha problema - “Peace to this troubled country”
Dame ba rai nebe’e maka iha problema
Face the Future with confidence
Halo Sira Kontenti dala ida ta’an
Dame ba rai nebe’e maka iha problema
Hadahur The music school established in East Timor by Mary Mckillop East Timor Mission in conjunction with Tekee Media Inc, was formally opened by the President of Timor Leste, His Excellency Dr Jose Ramos Horta, at a concert in the President’s Palace on Saturday the 18th July.
musicians from Suai (double click on all photos to enlarge)
children from Bessilau School rehearsing for the concert
Students from Hadahur, Jacob, Mica & Sesca rehearsing aria from Cosi Fan Tutti
Performers were made up of students and staff from the school, Timorese and Internationals. Performances were given on piano, voice, classical guitar, violin and a variety of ensemble pieces. The students of these instruments commenced studying them via web cam in the past few months, in the case of the classical guitarist only with 2 lessons to date! The long term vision is that these students will be taught and mentored via skype and they will start to teach students when they feel confident enough to start, with the International teachers backing them up from afar. The first violin and guitar students of these teachers commenced lessons this July!
Aurelio Ximenes having a web cam lesson.
This trip a program of music education was introduced to a remote mountain school, Bessilau. Australian music educator is Rachel Scott renowned for introducing similar programs in Australia in remote communities. It was felt that a similar method could be used to introduce music to schools in Timor Leste. When Rachel approached Hadahur with the idea of training teachers with no musical background to deliver music programs in schools we thought …well why not! What was started was a huge success beyond any of our expectations, the staff and students at Bessilau school embraced the program so wholeheartedly and enthusiastically On the day Rachel arrived at Bessilau (after only 3 hours in Timor Leste and a road trip of astonishing beauty, views and daily life so typical in Timor), the whole school had assembled to greet her in true Timorese fashion to walk a corridor between two lines of children singing and a presentation of tais.
By the time she had completed the week the same children and staff were sad to see her go! The principal of the school wholeheartedly embraced the program to the extent that he took part in every class enjoying himself as much as any child! We are confident that as each stage is introduced to the school over the next few years it will be hugely successful and become part of the daily curriculum! This program has been made possible by a grant awarded to Hadahur by the ISME (International Society of Music Education) and Gibson Guitar in their Community music award, which Hadahur has been awarded for 2009. (please see Rachel’s report on her week’s work at the end of this blog).
Bessilau School & Students 
typical classroom in the school
The above photos taken on the day the instruments were unpacked at the school.
some photos from the classes, there were lots of smiles & laughter & noise!!!
Traditional Musicians came from Cova Lima (Suai Loro) and Maubisse and Liquica giving wonderful performances of the traditional music of those districts, many people in the audience had not seen traditional music being performed before, certainly not of the calibre presented in this concert. The traditional music co-ordinator, Manuel Pereira performed and organised the musicians of Maubesse, and Liquica, Manuel was the first musician whose music I recorded as part of the Traditional Music Project, a consummate musician and he co-ordinated a spectacular performance. The Dancers from Suai Loro and a guitarist (playing on hand made guitar, somewhat larger than commercially made ones) and violinist accompanied them. These performers had an added surprise, as the Director of School Spectacular NSW was present at the concert, and there specifically to see these performers in action so that he could invite them to School Spectacular…either this November or November 2010.
Manuel Pereira, Student playing the lakadou.
Dancers from Suai Loro
This concert was the fruition of 15 months since we first commenced lessons. Teaching of students began last year out of two rooms at the back of the Motael Church generously lent to the music school by Father Alves. In May this year Hadahur had to find other places for lessons, moving equipment to a temporary facility in Lahane,.
Although the school is launched, it is operating in several locations around Dili until much hoped for land is secured, hopefully we can give news of this before too long. The location for web cam lessons is a room in Centro Juvenile in Taibesse so students can have regular web cam lessons in voice, violin, piano and guitar! These lessons are given by professional teachers in Australia, some of whom went to Timor this July to work with students (Wendy Dixon – Voice, Ella Bennetts – violin, Ros Dunlop keyboard/clarinet). Four school concerts were given, with the above musicians and Rachel Scott (who was conducting the classroom music program and brought her bright purple cello to Timor….t’was a hit, both the cello and the concerts! A shame there was no time for more! School children, indeed Timorese had not seen the like of such concerts before! As a team these musicians worked together very well, very hard, a lot of convivial times were had and personalities were well matched!
Milka Pinheiro having a skype violin lesson
Ella Bennetts (violin teacher), giving a little boy his first lesson.
Wendy Dixon meeting some of her voice students after months of lessons on web cam.
one of the rare moments of relaxation and fivolity for Ros Dunlop, Rachel Scott & Wendy Dixon,
There were two soirees leading up to the concert in the President’s palace and an impromptu concert two days after the Saturday night concert in a bar/restaurant “Motion” who are known more for their rock concerts, we figured maybe a dozen people might come….the place was packed! The music school, the kind of music making and concerts it gives is timely! There will be more regular events at Motion given by the students of Hadahur. At all concerts, audience members were astonished at the standard of the talent and hard work achieved by students who have had so little tuition. Feedback from the concert has followed those of us travelling back to Australia all the way home!
Singers from the acapella group Ko Le Le Mai, who performed in every concert.
Milka Pinheiro has been learning violin, mostly on skype for a year now, and played confidently and musically with her teacher Ella Bennetts and the Director of the Music School Antonio de Padua. Milka has just commenced teacher 4 young children violin under the supervision of her teacher Ella Bennetts.
Ella & student in his first lesson
The singers who had all been working with Australian vocalist Wendy Dixon all gave solo performances and with a few others have formed an accapella group, delighting all who attended concerts with arrangements of traditional songs. Mica, Sesca , Milka and Jacob all gave solo performances in various concerts.
Antonio de Padua accompanying the singers, Jacob, Sesca & Mica.
The Dili audiences were amazed and delighted to learn that there is a classical guitarist in town, Aurelio Ximenes who has only ever had two lessons (via web cam), is largely self taught and passionate about playing. Initially very nervous in the first of the mini concerts he became more at ease as he performed, he proved to be a focused and sensitive performer. Aurelio will commence teaching two young guitarists the classical guitar this week. As his confidence in teaching increases he will teach other students.
Antonio de Padua, the Director of the music school and pianist displayed his love of Chopin in concert, but during these intense days of workshops and face to face lessons, …some conducted from the hall opposite the church in Becora….even for a while the walls of the lovely old Hotel Turismo were bursting with musical activity from a number of rooms, Antonio discovered he loved playing chamber music, so many chamber pieces (for clarinet, violin, purple cello and piano were added to the programs). We have discovered there are Malae (foreigners) in Dili who also play instruments to a reasonable level who are keen to play ensemble music, so, in the interim periods when there are no international teachers coming to Dili there will still be possibilities for chamber performances.
It is hoped that now that more prescriptive lessons have been planned for the early childhood classes that the Early Childhood teachers will be ready to open the doors for young children for music classes in January 2010. At present the music school is concentrating its efforts and resources on educating and increasing the level of performance and skill of those Timorese who will be the teachers of the music school Hadahur. We envisage that the school will expand enrolments in 2010.
Early Childhood music class training teachers.
Report from Rachel Scott on the initial setting up of the classroom music program:
……The music programme is Bessilau was a huge success. Of course the children loved every minute – and why wouldn’t they? But there were a few other interesting things that happened at the school as well. The teachers all joined in – and had as good a time as the children. A good example was the head teacher at the school. In the first lesson, he walked in, told children off, and prowled up the back. Within ten minutes, he was joining in, with a huge smile on his face. On day two, he was actively helping the children who were struggling. By day four, he was up the front, almost co-teaching with me – still with a huge smile on his face. By the teacher training day, he was the one checking that teachers knew what to do, and had driven around the district, picking up teachers who had gone home already. He is now a huge supporter of the programme.
The teachers are incredibly excited – and extremely grateful. They have agreed to teach the children as best as they can, and to also arrange performances for other schools. We have proved that music surpasses all language barriers, and cultural barriers – and I see this programme as simply growing from success to success.
The children learnt very quickly – and this can only help other areas of their learning – problem solving, memory, gross and fine motor skill development. Another thing this programme has developed is the children’s sense of self-esteem – something that is sadly lacking with these little people, and something I am so pleased to have increased. This alone is invaluable. I cannot truly express how important I believe this programme is – I shall talk about it until I am blue in the face, and would happily relate story after story to any policy maker or funding body. I believe this is some of the most valuable work I have ever done in my life…… Rachel Scott
In April I went to Timor primarily to organise the trip in July when we were to take 4 teachers up and do a concert to launch Hadahur the music school. Whilst much was done in that trip for that purpose, I was asked spontaneously at the last minute to go to a special thanksgiving festival for the traditional instruments up in Fatubesse. that was amazing, we were in an uma lulic for hours, the smoke from the huge fire cooking inside the house was intense and we had to keep coming out for air, but in spite of nearly gagging several times (even the Timorese with me!) we witnessed a pretty special ceremony with thanks for the lakadou, tohi (big bass drum), babadoks (smaller drums), gongs, and fuis. I witnessed 12 sacrificial chickens and was surprised how silently and quickly they died! In all a terrific night up in the mountains and I felt very privaleged to be there!
click on the photos below to enlarge them!
babadoks
Woman playing babadok 
gong
lakadou & swords
Manuel Pereira giving thanks for the babadok Manuel & student playing lakadou
School presentations are given by Tekee Media every year. Our bookings are now open for those wanting the presentation in their school. It is suitable for many subjects in schools, geography, history, music, art, social justice programs to name but a few. double click on the icon to see the pamflets. Contacts for bookings as for the web site.
scholarship to the national Art School in Sydeny doing a bachelor of Fine Arts), went to Darwin to give a series of workshops for Children as part of the exhibition the Darwin Museum had running from November to July 2009. Here are afew photos from that trip, the kids who went had a great time, particularly with the hands on aspects of the exhibition!
click on photos to enlarge.
cave paintings, Tutuala….we spent afew hours hacking through the jungle to get to these it was dark when we made it.
Alfeo and Mellie were our guides for this trip
Fataluca chant sung to us by these old Tutuala women.
Caves like these house bones of ancestors, quite afew in the cliffs from Tutuala. The ground is very hard in this part of Timor, which may account for bones being placed in caves. Our friend was not so happy scaling the cliff down to the cave!
The rest of that trip was devoted to the music school, teaching students, hunting down those who might support out quest for funding. We knew we had a singing teacher in Australia interested in starting skype lessons with singers in Timor, so much was done to organise them for skype lessons. Our location at I net was no longer reliable, I net was having too many problems with viruses, so a lot of time was spent trying to find another venue. Eventually Centro Juvenile agreed we could use their facility for skype, which has proven quite good overall.
I went up to Timor in November, primarily to get the music students at the music school hooked up to Skype and comfortable working with the medium of internet music lessons, a mean feat it turned out, downloading anything in Timor on internet takes hours sometimes, skype was no exception. It was frustrating for me as the computers I was working with were PCs and I use apple, and so with all the gliches along the way I was a rank beginner trying to figure out how to get it all working. Luckily there is a terrific internet café in Dili with a man there “Mister Sugar!” I kid you not! Who always managed to put me back on course. Then I had to teach the students. They were quick to learn and grasp the concept of staring and talking to a small screen. On the other end we had my daughter (a violinist) who also had never used skype teaching. Our first student in this process is a lovely bright and eager Timorese girl Milka, and she and Ella from the first five minutes behaved as if they had worked in this medium all their lives. Milka has been having regular lessons ever since, not too many breakdowns. Antonio (Toto) Padua is going to commence piano and theory lessons using the same system. We had to get him a lightweight keyboard he could take to internet cafes (1 – net in Dili has been most accommodating to us!) So when the container gets to Dili in February he shall start lessons too. We are adding students all the time to this program. We are adding vocal lessons in February with a vocal teacher who has offered to teach students in Dili using this method. Of course they will be backed up with face to face lessons as well. But it is a great method for long distance learning, even as precarious as it is to make work in a country like East Timor where the internet can be frustratingly slow.
Milka having her first web lesson! click to enlarge
I also went to the opening of the exhibition “Husi bei ala Timor Sira Nia Liman ~ from the hands of our ancestors”, at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, on my way up to Timor. They are to be commended for a fine exhibition, well worth a visit if you get a chance to get to Darwin between November and July this year.
I continued on my merry quest to obtain music from districts I still don’t have recordings ( or very little) – principally Liquica and Aileu. We now have a good selection of music from 11 of the 13 districts after 6 years of recording. I had with me the sound editor from the feature film being made about the Balibo Five “Balibo”, Sam Petty, who was up there to do recordings. He was to have a driver Nelson – whom I know well from the music group “Rai Nain” – he is their drummer. We arrived in Dili a week before Independence day celebrations on the 28th November, there groups of young people marching all over the town in spite of the horrific heat, the best group would win a prize on Independence day, so we negotiated our way with difficulty to Hotel Turismo where Sam was staying.
That night we went to a concert of the St Cecilia Choir, in celebration of St Cecilia – t’was St Cecilia day, which Sam recorded, it was a long concert and the hall seemed to have no air at all, it was like being in a sauna, yet the singing was lovely and the show went on. At the end there was a spectacular looking cake and some very warm champagne which was popped, I thought it best to avoid! There was a magnificent feast of traditional Timorese food, Sam loved his introduction to Timor!
Sam Petty, Sr Manalu, Nelson : click to enlarge
The next day we went up to Dare to visit Sr Manalu Lordes, a vivacious nun who has done so much to help her people and is much loved and admired in East Timor, her reputation outside Timor for her work and commitment to the Timorese people goes far. She is like the Scarlet Pimpernel – never at home (she has many orphanages and a TB clinic she runs) so I had no expectations she would be there this time, but, to our delight she was! We spent all day with her, recording songs she and her young people sang, listening to her stories, she has some 300 resistance songs she wrote during Indonesian occupation, and has offered to record these for me some time. Every time she would get outraged with scenes she had witnessed or the latest crime to ripple through Timor, she would write a song!
Sister Manalu & Ros : click to enlarge
I was giving long lessons on piano to Antonio in between recording trips, and helping those students of singing – at least a clarinet player (me) can help with the breathing part of it all. There is one beautiful tenor voice Jacob who I later discovered only had one working lung. I also managed to see the Minister of Education and the President to give them copies of the proposal for the Music School, they are keen to see what develops, so we are hopeful of support from them. The Internally Displaced People are gradually being moved out of the Motael Church compound, so with luck the facilities for the Music school location which we are hoping will be the location for the music school, might be available this year. Meanwhile the music school is itinerant working from the two rooms behind the Motael Church, to the internet café and Balides Church!
As always there are the negotiations for arranging for traditional music recordings. This trip I was determined to get more from Balibo and Liquica. Sam needed to go to Balibo, so we stayed with my friend Mong (from Arte Moris art school), at his family home in Balibo. On the way we stopped near Liquica to do some recording organised through a lively Timorese woman Mana Kassian who is the driving force behind a community house which provides support for women and child minding.
children who danced Tebe Dai in Balibo
In Balibo we recorded children dancing Tebe Dai from the local school, and stayed the next morning for the Independence Celebrations in the morning. We drove back to Dili to the Independence Celebrations in front of the Parliament, whoever was the organiser of the display choreographed it very well! The rest of the week was devoted to giving lessons and making sure the skype was working and that the students could do it on their own. Success, the day after I returned to Sydney, Milka and Antonio called and had their first lesson, unassisted by anyone to make it happen!
Timorese girls in traditional dress going to Independence day celebrations: click to enlarge
On the 26th December 2008 the children’s choir “Coro Lorosae”, formed in Portugal in 1975 (when the Timorese fled from the invading Indonesians) had a reunion concert and other activities in Sydney. The highlight was a concert in Liverpool. It was a stirring occasion and the concert a memorable one. This photo is of most of the choir members, some of whom had not seen each other for 30 years, they came together from all over Australia, Timor and Portugal. They are planning another concert and reunion in 2010 in Dili!
Ros has been in Darwin from the 12th to the 16th January doing presentations about East Timor as part of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory’s summer holliday program. There is an exhibtion running at from November to July at MAGNT “HUSI BEI ALA TIMOR SIRA NIA LIMAN ~ FROM THE HANDS OF OUR ANCESTORS” . If you are in Darwin it is a wonderful exhibition and well worth the visit. I have been to East Timor many times and I learnt a lot from this exhibition!
Tony Amaral, the TImorese artist living with our family in Sydney, came up to work with children with art and craft in the discovery centre which is designed for children. Tony has just successfully completed first year Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School in Sydney.
Below are some photos from the presentations, we had children dressing up in the traditional costumes, it was a very hands on show!
Charisma’s last concert for 2008 is on
October 26th October
3pm.
Recital Hall West
Conservatorium of Music
Guest artist Valmai coggins – viola.
Complimentary drinks at the conclusion of the concert and nibbles.
Tickets $30 adults, $20 concesson, $10 students, children with a paying adult are free.
Included in our concert to celebrate Oktoberfest are a combination of works by German Composers and Australian composers.
Two of the G’day Africa chamber works by Moya Henderson for clarinet,/bass clarinet, viola, cello and piano, the first G’day Africa has influences of several African styles of rhythm and music, the second G’day Africa is a lyrical peaceful work dedicated to Kevin Volans.
The Minature trio by Alfred Hill originally written for violin, cello and piano, with a part Alfred Hill later wrote for Clarinet in lieu of the violin part, in a new addition by Stiles Publications, the sole publisher of Alfred Hill’s music.
Chiffre IV by Wolfgang Rihm for bass clarinet, cello and piano is a sparsely textured work written in 1983.
Wilhelm Berger Trio for clarinet, cello and piano is from earlier times in contrast to the rest of the programme.
Charisma is an ensemble which continues to explore the repertoire for clarinet, cello and piano, and has a reputation for presenting concerts which display an eclectic variety of styles and repertoire. Australian Composers are featured in each program and they have commissioned and premiered many pieces in their years of concert giving.
We hope you can come and join us for a glass of champagne or wine ….or a german beer to celebrate the end of our 2008 season!
click on image to enlarge
demonstration of the playing of the Tohi (bass drum)
a fearsome Tohi warrior!
click to enlarge
