The Café Latté Orchestra

I’m a lucky man as I have my very own orchestra, and it has the very comfortable name of The Café Latte Orchestra. The members are mostly retired folk, and we only meet up 3 times a year as the musicians come from all around Australia and New Zealand. Because I’m what is known as a wind player as I play the clarinet and saxophone, most of the people in the orchestra are also wind players, although we are delighted when other instrumentalists want to join in with our fun.

Now, I don’t want you to think for one minute that the Café Latte orchestra is exceptionally good because we’re not! Some of our members only took up playing their instrument later in life whilst others played as children and then put playing aside during their busy years of raising children and immersed in challenging careers. In recent times we have quite a number of younger people joining us and lovely it is to see parents playing alongside their children. Dave, one of our bass clarinetists, has just turned 95 and he is always game for the next Café Latte event! We have several families who play in the group and there is no such thing as an age barrier.

Although we are not the best orchestra on the planet, what I do say however, is that we’re the friendliest orchestra. Our group is more like a very warm supportive family who are of an age to really appreciate the strong friendships that are made.

When I announce the next year’s workshops, there is a great flurry of excitement as we get to travel to the most interesting of places. Back in 2014 we even ventured over to West Sussex in England and had a blissful week of rehearsals in the little village of Lavant, not far from the market town of Chichester. On our first day there we played at the village fete that has been running on the village green for centuries. Pōkarekare Ana and Waltzing Matilda never sounded better as the young local children danced around their Maypole. That was such a special week, as musicians from Canada and England also joined us, and I was so delighted to meet up with so many of my old students from the time I lived and taught in England. How extraordinary it was for my wife and I to see our daughter Tina, who lives in Brighton, England, playing next to her Canadian Uncle Peter. On Tina’s other side was Natalie, who played with her in their old school band. They compared all the stickers that were still on their cases from back in the early 1980’s!

Last year the Café Latte Orchestra did a mammoth road trip from Sydney to Broken Hill in Outback NSW to join forces with the Broken Hill Civic Orchestra. I have a long very happy association with this little orchestra, and as you can imagine they love it when the Café Latte Orchestra arrives in town to swell their ranks. Together we put on a Last Night of the Proms Concert where people wore Union Jack waistcoats and bowler hats, and red, white and blue streamers were tossed in all directions. There was something deliciously ludicrous of playing Rule Britannia in this far-flung outpost!

Wherever we go, we like to put on a concert in aid of some worthy local cause as this way we get to be involved in the local community. It’s our way of saying thank you for having such a wonderful visit to their town.

Because the average age in our group tends to go up each year, understandably members sometimes become sick and even end up in hospital at the time they should be making music with their friends. If this is the case, we phone them up and play for them in the hope that we can raise their spirits. A few years ago, flautist Bev was going through some traumatic chemo, so we phoned her every day at 3.45 and played her some rousing music. I would like to say it completely cured her, but she joined us only last week for our music week in Mudgee, a very attractive NSW country town.

Most of our musical gatherings are in and around Australia, however our members’ absolutely favourite place to visit is actually Geraldine, and just today I booked the Pavilion in the Geraldine Domain for our fifth workshop there. Upstairs in the Pavilion is a very large room with beautiful acoustics and views from every window over the playing fields and the surrounding hills. We start with a dinner at the Village Inn, and then from Tuesday to Friday we rehearse enthusiastically. There will be a great deal of eating, huge amounts of laughter and endless joy. On the Friday evening, we will give a concert in St Mary’s Anglican Church with their Rev Hugh joining us with his violin.

On the Saturday we will drive up to Christchurch and play for our favourite audience, the residents at Hōhepa in Barrington Street. This is the most uplifting concert you could ever imagine as the residents love to take turns conducting our orchestra.

As I said, I’m so lucky to have my very own orchestra who are my second family.