Busking

Hi, Welcome to our Journey
As you can see we are identical twins and very passionate about music especially violin. We are 12 years old and have been given a wonderful opportunity to go to the UK for a musical educational experience, including meeting up with Nigel Kennedy (the famous violinist). We just need some help getting there.
To read more have a look at Our History page.
Tune in soon,   A & R

Well it was a beautiful weekend! On Saturday we went busking on the Sunshine Coast at the markets. It's so much fun, especially because you are so close to the people listening. You can really see that they are enjoying the music. The money we made busking is to go towards our trip. We are still trying to come up with ideas of how we can raise the funds. So, if you have any ideas please let us know. You can contact us through our Contact Us Page. Also if you are new to our blog have a look at our History Page and our Video Page.

Then on Sunday, because the sun was still shining, we worked in our green house. At the moment we are experimenting on different plants to see what will grow from cuttings. This is one of our projects for school this term. We will be posting again on Monday.
Nana has updated the Healthy Hints page and is talking about turning a nightmare into a positive, so have a read. It's a cool story.

Tune in Soon  A & R

A String With a Difference

Hi, Welcome to our Journey
As you can see we are identical twins and very passionate about music especially violin. We are 12 years old and have been given a wonderful opportunity to go to the UK for a musical educational experience, including meeting up with Nigel Kennedy (the famous violinist). We just need some help getting there.
To read more have a look at Our History page.
Tune in soon,   A & R

Hi everyone. We thought that we would tell you about violin strings. There are so many different types of strings. When we started playing violin we had no idea of the different quality of strings that you can choose from. Strings range in price, starting with very cheap and going up to quite expensive. As you get better at playing the violin and start to try the different strings you notice that there is a big difference in the tone that the strings make when played. We like to use 'Larsen' strings which are silver strings and an OK price. But we have just got a new E string (because they break and need replacing) and it is a gold string (not much more expensive than silver). It is amazing. The sound is so smooth, it's just beautiful to play on!!!!!!!
We have been asked to do the music for a wedding which is exciting. We used to live near the bride-to-be when we started on the violin. She was lucky enough to hear us play 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' badly for months! We have improved quite a bit since then. Ha Ha! We will be playing
1 - Hornpipe from Handel's Water music
2 - Pachelbels Canon
3 - Flower Duet from Lakme - Delibes
4 - Winter - Vivaldi
5 - Dream a Little Dream of Me
And a couple of others yet to be chosen.
The wedding is on 24th June - we will let you know how we go.
We are planning to go busking next weekend to raise some more money for our trip. Don't forget if you would like to help us get to Europe you can contact us or donate on the Support Us page.
We will be posting again on Monday next week.

Tune in Soon   A & R

Winter in OZ

Hi, Welcome to our Journey
As you can see we are identical twins and very passionate about music especially violin. We are 12 years old and have been given a wonderful opportunity to go to the UK for a musical educational experience, including meeting up with Nigel Kennedy (the famous violinist). We just need some help getting there.
To read more have a look at Our History page.
Tune in soon,   A & R



 Winter is nearly here!

Our Pumpkins


Hi, well it is now already getting cold. At our house we have been putting the fire on (in the pot belly stove) every night for a week now. There is nothing quite like sitting by the fire with a good book. Another thing that is great about winter is all the wonderful soups and, fortunately for us, our pumpkin vine (that we planted in December) is packed full of pumpkins! We counted 32 in an area of about 20 square metres. Last night we made our hearty vegetable soup and tonight we are having pumpkin soup. We have put the recipes on our Recipe page for you to try. Did you know that they call these pumpkins JAP Pumpkins which stands for 'Just Another Pumpkin', there is a strange fact for you!



Astar and Rawhinia playing for sponsor

 Today one of our sponsors came for afternoon tea. Here we are thanking our sponsor by giving him a private performance. We played some Vivaldi concertos, 'The Pirates Of The Caribbean', 'Allegro, 'Hope Tells a Flattering Tale', 'Take to the Hills' and some other duets. It was a great afternoon!
By the way the painting in the background was painted by Nana. She loves to paint and is very good at it!!! Nana has posted a new healthy tip, this time about Honey check it out on out Healthy Hints page.
We will be posting again next Monday.


Tune in soon  A & R

Mothers Day

Mum's Special Day

Happy Mum's Day

First we want to say that we hope that all the mum's had a wonderful weekend!!!!
We had a great weekend! On Saturday the orchestra that we play in had a Mum's Day concert. It was so much fun, we love orchestra because the music is great and we have such great friends. Then in the afternoon we snuck over to Nana's house and made a cake for mum. On Sunday we went for a picnic in the Rain Forest. It was a perfect day. Lots of assignments this term so we are quite busy but we will post a new blog soon.

Tune in soon  A & R

P.S. Nana is a published author on health. Nana has updated the Healthy Hints page so check it out.

Back to School

 Hi, Welcome to our Journey
As you can see we are identical twins and very passionate about music especially violin. We are 12 years old and have been given a wonderful opportunity to go to the UK for a musical educational experience, including meeting up with Nigel Kennedy (the famous violinist). We just need some help getting there.
To read more have a look at Our History page.
Tune in soon,   A & R

Back to School

Rawhinia and Astar just finished year 8 English

 As we have previously told you, this is our first year of Home schooling and we are in year 8. So it was back to school work last week and we are very excited for 2 reasons. One is we have now finished year 8 English and nearly finished year 8 maths, which means we are starting year 9. COOL HA! If you want to find out more about what we do for school you can have a look at our Home Schooling page. Anyhow the other very exciting thing is we have found an amazing science teacher. She is the coolest person we have met for awhile and extremely passionate about science! How lucky are we!


Nana has updated the Healthy Hints page with a few stories about music and health. Check it out.


Also don't forget to have a look at our Youtube clip if you haven't already. You can do this through Our Video page.


Tune in Soon  A & R

What we got up to over Easter

Hi, Welcome to our Journey
As you can see we are identical twins and very passionate about music especially violin. We are 12 years old and have been given a wonderful opportunity to go to the UK for a musical educational experience, including meeting up with Nigel Kennedy (the famous violinist). We just need some help getting there.
To read more have a look at Our History page.
Tune in soon,   A & R





In the rain forest

  One thing before we talk about Easter. We forgot to mention before that when we were doing our Youtube video in the rain forest. The trees had a REALLY COOL reaction to the violin. The forest was completely still, no wind at all, but by the time we had got into the piece, the trees next to us started to vibrate then move wildly. But it was only the trees closest to us in the direction that the violins were facing - the rest of the forest was still. It was amazing! So check out the Youtube clip you can see the trees are still in the beginning. If you keep watching the video the next clip of us in front of the fig tree you will see the movement! There is a link to the clip on Our Video page.
For more on music and plants see the Health Page


Easter Holiday

Rawhinia and Astar Performing over Easter 2011

Easter was great. We were invited to perform at the Wine and Cheese Festival in Kenilworth on Easter Saturday, to a crowd of around 2,000. So much fun.
The photo on the left is us performing in the Hinterland at another Easter night out. It was a great night.
Term 2 starts tomorrow and we will keep you up to date with what's happening.

Tune in Soon  A & R

Hi, I am Astar and I am Rawhinia, We would like to welcome you to our Blog.

As you can see we are identical twins and very passionate about music especially violin. We are 12 years old and have been given a wonderful opportunity to go to the UK for a musical educational experience, including meeting up with Nigel Kennedy (the famous violinist). We just need some help getting there.

Tune in soon,   A & R



Astar 2 years old




Rawhinia 2 years old


Let us tell you where it all started

Way back when we were two and a half mum put on a CD 'The Four Seasons by Nigel Kennedy', and from that moment on we knew that we wanted to play violin. Well our mum told us then that if we wanted to play violin we had to save so we did. By the time we were six we had saved enough to show our mum that we were serious.



Astar and Rawhinia with first violin 6 years old

So for our sixth birthday we bought our first violin. The only hiccup was that there were no teachers that we connected with in our area. We did manage to have a few Suzuki lessons when we were six. But the Suzuki method wasn't for us. It wasn't until we were nine years old (three years ago) that we found an amazing private teacher, who happens to be Polish, that feels the same way about music as we do.

Tune in soon,   A & R



Rawhinia and Astar now 12 years old

In the last three years we have been lucky enough to thoroughly immerse ourselves in music. We are grade six AMEB on violin. Other than violin we play flute, piano, marimba, and jambeau (African drum).

Tune in soon,  A & R



Rawhinia, Nigel Kennedy and Astar 2008

 Inspiration for our trip

Four years ago we heard that Nigel Kennedy was to be coming to Australia on tour. We were so excited, and decided to write to him. Fortunately we were asked if we would like to meet Kennedy back stage after his show (along with many others). It was amazing!!!! And guess what, Kennedy must have liked us because he asked us to keep in contact.


 
This proved to be a hard thing to do but not to worry. On Nigel Kennedy's next tour to Australia in January 2010, Kennedy's personal assistant phoned us to invite us to Kennedy's private party after his show. WOW! Other than us, there was Kennedy, his band and a couple of their friends (our mum and nana came to chaperone us but truly they wouldn't have missed it for the world). The party was soooo much fun! We really got to know Kennedy and some of his band (the ones that spoke English).




Nigel Kennedy, Astar and Rawhinia 1am 2010

 At 1:30am, after much jamming, we were exhausted (we normally go to bed at 8pm) and ready to leave. Kennedy walked us out (his security guards didn't like that). Then Kennedy said that if we could ever make it to Europe he would love to see us and that going to Europe (and UK) would be a great experience for us as there are so many musical expressions over there.

We have always wanted to go to Europe and the UK to be immersed in musical culture. It would be a dream come true.

To see where Stradivarius made his violins!
To do a workshop with an internationally renowned accompanist!
To sit in on rehearsals with an international orchestra!
And to meet up with the most famous violinist in the world - Nigel Kennedy!

Tune in soon,   A & R




That's our Mum Katusha on the right


Which leads us to where we are now. Mum (Katusha) is a single mum and is great at supporting and encouraging us. Mum tells us that no matter who you are, if your heart is in the right place and you have a dream, then all you have to do is hold on to your dream and keep working towards it and you will achieve whatever you set out to achieve. Mum is working out the finer details of our itinerary. It looks like we will be able to do everything on our list, and more. There is just one hiccup and this is where we need your help......



Astar and Rawhinia getting to the heart of the matter

 You can help us by donating a note. Just click on to our Support Us page. Thanks!

Tune in soon,   A & R