Michael Arnold : About Me

Michael Arnold

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Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Members Resource

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Sam Leftwich Events my housemate, special events manager - san francisco ballet, wedding planning, events coordinating, corporate events Guy Downing Art Restoration art restoration, art conservator, private gallery James Snidle Fine Arts art appraisals, art brokering, consignment, painter, private gallery

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Disclaimer There is no sponsored content of any kind on this site. The website development I do is entirely for friends, and unpaid. Listing your site If you have a website that is relevant to one of the lists on this site, please email me to tell me about it, preferably with a reciprocal link to this site. Sites I am most interested in are - Californian artists, with galleries of their own work. - Game programmers and artists personal web sites. - Game, Film and Special Effects companies in the bay area. - Concert series, classical music resources (and shops), dance resources - Horticulture, (particularly Bonsai and Roses) and landscape design sites I am more cautiously interested in - Venues for events and weddings - Florists, Designers, Caterers, Photographers - Society weddings and events ... but I am mainly interested in those I can verify the reputation of through Sams and my friends in the industry. Please be very clear of why we might know of you.

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Michael Arnold born Belair, Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Nov 28th 1968 Juvenalia I began life in Coromandel Valley, South Australia - to Mr Richard Arnold, a chemistry / physics secondary school teacher / head master, and Mrs Yvonne Arnold, a piano teacher, ex-jazz pianist, classical pianist. Fortunate to have 3 wonderful older sisters, Britt, Trudy and Sonja. We were sentenced to 3 years in the country for my fathers first stint as a head master, at the town Balaklava, an hours drive from Adelaide. Here, I went to kindergarden with director Mrs Yvonne Boers, whose family soon became (and still are) close friends of the family. In those three years, my mother began giving music and dance classes, and had us and other families going to art classes in the nearby Claire Valley. Father also developed a passion for horse riding and pony clubs, something that keeps him busy to this day. We then returned to Corromandel Valley when I was 7, to go to Coromandel Valley Primary School - a very progressive school blossoming from the attentions of the arts-oriented premier of South Australia at the time - Don Dunstan. Here, I was fortunate enough to begin violin lessons from a Mr John Gould, who happened to live up the street from us - ex principle viola from the London Philharmonic. At age 10, well and truly engrossed in music, youth orchestras and the like, Mr Gould left for Sydney, and I transferred to Mr Rob Collins - a local legend, and a major influence on my generation of orchestral string players throughout the country. Rob remained my teacher for some 17 years, and is still a dear friend. The teenage years were pretty un-eventful. At Blackwood High School, I was a dungeons and dragons buff, complete with an obsession for science fiction, mathematics, and of course - music, meant my parents were not caused much grief from their youngest! Early adult After school, I studied music for a year at the Flinders Street School of Music, Adelaide (now merged with the Elder Conservatorium) before embarking on a more scientific studies at Adelaide University, where I completed pure mathematics and computer science majors, and an honors degree in pure mathematics under Professor Michael Eastwood. Throughout this era, I worked in music. Partly in string quartets (the standard wedding-gig-thing), but mostly with the contemporary music ensembles. These were "Kidney Art Ensemble" an art music ensemble comprised of composers and improvisers, with Quentin Grant, Graham Dudley, David Kotlowy, Pompeii Renaldo, Theresa Larocha, among others. "Lights Contemporary Music Ensemble", a sextet of violin, cello, flute, clarinet, piano and percussion, directed by Graham Dudley. Other musicians here included Janis Laurs, Andrew Close, David Shepherd, Jennifer Newsome, Stephen Whitting, Vanessa Tomlinson, to name a few. Finally, "Fresh Air", and ensemble of recorder, violin and two percussionists, made up of Joanna Dudley, Vanessa Tomlinson, and Katherine Oats, was a medi-evil, world, contemporary, semi-improvisatory ensemble that accumulated an amazing local following. This brings me to 1992, when I spent a year at Stanford University, originally intending to do a PhD in pure mathematics under Professor Ralph Cohen. A thoroughly exhilarating year, preparing for qualification exams, and more besides. However, I decided that life as an academic was not yet for me - I never enjoyed teaching - and enjoyed the company of others too well for such an isolating (if stimulating) career. So, back to Adelaide, to work with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, while I sorted myself out, and live with the first major partner of my life - Mr Peter Smith - a wonderful man that continues to be a very significant part of my life, despite the distance. At this time, I helped form the contemporary music ensemble "Nexus", due to political issues that had occurred in "Lights", working for a while in both ensembles. Sydney So, a couple of years full time music - I missed maths and computers. So, I got myself a series jobs in Sydney. The first was a small data-base company called "CHA" (no longer exists), but came to good luck when a friend of my mothers ex-piano-teacher "Ffrangcon Davies", located me a job doing 2-D graphics algorithm research for an embroidery software company Wilcom. The following 4-5 years saw me oscillate between roles in research at Wilcom, and at Canon Research - both in 2-D graphics.

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