Michael Omer's Create Music Blog

My Musical Variations on "The Big Bang Theory" title song, for piano!

"THE BIG BANG THEORY" TITLE SONG

So I am a huge fan of "The Big Bang Theory' a crazy US TV comedy series about a bunch of brilliant asto-physicists working at CalTech, who in their personal lives are complete nerds! As I have a bit more free time due to Corona, I thought over the coming days... I would do a set of piano variations.

In case you haven't heard the original, take a look/listen here:

https://youtu.be/EhoYKLIcTLM

 

 

So I went a bit Steve Reich with this one:

Download Big Bang Var #4 Reich

 

show just about to start

Grand Opening Session Tonight

Thus is where they are setting up for tonight’s grand opening session & concert, which includes Brian May, Hans Zimmer and Rick Wakeman! Can’t wait to meet astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins et al! There was a press conference this morning. 

STARMUS ZURICH JUNE 2019

 Really excited to be here in Zürich and to be using TypePad after such a long time.

I am here for  an amazing festival which involves physicists space scientists and composers this week in Zürich. 

Hoping to meet Buzz Aldrin amongst others!

Valentine's Day Piano Recital in the Cotswolds

What could be more romantic than a Valentine's Day Piano Recital in the Cotswolds, given by two incredible young Chinese talents, Zizhou & Ziying Jin?

Presented under the increasingly exciting umbrella of 'Music at Stow', I am very happy to promote this concert which will take place in:

St Edward's Church, Stow-on-the-Wold on Saturday 14th February at 19h30.

            The programme will include:

            Bach  -  Italian Concerto

            Beethoven  -  Sonata in G major Op 14, No 2

            Other items by Chopin, Liszt & Schubert

 

Tickets: 01451 830268  or 01451 810255

Nuclear Anything But Unclear

Nuclear physics does seem a bit impenetrable sometimes (!!), but this will have you totally absorbed and on the edge of your seat! Some stunning performances from an excellent cast, led by the wonderful John Heffernan.

Tom Morton-Smith's new play Oppenheimer explores physicist Robert Oppenheimer's scientific leadership of the Manhattan Project, which secretly developed the nuclear weapons that were dropped on Japan in August 1945.

I am so enjoying going to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, now we live down the road in the Cotswolds! Something which was not easy from London...First "The Shoemakers' Holiday", and now this amazing play!

My own brush with nuclear physics came about when I met the CERN Atlas Project physicist Lily Asquith, and this resulted in a new piece for cello and piano entitled Towards 5-Sigma

 

WATCH THE OPPENHEIMER TRAILER HERE

SYNOPSIS (NO SPOILERS - YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED IN THE END...)

1939: fascism spreads across Europe, Franco marches on Barcelona and two German chemists discover the processes of atomic fission. In Berkeley, California, theoretical physicists recognise the horrendous potential of this new science: a weapon that draws its power from the very building blocks of the universe. The ambitious and charismatic J Robert Oppenheimer finds himself uniquely placed to spearhead the largest scientific undertaking in all of human history.

Struggling to cast off his radical past and thrust into a position of power and authority, Oppenheimer races to win the 'battle of the laboratories' and create a weapon so devastating that, with the detonation of a single device, it would bring about an end not just to the Second World War but to all war.

As the political situation darkens, Tom Morton-Smith's new play takes us into the heart of the Manhattan Project and explores the tension between the scientific advances that will shape our understanding of the fabric of the universe, and the justification of their use during wartime, revealing the personal cost of making history.

If Paradise was Twice as Nice!

 

ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW & THE LOW RIDERS  -  SPECIAL EVENT IN THE COTSWOLDS APRIL 18 2015

Just to prove rockstars don't just fade away, here is somebody who endures, and endears himself to all who remember those wondrous lyrics, and catchy earworms of the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s.

Since moving out of town to the Cotswolds last year, I have become involved in concert promotion and the annual music festival 'Music at Stow'. Our next event should be of great interest to rock fanatics out there:

ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW was a founding member of the 1960s British pop band Amen Corner (If Paradise Is Half As Nice) and in recent years has toured with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.

As a solo artist, his major hit was Wide Eyed and Legless in 1976. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he was a much-in-demand session musician, working with The Who, Roy Wood, Leo Sayer, Albion Band, Gerry Rafferty and Richard and Linda Thompson. In the 1990s, most of his work was in the touring bands of Eric Clapton and Roger Waters.

In 2006, he released Sweet Soulful Music, his first solo album in 26 years, from which the song Hymn for My Soul became the title track of Joe Cocker's 2007 album.

In 2011, Kate Bush invited him to sing on Wildman, the single taken from her ’50 Words for Snow’ album. In recent years, Andy Fairweather Low and The Lowriders have toured extensively in the UK, Germany and Japan.

DEMAND FOR THIS EVENT IS LIKELY TO BE HIGH - BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!!

Tickets: 01451 870083

St Edward’s Church, Stow on the Wold

(Easy access from Londn, Oxford, Cheltenham, Birmingham, Gloucester)

Saturday April 18th 2015  -  On stage at 20h00

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Mu­sic Lessons in Early Life Aid Brain Func­tion

This may be preaching to the converted, so please forward the link to whomever needs convincing!

Please also Google John M. Feierabend who I saw speak and met at the Midwest Clinic Clinic  music event in Chicago in 2011- who is considered one of the leading authorities on music and movement development - who has shown without doubt, that the below holds good!

 

Mu­sic lessons in early life aid brain func­tion
'The Guardian' - 2013-11-12

Ian Sam­ple San Diego

Music lessons in early childhood lead to changes in the brain that could improve its performance far into adulthood, researchers say. Brain scans of young adults revealed that those who had formal music training before the age of seven had thicker brain regions that deal with hearing and self-awareness.

The findings highlight how brain development can be influenced by the age that children start to learn a musical instrument, and how those changes can persist into later life.

“Early musical training does more good for kids than just making it easier for them to enjoy music. It changes the brain and these brain changes could lead to cognitive advances as well,” said Yunxin Wang of Beijing Normal University.

The brain’s cortex plays a leading role in scores of crucial abilities, from thought and language to memory and attention. The region matures rapidly in the early years of life, and its development could be affected more if a person started musical training before it fully matured.

Wang studied 48 Han Chinese aged between 19 and 21 who had received formal music training for at least a year sometime between the ages of three and 15. Each had a magnetic resonance scan to measure the thickness of the cortex and the volume of grey matter in their brains.
After taking gender and the number of years spent having music lessons into account, Wang found that musical training that started before the age of seven appeared to thicken areas of the brain involved in language skills and executive function, which is a person’s ability to plan and carry out tasks.
She presented the results at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

Copyright © 2013 Guardian Media Group

Guesting at The Pheasantry - May 30 2013

Dominic Alldis & Friends
Thursday 30th May 2013


I'm appearing as a special guest along with Daniela Clynes, Melinda Hughes, Ana Maria Velez, Aimua Eghobamien and Adam Glasser -  with Andrew Cleyndert on double bass.

All kinds of jazz, and all great fun!

The Pheasantry @ Pizza Express, 152 King's Road, London SW3 4UT

Doors open: 7pm
Showtime: 8.30pm
Tickets: £12

Book at The Pheasantry

Reservations: 0845 6027017

Listen to the premiere of 'Towards 5-Sigma'

'Towards 5-Sigma', for cello & piano, was premiered on April 28th 2013 at St Mary's, Perivale, West London UK - performed by the American cellist Lois Mattson, with the composer at the piano.

Taking as its inspiration the decades-long hunt by quantum physicists for the elusive 'Higgs Boson' sub-atomic particle, (some term it the 'God-Particle'), the term '5-Sigma' describes the ultimate level of proof required to confirm its discovery, based on a balance of probabilities. Scientists at CERN in Switzerland now believe that their striving has been rewarded...

Thanks to Hugh Mather, and Eileen Eden for video production & editing.

St Mary's Perviale Concert