Dad cleans up at concert audition
BY MELISSA CHANDLER
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Fulltime dad Duncan Bruce has more than one use for his vacuum cleaner.
The 30-year-old Huia resident can make music with it and has been signed on to perform with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra during the Last Night of the Proms concert on November 28 at Aotea Centre.
The vacuum cleaner soloist is one of three selected for the composition A Grand, Grand Overture, written by Oscar-winning British composer Malcolm Arnold.
The eight-minute work, written in the 1950s, requires a full symphony orchestra, an organ, three vacuum cleaners, a floor polisher and four rifles.
"I’m feeling pretty optimistic about it," Mr Bruce says.
"It’s a great opportunity to play with an orchestra, I don’t think I would get another chance to do so."
Mr Bruce auditioned for the part at the Orchestra’s Mt Eden base where he found himself up against some serious competition.
"I was the first person to audition, so that was pretty nerve-wracking," he says.
"They played a short piece of music then conducted me when to turn the vacuum on and off."
Mr Bruce has always experimented with un-usual sounds.
He’s made music using a fridge, an electric fan and four mosquitos that he plucked off his cat.
"I trapped them in a jar.
"They were hitting the side making a lot of noise so I recorded them."
Music-making is more of a hobby for Mr Bruce but his tunes have been used overseas in galleries.
The Last Night of the Proms is on Saturday at the ASB Theatre at 7.30pm.
Go online to www.apo.co.nz for information.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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