Ben Apfelbaum

DON’T STOP THE MUSIC!

This month, as well as being Movember to raise funds for men’s health, has also been designated as Aussie Music month culminating in the Aria Awards in a few weeks time.The ABC both on TV and radio has been Aussie Music’s greatest champion through shows such as Countdown and 2JJJ.

On this occasion the ABC has targeted a younger demographic using pop star Guy Sebastian. It has a number of aims including putting instruments in the hands of underprivileged children, celebrating inspiring music teachers and cementing its place in school curricula due to the demonstrated positive evidence that music has on a young child’s brain.

The launch of this project was  held last Sunday at the Belvedere Amphitheatre in Centennial Park. Both primary school and more advanced students demonstrated their musical prowess, Musica Viva musicians had children playing with percussive instruments such as the xylophone and the marimba.

There were booths  promoting children’s dance and a Salvation Army’s band of all ages with a similar aim of Don’t Stop The Music campaign of getting more musical instruments into the hands of the poorer children  and their schools throughout New South Wales.

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.