About
Gareth Mewes is a violinist for hire in Brisbane, QLD.
Gareth Mewes begged his parents for a violin as a small child and hasn't put it down since. Seventeen years of classical study at the Wollongong Conservatorium followed, with an AMusA diploma along the way, plus folk playing at the National Folk Festival and Illawarra Folk Festival. Brisbane and university pulled him into jazz, he won a competition in 2015 to perform with The Cat Empire, and he finished a Bachelor of Music in Jazz in 2018. He plays gypsy jazz standards, well known classical repertoire including Bach partitas, Vivaldi, Monti's Czardas and Pachelbel's Canon, and film themes like the Lord of the Rings medley. Book him solo, with a guitarist, or as a trio with two guitars. Blue Card and performers insurance held.
Watch
The show
The playing has classical foundations under it. Seventeen years of study at the Wollongong Conservatorium, an AMusA diploma, then folk festivals as a kid and jazz after he moved to Brisbane for university. He won a competition in 2015 that put him on stage with The Cat Empire, finished a jazz degree in 2018, and now tours with gypsy band Cigàny Weaver. That group has played Woodford, Dark Mofo, Caloundra Music Festival and Bellingen Winter Festival. Session work fills the rest of his week, alongside teaching violin. So what you get is a player who moves between gypsy jazz, Bach and film themes without it sounding like a stretch.
On the day
Power somewhere nearby is preferred so the violin can be amplified properly. If that's awkward, or the space is small and quiet enough, he'll play solo acoustic with no amplification at all and it still carries.
Performance options
Solo violin is the smallest version, and the repertoire stretches across classical, jazz, pop and fantasy or medieval material depending on the occasion. Add a guitarist and it becomes a gypsy jazz and pop duo, which is the format most functions land on. The largest is a trio, violin with two guitars, leaning hard into gypsy jazz. Same player behind all three, so the choice is about how much sound the room needs.
Insurance and paperwork
Working with Children Check
Song list
74 songs
Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Aha - Take on Me
Bach - Double concerto
Bach - Violin Partita no. 2 in D minor
Bach - Violin Partita no. 3 in E major
Bach cello suite no. 1
Backstreet Boys - I want it that Way
The Beatles - Eight Days a Week
The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun
The Beatles - Let it Be
The Beatles - Octopuses Garden
The Beatles - She Loves you
Best Day of My Life
Bill Withers - Ain’t No Sunshine
Billy Joel - Uptown Girl
Brahms - Hungarian Dances 5, 2, 6
Calum Scott - You are the Reason
Chattahoochee
Classical
Coldplay - Yellow
Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love
Cristina Perri - A Thousand Years
The Cure - Friday I’m in Love
Dancing in the Moonlight
