As I’ve written about several times previously,the employability of our students in Life After Kent is important, both to us as an extra-curricular department – the range of disciplines being studied in combination with musical pursuits at the university is extraordinary – and to the University itself, with its Employability Points Scheme and the Careers and Employability Service.
With this in mind (and with only a slight changing of ‘music students’ to ‘musical students’), here’s a useful article in The Guardian recently, focusing on the employability of music graduates and the range of skills they can offer that make them highly desirable in the employment sector.
The experience of organising, hosting, and performing in events that are open to the public provides them with skills beyond those on other degree programmes.
Sad to learn of the death of Lou Reed, who has died at the age of 71.
Reed was the frontman for the Velvet Underground, a group famed less for their success at the time than for their subsequent influence; as Brian Eno famously said, whilst their debut album only sold 30,000 copies and reached 197 on the Billboard chart before disappearing, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” Reed’s instantly-recognisable gravelly tones on the opening Vicious are a slap in the face to the contemporaneous trippy, psychedelic rock of The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. The group took part in multi-media events with Andy Warhol between 1966-67, Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which took place in cities throughout America (Warhol himself having part-financed the band’s debut album).
After the group disbanded in 1970, Reed continued as a solo artist, achieving critical breakthrough with Transformer (co-produced with David Bowie and Mick Ronson), which included Walk on the Wild Side in 1973.
Listen to ‘Hangin’ Round’ at just after ten minutes. Terrific.
We’re very excited to say that internationally-renowned singer, Dame Anne Evans, will be coming to the Colyer-Fergusson Hall in two weeks’ time.
Meistersinger…
Dame Anne will be giving a masterclass and appear ‘In Conversation’ at the Colyer-Fergusson Hall on Friday 8th November. As one of Britain’s most internationally successful singers, she sang a number of roles ranging from J.C. Bach and Mozart to Wagner, and performed the role of Brünnhilde at the Bayreuth Festival under the baton of Daniel Barenboim from 1989 to 1992.
At 6pm she will be In Conversation with University Director of Music, Susan Wanless, about her career in opera and her experience of performing and recording Wagner in this his bicentenary year, with film excerpts of her roles and some rare recordings. Earlier in the day, at 3pm, Dame Anne will give a masterclass with some of the student Music Scholars, who’ll be singing pieces by Mozart, Handel and Cole Porter (accompanied by your Loyal Correspondent), in which she will no doubt pass on some of her wisdom and professional experience.
Entry is free by ticket, available from the Gulbenkian Booking Office; see online details here. And, to whet your appetite, here she is in the Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung.
Congratulations to the Music Society, which has won the ‘Stand that Most Embraced the Spirit of Freshers 2013’ award! (That’ll be easy to engrave on the gem-encrusted goblet no doubt coming its way…)
It’s a tribute to the hard work of all the Society, and in particular its forward-looking executive trio of Emma, Matt and Rebecca, who have worked tirelessly to invigorate the musical life of the campus at the beginning of the academic year, and to the members of the committee who’ve established a vibrant presence since bursting into life in the marquee during Freshers Week.
Third-year student and sax-playing member of the University Big Band, Emily Cook, is featured in the Faversham Times with more of her fund-raising efforts for her charity, Khushi Feet. Well done, Emily!
Next week, the Music Society presents ‘The Stache Bash!’ Friday 1 November in Origins, with live jazz; free entry, raising funds for Movember. Intrigued ? Then watch the trailer…
Today marks the first anniversary of our moving in to the Colyer-Fergusson Building; this time twelve months ago, we were in a state of upheaval, our lives (and instruments and sheet music and offices and etc…) were in boxes, in vans, on lorries.We’ll be celebrating at lunchtime with the first in our ‘Watch This Space’ series of foyer events, which today sees live jazz-funk on the foyer-stage at 1.10pm. Admission is free: come and listen to live music, and celebrate our first birthday.
This year’s lunchtime concert series burst into ecstatic life with a visit from the ebullient Marici Saxes, launching the year-long monthly series at the Colyer-Fergusson Hall.
In rehearsal: Marici Saxes
The set opened with Michael Nymans’s Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds, with the group in rhythmic, robust form. The tour of Britain continued with music by the late Richard Rodney Bennett, three sections from Travel Notes; the lyrical, arcing melody in ‘Helicopter’ effortlessly played by Sally McTaggart on soprano saxophone (a late stand-in for the indisposed Sarah Field, whom we wish well). There was a lively, jocular air to the final ‘Car Chase’ that showed to the full the wonderfully liquid grace of the group’s ensemble-playing, and demonstrated they have a real affinity for this repertoire.
Michael Torke’s July is a tour de force for a sax ensemble, and was here delivered with assurance and a firm grasp of its rhythmic drive, coupled with contrasting, elegaic melodies. There was a punchy, vibrant swagger to the piece which was bursting with vigour, as the group ducked and dived in terrific unison through Torke’s no-holds-barred minimalism.
A change of mood next in Piazzolla’s ‘Cafe 1930’ from his Histoire de Tango, originally written for flute and guitar but here rendered for ensemble that had gently weaving lines spiralling up through the group.
Baritone saxophonist Josie Simmons turned composer for First Moon which followed, and showed a keen ear for dissonance in the opening chords, turning into a rhapsodic melody before springing to life in some mischievious post-minimalist textural writing, including some fiercly-skirling arabesques for the soprano sax.
The group ended its recital with the show-stopping Hoe Down by Will Gregory, in a performance that was truly hair-raisingly exciting, with some blistering agility displayed by Josie on baritone, who demonstrated that the instrument can be just as mobile as its smaller counterparts.
The piece, and the concert itself, was greeted with a roof-raising ovation from an enthralled audience, including a group of schoolchildren who were clearly held spellbound throughout the gig. A top-notch performance, delivered by an ensemble in fighting form. Catch them when you can…
Sponsors of the Lunchtime Concert series
Because it does. Doesn't it ? Blogging about extra-curricular musical life at the University of Kent.
After the group disbanded in 1970, Reed continued as a solo artist, achieving critical breakthrough with Transformer (co-produced with David Bowie and Mick Ronson), which included Walk on the Wild Side in 1973.
