All posts by Daniel Harding

Head of Music Performance, University of Kent: pianist, accompanist and conductor: jazz enthusiast.
Keeping It Real: reviews.

High societies: at the Freshers’ Fayre

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With Freshers’ Week in full swing, the campus is a-swarm with life, and yesterday’s Freshers’ Fayre saw all the student societes attempting to seduce new (and former) students into the myriad temptations on offer by each society as part of the University’s rich and dynamic campus life.

High Society!

The Music Society and Music Theatre Societies spent the day promoting their respective groups to the thronging masses passing either through the Eliot marquee or the Jarman Piazza gazebo.

The Music Society has a brand-new look this year, trending rich purple colourways [is this a fashion column ?] and a new society logo. Pictured left standing their ground amidst the throng on the front-line: Ben Walker (Band Librarian), Chris Gray (President), Matt Bamford (Chorus Rep), Hannah Lilley (Chorus Librarian), Kathryn Redgers  (Orchestra Libraria), Nicola Ingram (Secretary),  Rachel Richardson (Chorus Librarian) and Adam Murgatroyd (Band Rep) loyally wearing the sandwich-board.

Well done to all of them, staunchly manning (and woman-ing!) the society stand throughout the day; thanks also to those who also helped but didn’t make it into the photograph!

See you all at the Music Social in Eliot Hall on Monday evening for some refreshments, the chance to network like-minded musicians and some live musical entertainment.

Society Ladies: (l-r)Kathryn Redgers, Aisha Bove, Rachel Richardson and Hannah Lilley
Notes on Music

Whatever you do: make music!

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Whatever your musical tastes and interests, the University has something for everyone! From Chorus and Orchestra to Concert and Big Band,  Chamber Choir, jazz, Sing! and Guitar Club, plus a range of music societies catering for your desires: make music a part of your university life.

University Big BandVisit the music department website to explore the range of music-making activities on offer, and use the ‘Getting Started‘ page to guide you through all the auditions and first rehearsals as term begins.

Whatever you do: make music!

Uncategorized

Three days to launch!

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Freshers’ Week is but three days away now, and the Music Department is drawing breath before the musical merry-go-round begins in earnest.

Holy smoke!

Starting next week, auditions and interviews will begin; Freshers’ Fayre welcomes new and current students alike on Thursday, so keep an eye out for members of the Music Society, Music Theatre Society, RockSoc and others clamouring for your involvement this year. There’ll be copies of this term’s Music brochure and the ‘Getting Started’ guide to first rehearsals at the Music Society stall, and members of the committee will be on hand to answer all your questions about the forthcoming musical year.

The Music Social takes place on the following Monday: come to Eliot Hall at 7.30pm on 26th September to meet members of the University’s musical committee – there’ll be refreshments, entertainment, and a chance to find out more about what goes on.

Crouch – touch – pause…

Be My Guest

Season of mists and mellow Open Days…

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Brochures: check. Leaflets: check. Laptop: check. Wireless connectivity: check (finally, thanks Sarah Y!). Scholarship information: check.

But there’s something missing, something crucial. Oh wait: Revels! Check. Phew.

University campus
Green and pleasant land...

Yes, it’s Open Day again, and the Director of Music and I are once again at the ‘Making Music at Kent’ stand, o’er-brimming with details about the musical life of the University and the music scholarships. Campus is buzzing with visitors to the University, and the hall is full of vibrant youth enquiring about courses and musical opportunities at Kent. And we’ve got chocolate…

11am update: we’ve seen visitors from Derby, Herts, and the prize for Coming from Farthest Flung Corner is currently by someone from Lincolnshire. Singers, guitarists, a violinist, bass-players have all passed by the stand. Hopefully there’ll be a lull so we can grab a quick coffee shortly…

12.45pm: (after coffee!); a steady stream of visitors to the stand, coming from Surrey, Essex, Bedford, and including singers and instrumentalists, and suddenly a trend of interest in Music Theatre (Music Theatre Soc: take note!). Lots of interest, too, in the new music building – visitors to the campus today are walking past the construction site, so there’s something tangible towards which to point them: “See that steel skeleton ? In year’s time…”

2pm: heading into the final hour, further visitors from Cambridgeshire, Chelmsford, Surrey, and the Revels are running low, a sure sign the end of the Open Day is in sight. If all the visitors translate into students here in 2012, our Concert and Big Bands and choirs are going to be bursting, Music Theatre Society will be awash with soloists and RockSoc inundated with guitarists and bass-players. Bring it on!

Arts and the Consumer

Head in the clouds: streaming your music

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As a music consumer, do you feel the need to own your CD collection ? Or has your consumption been overtaken by streaming ? As a mark of how strongly companies believe consumers can be lured from the former to the latter, the French music-streaming service, Deezer, is about to launch in the UK to take on other services such as we7 and Spotify, according to a recent article in The Telegraph.

When LPs shrank to CD format, there was a lamentable loss of the tangibility of an album: those lavish gate-fold prog-rock albums from the 70s, often with lyrics printed inside and weird and wonderful cover-art, became a thing of the past.

Streaming services
Merrily down the stream...

Nowadays, with the advent of on-line listening available through streaming, listeners no longer even need actually to own a copy of the CD: they can listen to it whenever they like, add it to their Library, offer ‘shouts’ about their preferences and even share their preferred tracks with friends. Services such as Spotify are really taking advantage of this, enhancing their service with links to Facebook and the ability to integrate with Twitter last year.

Spotify’s founder, Daniel Ek, calls this moving people ‘from the ownership model to the access model,’ managerial-babble for enticing consumers away from purchasing music and encouraging them to access content via streaming services.

Will this be the future of your digital library, a cloud-based one that you don’t own but can access whenever you like just as easily as your own library on your PC or your shelves ? Do you still enjoy the pleasure of ownership, or does the ability to stream suit your listening lifestyle ?

Notes on Music

A feast of Fitkin on Radio 3

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For all the Fitkin fans amongst us, there’s a veritable Fitkin-fest on Radio 3 this week.

From Monday, and on iPlayer until next Monday, there’s the chance to hear the London premiere of L, written as a present for and here also performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Then from Tuesday (also on iPlayer for a week here), there’s an interview with Fitkin himself on ‘In Tune,’ together with the composer playing three short piano pieces live in the studio, and a broadcast of ‘Metal’ and an extract from ‘Circuit.’

From tonight, there will be the chance to hear the Prom premiere of his Cello Concerto, also written for Yo-Yo Ma, after which is a broadcast of some of his chamber works performed by the London Sinfonietta Academy Ensemble, from the ‘Proms Composer Portraits,’ where Fitkin will be in conversation with Tom Service, and presenting his ‘Sciosophy,’ ‘Hurl,’ and ‘Sinew.’

A previous post about Fitkin, including the chance to listen to some of his pieces, appeared on here back in February.

A Fervent Feast from Radio 3: don’t miss.

And here’s part of ‘Loud’ from earlier this year at London’s King’s Place:

 

 

Keeping It Real: reviews.

What’s on: new autumn brochure published

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If last year’s brochure was mouth-watering, then the new one is even more so.

Bones Apart
Bones Apart: October 10

Celebrating ten years of sponsorship with Furley Page Solicitors, the new Lunchtime Concert series includes a trombone quartet, a return visit from Benjamin Frith to perform the solo piano version of Mussorgsky’s epic ‘Pictures at an Exhibition,’ and the University Camerata in some seasonal shivering in December.

The University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra bring Finzi, Parry, and Ravel’s orchestration of the Mussorgsky to Eliot Hall in December, whilst the Chamber Choir will welcome the Advent season in a sequence of music and readings at the Church of St. Cosmus and Damian in Blean.

Some of the Music Scholars will be giving a lunchtime concert as part of the Canterbury Festival, and the annual Children in Need ‘Sing for Pudsey’ this year takes place in the Gulbenkian Theatre. The term finishes in December seasonal style with ‘Carols around the Tree’ – weather-permitting! There’s also a look ahead to some of the events in the spring term.

Full details on the on-line diary here, or download the PDF here.

Furley Page logo
Sponsors of the Lunchtime Concert series