Freshers’ Fayer in Eliot Marquee this afternoon.
All posts by Daniel Harding
All the fun of the (Freshers’) Fayre
With Freshers’ Week in full spate, today and tomorrow sees the Freshers’ Fayre, when all manner of societies across the University will be endeavouring to convince and cajole new students into joining the vast swathe of societies that makes up University Life.
The Music Society is no exception, and is currently ensconced in the foyer of the Colyer-Fergusson Building, as various committee members meet-and-greet new members of the University, talk to them about the various musical ensembles and opportunities on offer, and even bribe them with sweets…
There’s even been live jazz from some of the University Music Scholars on the foyer-stage, the first live musical event of the year.
Come and find them tomorrow, when they’ll be in the Freshers’ Fayre over in Eliot; see what’s on offer musically here at Kent, and maybe there’ll even be some sweets left…
Pinning your hopes: guest post #3 on the Employability blog
As both readers of this blog may have seen, I’ve recently written several features for the University’s Employability blog on musicians, transferable skills and musical Life After Kent.
The latest post, Pinning your hopes, takes a look at the virtual pinboard I run on Pinterest, reasons for setting it up and what (and whom) it’s there for.
Read for yourself over on the Employability blog here.
Wise Words Festival next week
The written and spoken word is celebrated next week, as Canterbury comes alive to the Wise Words festival.
Back for a second year, running from Thursday 12 – Sunday 15 September, the festival sees poets such as Sir Andrew Motion reading from his new collection, The Customs House; the Bard of Barnsley and presenter of Radio 3’s The Verb, Ian McMillan, will be here next Friday, in collaboration with composer Luke Carver Goss.
Three of the University of Kent’s poets from the School of Creative Writing will also be participating; award-winning poet Nancy Gaffield will be leading a workshop on poetry and the journey, in the wake of her prize-winning collection Tokaido Road, and Dorothy Lehane and Patricia Debney will also be featuring in the festival.
Canterbury Laureate Dan Simpson will be presenting a crowd-sourced poem celebrating the city, and there’s also an array of events for families and children, many of which are free to attend. Poets and story-tellers will be popping up in surprising locations around Canterbury, including in a yurt in the Franciscan Gardens; or take a punt on the river to explore myths, legends and fairy-tales in the company of Emily Parrish. Join poet John Siddique free each morning at Browns Coffeehouse for his daily journal-writing session; the Three Cities Garden will be full of mystery, wonder and story-telling; or re-discover the lost art of exploration with explorer, navigator and broadcaster Tristan Gooley.
Find out more about next week online here; promising to be a festival that “re-awakens wonder and encourages curiosity,” you won’t be disappointed.
Follow Wise Words festival on Twitter.
Where’er you Work: guest post #2 for the Employability blog
My second article for the University’s employability blog, aside from using a cringe-worthily punning title, focuses on careers followed by musically-involved alumni of the University, and the various types of employment paths they have pursued.
Read the article online here.
New Autumn events now online
Drum-roll please….our new Autumn music events details are now online!
Kicking off in October with the Marici Saxes, the Lunchtime Concert series also sees music from Covent Garden Voices and the KD Jazz and Dance Orchestra. The Brodsky Quartet returns with a concert celebrating the musical anniversaries of Wagner, Verdi and Britten, and there’s also Britten from the award-winning Kent College Choristers in Friday Afternoons. We are very excited that the Doyenne of Wagner, Dame Anne Evans, will be giving a singing masterclass and also appearing ‘In Conversation’ to talk about her career on the stage in November.
The University Chamber Choir will celebrate the beginning of the Advent season at Blean Church, and the December concert with the Chorus and Orchestra includes Vivaldi’s ever-popular Gloria alongside Respighi , Verdi and Cimarosa.
Our informal series of foyer-gigs, Watch This Space, will burst into life again on the foyer-stage, starting with live jazz in October, and the University Big Band will be providing some seasonal entertainment to round off what promises to be a very busy term.
We’re pleased to welcome the Canterbury Festival, who will be bringing the English première of a new opera by Sally Beamish in a double-bill with Britten’s Curlew River, and pianist Mikhail Rudy exploring Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Other visitors to the Colyer-Fergusson concert-hall include John Harle and the Festival Chamber Orchestra, Ashford Choral Society, Simon Langton Girls’ Choir and Caritas Chamber Choir.
See for yourself online here; you can also download the new brochure (PDF) here.
Canterbury Festival: festival with in-tent
This year, the Canterbury Festival celebrates its thirtieth birthday from 19th October to the 2nd November with its usual dizzying array of music, theatre, comedy, literature, lectures and family events, and tops its usual pot pourri by bringing the travelling dance-hall, the Spiegeltent, to the county cricket ground as well.
Highlights to watch out for this year include:
- the new opera from composer Sally Beamish, Hagar in the Wilderness, from Nova Music Opera (recently premiered across the Severn at the Presteigne Festival) in a double-bill with Britten’s Curlew River;
- pianist Yevgeny Sudbin in a programme including Debussy’s vibrant L’Isle Joyeuse and Scriabin’s Sonata no.5;
- Canterbury choral society continues the Britten centenary celebrations running throughout the Festival with a performance of the War Requiem in Canterbury Cathedral; whilst Mid Wales Opera bring Albert Herring to the Theatre Royal, Margate;
- oboist Nicholas Daniel (recently appointed Artistic Director of the Dartington International Summer School in 2014) and pianist Julius Drake in a programme including Bach, Britten, Thea Musgrave and Helen Grime;
- the Tallis Scholars bring the Festival to a glorious finale with music by Byrd, Tavener, White and Tallis;
- ventriloquist Nina Conti and comedian Adam Hills;
- poet Dan Simpson and a crowd-sourced poem celebrating the city of Canterbury;
- historian and BBC regular Lucy Worsley explores the history of home life;
- Science Centre Stage – ‘where science meets the arts!’ – returns for a third year, supported by the University;
- Perfect Lines: Old Master in Print at the Beaney presents rare Canaletto etchings;
The Speigeltent itself will host Sunday morning events, morning concerts, and Knee Deep, an acrobatic display from Casus.
We wish the Festival a happy thirtieth birthday – may there be many more…
Be My Guest: recent graduate and singer Dan Pargeter on choral life after Kent
Recent Classics graduate, Dan Pargeter, on musical life at Kent, and continuing choral life afterwards in a new barbershop group named after a former well-known rehearsal venue on the campus…
I have often wondered, just when exactly would it be my time to contribute to this space? And what would it be that I contribute? I have read the pieces that precede this one, many written by talented musicians who I am fortunate enough to call friends. Friends with whom I have spent countless happy hours, over the course of my university career, making music. One more time then still, allow me to join you. Fitting is it that the occasion I write about now began at the University of Kent.
First Music Social – I arrive a little late, who would’ve thought, me!? Better late than never. For me before, not ever has the phrase rung so true. Told to join something, anything, at university; a music society was better than I had hoped. Monday night Chorus rehearsals? Yeah, why not, a great way to start the week. Hmmm Tuesday evening Chamber Choir practice, sign up for auditions here. A little soon after Monday, but well, nothing to lose right! Apart from my voice almost, before my audition, but that’s the state it’s in at the end of Freshers’ week and immediately after football trials. Just give it your all. 110% even! Evidently I was still in football trial mode.
What a wonderful four years it was. University Chorus, Chamber Choir, Cecilian Choir, even a spot of barbershopping. Rehearsals, concerts, soirees, champagne receptions. Of course I’d do it all again, exactly like that, in a heartbeat. But unfortunately it cannot be.
So what now?
Keep singing. And so I did.
I received an email about a choir that was based not too far away from me, which rehearsed on a Monday night 7.15-9.30pm. ‘Hmmm,’ I thought, ‘I’ve done that before.’ A little earlier a start than I am used to perhaps, but I’ll most likely be late every week of course so actually it is quite perfect.
Rehearsing for my first concert with the choir. Early days but how it felt good to be singing again. Life after Kent.
An opportunity arises. There’s a vacant spot in the concert. They are interested in the barbershop group I’d briefly mentioned at some point. ‘Wow, yes, that would be great.’ So I ask the boys, send over a recording, and we are in the programme as guest performers. Our first gig on pastures new.
A wonderful reason to get together with the old gang. With a month to prepare, we will give it our all and hope for the best.
June 29th, 2013 – Royal Opera House Fused Festival
The beginning of a long day. The boys stayed at mine the night before. A quick sing-through our programme but little more than that. We arrive at the venue, the London Cruise Terminal, shortly before midday. Not quite sure what to expect, we receive a warm welcome from the events team. We are swiftly guided through to the performance space, where we await our scheduled sound check.
Ah, an encouraging sign. I notice a smile on the face of a member of the sound team when we finish our first line. Hopefully not the last smile of the day! We sing through our set, careful not to do too much, and once everyone is satisfied we thank the crew and depart the performance area. However this doesn’t mean that today’s preparations stop here. I still have a rehearsal with the Chorus. And then there are the two workshops that the barbershop has signed up to. An action-packed day ahead!
At 2pm, finished with Chorus rehearsal, I head over with the other chaps to take part in the Male Voices workshop. Involving professional musicians, this one is led by a particularly charismatic chap whose energetic style is evident from the beginning. This is just what we need to motivate ourselves for tonight. We explore the male voice through a series of sing-backs and rounds, taking us from the bottom of our “chest voice” through to the top of the falsetto. Something for everyone!
3pm sees us begin the Vocal Warm-ups class. Having done 3 hours of singing today, voices feel warmed-up already. In fact, rather tired is more accurate! Regardless we power through.
The basics reiterated, current knowledge refined, and new techniques to further explore, the workshop leaves us all feeling thoroughly warmed-up and singing in best voices. I personally feel somewhat rejuvenated and fresher than before I went in. The barbershop vow to perform a thorough warm-up before every rehearsal in the future! Good intentions.
And now a couple of hours rest before the evening concert. Or so we thought… We ask one of the event organisers if they could perhaps take a photo of the four of us together. ‘We have a professional photographer for this sort of thing,’ cometh the reply. Well, how lovely!
An hour later, and a hundred or so shots, we have just completed the group’s first photo shoot! Did not see that one coming. Feeling like stars (see below), we sit down, relax, and wait.
Buttons buttoned, laces laced, cuffs linked. We’ve even found time to sit and enjoy the first half of the concert! But now we are backstage waiting to hear our name.
‘Old. Telephone. Exchange!’
‘Old Telephone Exchange,’ I repeat to myself. I smile. We exchange nods. That’s us. We are ready. I walk out to take the stage, stop and turn. We face an audience of four hundred, our biggest yet, and bow in response to a very warm welcome. Experiencing a cocktail of emotion, I compose myself and give an Ab. Immediately the note blossoms in my head into the first chord. Excited, I take a deep breath…
And yes, even though this music-making wasn’t on familiar ground, as our voices began to fill and resonate in a new space, I think I can safely say that our feet were still very much firmly planted on the floor of the room that we knew as The OTE.
Dan Pargeter
To keep up-to-date with the Old Telephone Exchange, follow them on Twitter. For further details on the group, visit the group’s website www.t-o-t-e.co.uk. Hopefully, we’ll be hearing a lot more from them in the future…