New building: look, no hoardings!

There was a very exciting moment partway through this week, when the hoardings around the construction site were removed; hitherto, the building has been largely hidden behind giant boards (bearing, it has to be said, though, some terrific photos of some of the Music Scholars, courtesy of @mickelous). Alas, all good things must come to an end, and the boards were taken away to reveal the exterior of the building’s reception area and practice rooms.

Exterior of the entrance

In the image above, the nature of the front of the building is finally revealed; the north-east corner boasts large windows around the social space, and the view continues down past the entrance lobby along the foyer; the windows along there will afford views of the foyer-space and its small performance stage. The walkway alongside will be bedecked with trees and a grassed area, in what has already been christened ‘The Boulevard’ by the Director of Music.

View along the northern aspect

Above, you can clearly see the northern facade, leading around to the western-side car-park; this section houses, beyond the social space, the ground-floor practice rooms and kitchen, and above, the first-floor ensemble rehearsal rooms and staff offices.

With the move into the new building now only a few weeks away, we’re starting to get very excited indeed; we hope you are too…

Blogging live from Open Day today

We’re at the ‘Making Music’ stand at #kentopenday today. In a change to our usual spot, we’re in Eliot Hall throughout the day, greeting visitors to the campus who want to find out more about making music at the University, music scholarships, and the brand-new music building (the hoarding around the outside started to come down yesterday, and it’s looking very exciting indeed: pictures to come tomorrow, I hope!).

Cathedral
In-spiring future students…

We’ll be keeping you posted as to how we’re getting on throughout the day both here and on Twitter as well.

10.15am; just over an hour since we started, and we’ve see about ten people already; the usual prize for the Visitor from the Farthest-Flung Corner is currently held by someone from Nottingham. Quite a few string-players too… and the coffee is going well.

12pm; halfway through the day now, and over twenty visitors to the stand; the VfFFC award has now gone to a visitor from Colwyn Bay in Wales! Interest in scholarships from drummers, singers and a saxophonist too. Going well, although our voices are starting to tire…more caffeine required, or possibly even lunch…

2pm and we’re into the last hour; a trickle of visitors over lunch means we’ve now met over thirty people. I popped out earlier to take some photos of the exterior of the building, as all the hoardings have now been taken down (they’re on Twitter if you want to view them), which is particularly exciting a milestone to reach: the end is in sight!

3pm and that’s it for today! Good to meet everyone who came to find out about music at Kent, safe travelling home and we look forward to seeing you this time next year, perhaps! We’re off to recover our lost voices, and to go and leap around outside the newly-revealed exterior of the new building in heady excitement. And no, we won’t be tweeting any photos of that

No Sound Resounding: sixty years of 4’33”

It’s almost hard to believe that this year is not just the centenary of Cage’s birth, but also the sixtieth anniversary of Cage’s noiseless yet sound-rich, notorious masterpiece, 4’ 33’’. Premièred by David Tudor on August 29 in 1952, the piece has gone on to cause controversy wherever and whenever it continues to be performed.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performed the UK’s first orchestral version of the piece in a concert dedicated to the music of Cage in 2004.

Original programme cover
The original programme cover

Cage himself reflected on the first performance:

There’s no such thing as silence. What they thought was silence, because they didn’t know how to listen, was full of accidental sounds. You could hear the wind stirring outside during the first movement. During the second, raindrops began pattering the roof, and during the third the people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out.

Cage’s piece draws to the fore the interaction between performer, audience and environment, raising the significance of the non-directed elements present during the piece’s performance; ambient, unintentional noise, aleatoric sounds, events outside of the performer’s control and yet deliberately included as part of the experience. The piece makes room for all those surrounding elements over which the performer has no direct control, and makes them a part of it; it makes us listen not to an arranged series of controlled auditory events, but to whatever sonic incidents happen to occur during that defined time-period during which the piece is ‘performed.’ In fact, the only controlled element of the piece is the time during which these events unfold, defined by the raising and lowering of the piano lid in the piece’s original incarnation. Aside from dictating the beginning and end of each of the three movements, everything else is left to chance.

Tuesday marked the centenary of Cage’s birthday, and there have been events marking the occasion worldwide throughout the year including a special BBC Prom dedicated to Cage’s work (for which the back-up system on Radio 3 had to be turned off, a system which kicks in when it detects ‘dead air;’) yet it’s 4’ 33’’ that remains his most notorious, most thought-provoking piece, and arguably one of the most significant works of the twentieth-century. For a piece with no prescribed sound, its impact continues to resonate still.

Autumn Concert Diary now online!

After an industrious summer of event and programme planning, not to mention the minor task of preparing to move to the new building, I’m delighted to say our new Concert Diary for the Autumn term has now been published online.

Total Brass
Total Brass

The Lunchtime Concert series continues, as we welcome musicians from Total Brass, sitarist Jonathan Mayer, and close-harmony group Sector7 in concerts throughout the term.

University Music Scholars will be giving an informal lunchtime concert in the first week of November – an exciting moment, as it will be the first event in the brand new Colyer-Fergusson music building and its wonderful new concert-hall!

Jonathan Mayer
Jonathan Mayer (sitar)

We’ll also be gathering to raise money for Children in Need again this year; come and be part of a whacky world première with a difference, written by yours truly – all you will need is a donation and your mobile-phone, complete with three different ring-tones…

The world-famous Brodsky Quartet continue their fortieth-birthday celebrations in inimitable style, as they bring their ‘Wheel of Four Tunes’ to the Colyer-Fergusson hall. Armed with an array of forty pieces from their hugely eclectic repertoire, the pieces in this concert will be decided by the spin of a wheel in what promises to be a unique event.

Sector7

Finally, the term comes to a grand finale with the inaugural Gala Concert, with the combined ranks of the Chorus, Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Choir, Concert Band and Big Band, in a spectacular evening celebrating the formal opening of the new Colyer-Fergusson music building, complete with two new works especially written for the occasion.

An exciting term ahead: find out more online here.

Furley Page logo
Sponsors of the Lunchtime Concert series

Music in this month’s issue of KENT magazine

The latest issue of the University magazine includes the story about last term’s prize-winning musical students.

Also included is the news that Kent has been ranked 34th out of 117 UK higher education institutions in the Times Good University Guide 2013; the latest crop of Honorary Graduates recognised at last month’s graduation ceremonies, including Jools Holland; and lots more.

Scroll through to pages 4-5 for the feature.
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New building: latest images

The floor is down in the new concert-hall, and yesterday’s site visit really set the levels of anticipation running very high.  In the company of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Keith Mander and his assistant Marianne, the Director of Music and myself toured the construction site and saw the character of the hall really beginning to emerge.

Concert-hall floor from the rear balcony, looking towards the lighting-box

Pictured above is the flooring, covered temporarily to protect it whilst further work carries on. Light floods in from the recessed roof-light, as well as from the large windows to each side of the hall. The overall effect is of a light, airy space, enhanced by the lightness of the wooden panelling adorning the walls.

Concert-hall, from the rear balcony looking towards the large window on the western side
Panelling adorning the balcony wall

The foyer space, shown here from the balcony at the top of the stairs to the first floor, is taking shape nicely, and will offer a terrific, intimate space for chamber performances on its modular stage.

Foyer space from balcony, towards stairs to first floor, behind which is the social space; at the top of the stairs, entrance to large rehearsal room

 

Let there be light: the concert-hall roof

See a full gallery of all the images from yesterday, and throughout the project, by clicking the album below.

Images