{"id":2117,"date":"2010-10-09T09:19:41","date_gmt":"2010-10-09T08:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=2117"},"modified":"2010-10-09T15:45:52","modified_gmt":"2010-10-09T14:45:52","slug":"dispatches-from-the-front-line-open-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/10\/09\/dispatches-from-the-front-line-open-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispatches from the front-line: Open Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Making
Taking a stand...<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s 9am; here we are, present and correct, the ‘Making Music’ stand is ready, resources are lined up, computer is plugged in, linked up and ready to go: another University Open Day is here.<\/p>\n

Armed with coffee and an assortment of confectionery courtesy of the Director of Music’s penchant for chocolate, we’ll be talking to visitors about the musical opportunities on offer at Kent and the Music Scholarships scheme. If you’re an instrumentalist or singer and want to carry on with your music-making, continue with music lessons, and have fun making music as part of a University community, then you’re in the right place!<\/p>\n

We’ll be keeping you up-dated throughout the day as to how it’s going.<\/p>\n

11am<\/strong>; at least fifteen visitors to the stand so far this morning, coming from Devon, Surrey, Cambridge, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire and Colchester; singers, pianists, a clarinettist,\u00a0a\u00a0jazz sax-player,\u00a0a couple of kit-drummers, a trumpeter and a cellist. 2011 is looking very good already!<\/p>\n

11.30am<\/strong>: a couple of improvising jazz sax-players have just come to the stand, leading to great conversations about Sonny Stitt and David Sanborn; plus a kit-drummer into Prog Rock prompting a chat about Muse, Avenged Sevenfold,\u00a0 Pink Floyd and Genesis (early<\/em> Genesis, that is) and the whole prog Canterbury scene.\u00a0 A new ProgRock Soc next year, anyone ?<\/p>\n

1pm:<\/strong> the last hour or so has seen a sudden rush of visitors, now over thirty-three have come to the table; so far, the prize for Longest Distance Travelled\u00a0Today goes to a pianist from Luxembourg; recently we’ve seen people from Devon, Dorset, Bicester, Norwich, Coventry, Reading\u00a0and Suffolk. We interrupt this news up-date for luncheon: back shortly.<\/p>\n

(2pm<\/strong>: A bit of a lunchtime lull meant I could read further depressing news over on Tom Service’s classical music blog in The Guardian<\/em><\/a> about funding cuts: hot on the heels of announcements about cuts in Scotland and the Netherlands comes news about wage-cuts to members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. With funding cuts looming here in the UK, the outlook is rather gloomy: I shouldn’t have bothered, it’s getting more depressing by the week.)<\/p>\n

3pm<\/strong>: visitors from Herts, Surrey, Leicester, Wiltshire\u00a0and Suffolk. A fair few from Norwich, too: perhaps they should have had a shuttle-bus to bring them all ? A lot of enquiries about opportunities for jazz, from a number of improvising saxophonists; excellent. And\u00a0at least three\u00a0double-bass players as well: excellent again.<\/p>\n

3.45pm<\/strong>: we’ve had over fifty visitors now, including a guitarist, a cellist, flautist, and a bag-pipe player.\u00a0 No, you read that last one correctly, and no, I didn’t make\u00a0it up. ‘Twill be a rich and varied musical community next year, potentially. The last few visitors are looming towards the desk, so I’m signing off: safe return journeys to all those who’ve come to Kent today, we look forward to seeing you in 2011. I’m now going to go and buy some throat-sweets…<\/p>\n