{"id":6868,"date":"2015-08-11T10:09:13","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T09:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=6868"},"modified":"2018-07-05T13:53:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T12:53:50","slug":"making-music-at-kent-svenja-reflects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2015\/08\/11\/making-music-at-kent-svenja-reflects\/","title":{"rendered":"Making music at Kent: Svenja reflects"},"content":{"rendered":"

About to finish\u00a0her MA in Comparative Literature,\u00a0her second postgraduate degree, having finished a\u00a0Master of Education (English and Maths) in Berlin last year, Svenja Glass<\/strong> looks back on her involvement in music at Kent.<\/p>\n

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I was here first in 2012\/13\u00a0as an Erasmus student from Free University Berlin (just like Max Mergenbaum<\/a>, funnily enough,\u00a0only I came\u00a0via the English Department!). At that time,\u00a0I\u00a0studied English and Maths in Berlin, but on coming to Kent\u00a0I just\u00a0attended seminars in\u00a0English Literature (and German Translation and Danish …). Then I went back to Berlin to finish my M.Ed. and decided to come back to\u00a0Canterbury because I had enjoyed my year at the University of Kent so much – especially the music-making.<\/p>\n

On the occasion of the valedictory concert in June we were given tags to write down our best memory related to music at the University of Kent \u2013 50th anniversary of the university, 50 memories. It goes without saying that it is impossible to choose just one single memory, but it certainly offered a welcome opportunity to re-live what made 2014\/15 so special for me.<\/p>\n

\"Svenja
Svenja Glass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I sang in the University Chorus, and I enjoyed every single rehearsal (did you know that Popocat\u00e9petl is a volcano in Mexico? Say the name eight times as fast as you can!). To quote Sue: \u201can hour of singing will do you a world of good,\u201d and this is absolutely true, particularly in the face of several essay deadlines approaching at once (Dies Irae!). Performing Verdi\u2019s Requiem<\/em> in the Cathedral with around 180 other singers and the University Symphony Orchestra was, of course, epic!<\/p>\n

Moreover, I took the chance to go to a variety of concerts (I think I never went to so many concerts), especially exploring some more modern music, which I would not normally have dared to attend. Walton\u2019s Fa\u00e7ade<\/em>, performed by the CantiaQuorum ensemble in November and featuring some Canterbury-VIPs as readers is just one fantastic example.<\/p>\n

Naturally, the best concerts were the ones in which my friends performed. The high standard of music-making at the university is simply amazing. And talking about friends, I met a lot of wonderful people from all possible subject areas \u2013 economics, biomedical science, you name it, and we had a perfectly marvellous time playing the piano together , for instance, or singing Christmas carols on campus and in town. After all, the best thing about Music at the University of Kent is spending your free (or not-quite-so-free-but-rather-busy) time with a lovely bunch of people who share a great passion for music.<\/p>\n