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2003 (3rd Quarter)Articles this quarter:
(2003/09/29) Rottofest 2004: time is running out!From choral-announce PIV 2004 is being followed immediately by Rottofest - a relaxing and enjoyable post-PIV holiday on spectacular Rottnest island off the WA coast. The reputation that Rottofest has gained with the choral community has meant that this year it's going to be very popular - we have already received almost twice the number of bookings that we had for Rottofest 1997. It looks like Rottofest is going to be bigger and better than before! However, Rottnest Island is a popular destination, and to preserve the island's pristine condition the Rottnest Island Authority imposes strict limits on the number of people that can visit at any one time. And PIV's allocation is filling up fast, with only a few places left. We can increase this limit; however, we don't have much time left to do so. This means that if you want to go to Rottofest there is not much time left to register. You don't have to pay yet, but you DO need to let us know that you're coming, or you'll miss out! If you haven't yet registered for PIV (and Rottofest), you can do so at the
PIV website: If you have registered for PIV but didn't indicate that you wanted to come to Rottofest, please e-mail me at treasurer@piv.aicsa.org.au and let me know as soon as possible. See you all here in February! Rottofest 2004 coordinator (2003/09/24) PIV Registrants listFrom choral-announce Due to overwhelming demand, a list of people registered for Perth IV is now available on the PIV website. We will make updates to this list about once a week. More than sixty people have registered so far! To see the list, follow the link from the Registration page - if you haven't registered, now is a great time to do so! Cheers PIV Website Team(2003/09/24) ERATO EDITION 90 Deadline reminderFrom choral-announce The submissions date for reports, articles, photographs and all other material is in a month TODAY. That means you have 30 days in which to submit your material to your national newsletter. Thank you all for your overwhelming response to our previous call for submissions for Edition 89. Thank you also to the many phone calls and emails with praise about the last edition. In order to continue to produce complete and informative editions, you need to continue to submit your reports, articles and photos. I look forward to being swamped (like we were for the last edition) with a plethora of responses. Feel free to contact me regarding Erato, or just to have a chat! (2003/09/11) "A Choral Sampler" - MUCS/MonUCS/ROCS ConcertFrom choral-announce MonUCS, MUCS and ROCS are proud to present: ** A Choral Sampler ** Saturday 20 September, 7 pm Featuring a diverse range of music, from the Renaissance to the 20th century, and including both old choral favourites and new repertoire. Programme highlights include music of Mozart, Rachmaninov and Bruckner as well as contemporary music of Australian composers and a few surprises, too! This relaxed and enjoyable evening of music will feature something for everyone. After the concert, meet the choir over a light supper. This concert will mark the first joint performance presented by all three Melbourne AICSA choirs, and is a unique opportunity to hear the three choirs perform together as well as presenting their own individual repertoire. Proceeds from the concert will support the 56th Intervarsity Choral Festival, to be hosted in Melbourne by MUCS, MonUCS and ROCS in Jan/Feb 2005. Tickets: $12/8 (2003/09/08) Hope and Gloria - SUMS and SGLC concertFrom choral-announce A reminder that the SUMS and SGLC extravaganza is happening on Saturday 20 September 2003, 7:30pm and Sunday 21 September 2003, 2pm Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Verbrugghen Hall has undergone an amazing transformation following the extensive works conducted at the Conservatorium. It is now one of the premier concert venues in Sydney. Music will be the Best of British - from Elgar to Rutter and everywhere in between. Featuring the Sydney University Musical Society and the highly acclaimed Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir. Tickets $20/$30 (2003/08/21) Erato 89From choral-announce Dear Aussie Choristers, I am pleased to report that Erato No.89 is at the printers and will be posted to the Societies very soon. You can expect them to be distributed at your choir's rehearsal in the next couple of weeks. Thank you to the many, many people who submitted their reports (on time), and to the multitude of people that contributed erarticles, opinion pieces or items of news. We are highly encouraged by the enormous volume of submissions. We apologise if your particular erarticle hasn't made it into this edition, but because there was just so much stuff submitted we had to be a bit selective about what to include in this edition. However we have held onto all the submission, and it may be printed in a future edition. Please continue to make submissions to your national newsletter at any time. We are still just as keen to hear from you, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to submit an erarticle or report. Our contact details are: Email: erato@aicsa.org.au Tim Dunstone The due date for the next edition (Erato No.90) is: We look forward to hearing from you before then. (2003/08/20) 40 Years of SCUNA - Early DocumentsFrom choral-net To celebrate 40 years of SCUNA, some early documents have been put online - so far, the earliest Oyez is (1969) and one written after the first-ever CIV (1971). There'll be more, but in the meantime, some of you might be interested in having a squiz at http://www.pcug.org.au/~val/scuna/. (2003/08/14) PIV: Preferred flights UPDATEDFrom choral-announce As you all know, we had prepared a list of preferred flights for those planning on flying to Perth IV and who were arriving on Friday 6th February (i.e. the start of the IV). However, some of these flights have already sold out (at least of discounted seats), and Qantas has added a few extra flights to cover the demand. So, here is an updated preferred flights list. PLEASE NOTE: For those looking to travel on Qantas, there is an EXTREMELY LIMITED number of discounted seats per plane, and they are disappearing fast. Book as soon as possible or you WILL miss out! A few people have already discovered this the hard way.... Anyway, to recap: why are these flights preferred? Because if a lot of choristers arrive on them it makes our job of meeting, collecting and transporting choristers soooo much easier. It means that if you do arrive on one of these flights a dedicated IV shuttle bus will be waiting to transport you and your luggage directly to the campsite. If, of course, you are planning alternative (non-airline) transport to Perth, then don't let this deter you - we will still provide the necessary meeting and greeting (and transport to the campsite). And of course, if you are flying can't/won't get a booking on one of these flights then we can accomodate that too. But if possible we'd like you to book one of these flights, as it makes life much easier all round. Anyway, the flights (changes are marked *):
For further information, please see the PIV website: http://www.piv.aicsa.org.au (2003/08/06) PIV 6 Months to GO!From choral-announce Greetings AICSA Choristers, This is the formal announcement of a milestone. In exactly 6 months from today the 55th Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival will be underway. There is a full article, bullsheet and registration form in ERATO so please look out for it. All information regarding the festival is on our spiffy website... Also, stay tuned as our ultra secret orchestra (shh!) is set to be revealed within the next 2 weeks! We will be making announcements on choral-announce frequently between now and February 6 so keep your ears and eyes open See you all in Perth in 2004 Joel Mendelson
(2003/08/01) Easter 2004 - MUCS 65th, ROCS 5th, MonUCS 42ndFrom monmucs-announce MUCS, MonUCS and ROCS, in association with Melbourne IV 2005, are proud to present:
***"Life, the uNIVerse and Everything"***
*Easter 2004*
a triple birthday celebration
--Incorporating the official Post-PIV party--
In 2004, Melbourne University Choral Society is celebrating its 65th anniversary, RMIT Occasional Choral Society is 5 years old (our first big birthday party!) and Monash University Choral Society is turning 42. To commemmorate this occasion, we are pleased to announce that Melbourne will be hosting a microfest at Easter, which will also be the official Post-PIV Party. The celebrations will include the Melbourne Choral Ball and the (in)famous MonUCS Soprano Aria for Tenors and Basses, plus as much more social and musical fun as a city full of choristers can cram into a long weekend! Dates: Thursday 8 April - Monday 12 April Featuring:
plus: Watch out for bullsheets and registration forms towards the end of the year, coming soon to a choir near you. Sarah Chan Convenor, Melbourne Intervarsity Choral Festival 2005 (2003/08/01) SUMS Quasquicentenary Weekend (Post-CIV-Party and SUMS 125th Bday)From SUMS announcement Sydney University Musical Society Quasquicentenary Weekend (Quasquifest - incorporating the Post-CIV-Party and SUMS 125th B'day) SUMS invites you to a weekend of delight and adventure to celebrate a milestone in our choir's history (125 years) - come along and share it with us. You'll find a host of events to keep you busy and entertained. The weekend will be a great chance to catch up with fellow choristers after CIV, and before PIV and a fabulous way to meet new choristers from around Oz. To find out more, see the bullsheet here: http://www.aicsa.org.au/news/attachments/quasquifest_bullsheet_one.pdf (2003/07/23) Erato 89 - Deadline for submissionsFrom choral-announce The deadline for the next edition of Erato is Monday 28th July (or post marked Sunday 27th for postal submissions). That's NEXT MONDAY! Feel free to submit reports or articles at any time between now and then. We hope to have Erato No.89 printed and posted in August. We will accept (almost) anything! We are keen to receive a variety of submissions so articles of humor, interest or news would be greatly appreciated. Please submit your Society and Festival reports. We have received Erato reports from AUCS, MUCS and some information from MUS. You may like to make your AIVCC report suitable for print in Erato, so you only have to write one report? Then again you may wish to write different reports? As long as you submit something to Erato we will be happy. Please let us know if your AIVCC reports are suitable for print in Erato. Any photos to accompany Society and Festival reports will make your reading of these pages more enjoyable. We are also looking for articles about anything AICSA or simply choral related. If there are freshers out there going to CIV please write something about IV or your Society. We are always keen to hear from our newest members. Articles from longer serving members will also be warmly received. Jonny and I highly encourage everyone, any member of an AICSA choir, to submit reports, articles, photos, humour pieces or (almost) anything at all. Thank you to Hamish, Kirsten, Eric, Luke and myself! for their submissions to date. If anyone has any photos from choral occassions (especially the recent Perth Festival or following Canberra IV), we would love to have copies of them. Thank you to MUS for your submissions so far. In terms of submissions, we are not particular! Feel free to email, post, fax, phone, SMS, refer us to a website for us to access your submission, tin can and string, verbally in person, any means other than ESP is fine with us. For contact/delivery addresses, email erato@aicsa.org.au. Tim Dunstone and Jonathan Webb (2003/07/23) PIV 2004 - "Deposit for Discount" schemeFrom choral-announce Due to popular demand, the 'Deposit for Discount' scheme for attending PIV that was announced at CIV has been extended until the end of July. This means that if you send in your rego form (if you haven't already) and pay a deposit of at least $50 you will receive a discount of $30 off your rego fee (and yes, the $50 itself also counts as payment towards the total!). Payment is currently accepted via direct deposit, cheque or money order. Sorry, we don't take deposits via credit card! (Online credit card payment for full/remaining amounts will be made available at a later date). Please note that this deposit is NON-REFUNDABLE. If, however, you wish to pay the full price - that is, registration plus camp - then you will still receive a $30 discount, with the added bonus that your fee is fully refundable if you are unable to make it to PIV. This offer expires on the 31st of July 2003, so to take advantage of the discount your rego form and payment details must be postmarked no later than the 31st of July 2003. If, when filling out the rego form, there are some questions which you currently can't answer (e.g. travel details), please leave that secion blank and we will get back to you later to sort things out. Rego forms, direct deposit details and additional information can be found on the PIV website, at http://www.piv.aicsa.org.au If you have any questions, please e-mail me at treasurer@piv.aicsa.org.au. (2003/07/23) CIV Concert Review - Monteverdi VespersFrom Canberra Times Monteverdi Blessed by Combined Choir. - Graham McDonald. [Canberra Times, 23rd July 2003] There must certainly be challenges in bringing together members of a dozen or so choirs for a few days of rehearsal and one show, but this performance of Monteverdi's 'Vespers of the Blessed Virgin' written in 1610 was a most rewarding experience. This was the first performance in Australia of a 1994 edition by Denis Stevens incorporating recent research into music of the early 17th century. And while the choral forces used here are considerably greater than Monteverdi had at his disposal, it did not detract from the overall effect of the performance. The sound of the combined choirs leaned towards a dominance by the male voices, but this was not unpleasant, rather giving the sound a solidity which was quite effective. It may well simply have been the crowded placement of the singers combined with the acoustic of St Christophers and where I was sitting which gave this balance to the sound. Getting over 100 singers and an orchestra of 20 into the room left conductor Tom Burge having to clamber over a pew to get to his conducting podium. Burge conducted the work with great vigour and energy, cueing the singers when required and encouraging throughout. I suspect much of the success of this performance is due to his dedication and he brought this realisation of the work a great sense of dynamics, with clean and accurate entrances of the various parts. The soloists all distinguished themselves, with special mention to the two sopranos, Helen Thompson [sic] and Jenny Sawer. Thompson was a pleasure to hear at every turn. The orchestra played crisply and accurately, and although they were not able to compensate with the choir in full flight, they looked as though they were enjoying themselves. The Vespers is an always interesting work, with unexpected shifts from solo voice to choir to instrumental sections and sometimes combinations of all these within the one section. It is an hour-and-a-half of hard work for the conductor, and the final rousing "Amen" was appropriately greeted with sustained applause from the audience. |
