In which I talk about the activities of the Music Students’ Society

These past few days, I’ve been spending a lot of time selling tickets to Music Ball (sorry bloggers, that plus a class that ignores common lunch hour is why I wasn’t at the blogger meet up today). Anyway, I am really excited about Music Ball, because I never spent much time organising these things when I was MSS Secretary so it’s all new and shiny and fun to do this kind of stuff as President, and also because we made some really cool improvements this year. We have a live 15 piece swing jazz band with vocals, a new waterfront venue with harbour views, and a 1930’s theme to go with the idea of recession escapism. All students are invited, regardless of whether or not they are actually music students, so I’d love to see you there!

Unfortunately, it is also kind of stressful selling tickets, because of money. The band and venue add to costs, and the recession means fewer students are willing to pay for them. We’ve subsidised the price down using our bank account reserves, but it’s still more expensive than last year, and arts ball, although significantly cheaper than commerce ball and law ball, which have used the same venue before except without the added expense of the band. Also, subsidisation necessarily means losing money. We think it’s worth it because nobody should pay $100 for a ball ticket like the law or commerce students as that is a totally ridiculous price, but it still leaves us with a short fall.

So to cover this shortfall, we run a catering business, providing refreshments for concerts at Melba Hall. And this is a convenient place to mention the concerts that the Faculty hosts – which are not restricted to student concerts, but also involve all sorts of professional concerts. This Thursday, a newly formed opera company is putting on ‘The Impresario’, a really short, obscure Mozart comic opera that is quite funny, followed by a concert titled ‘Swings and Roundabouts’ on Friday which I think is a premiere of new compositions but I’m not entirely sure. They’re both really nice things to do on a weekday night, most music sounds good in Melba Hall because it’s a small venue with great acoustics, and you can enjoy them with a nice glass of wine/champagne/coffee/soft drink and maybe a pastry or other snack thanks to our catering service. In particular, anyone thinking of studying voice at the Con should go see ‘The Impresario’, because the cast and orchestra is a mix of current students, recent graduates, and professional musicians, and so gives you a pretty good idea of the standard that the top singing students reach here.

Other than that, I’ve been filling out paperwork to apply for grants (we held a BBQ last Thursday, giving out free sausages and veggie burgers), looking through my files to see if there are any issues to bring to curriculum committees or to the Dean, attending UMSU launches to recruit students from the former VCA, keeping track of all the various names and structural arrangements of the former VCA and the former Faculty of Music (the latter is the one I am enrolled in), negotiating with our camp venue over cancellation fees from last March, thinking of the Constitution redrafts we need to make to accommodate the new faculty structure, reading the new issue of Counterpoint, our quarterly magazine, setting up Open Day tours, looking into the viability of some new education initiatives, forwarding the cheque for the winner of our piano accompanying prize, advertising ‘Yoga for Musicians’, and researching 1930’s clothes for my ball outfit. In sum, life with the MSS is busy, but fun.

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If you would like to attend Music Ball, you can book tickets here: trybooking.com.au/bku

The ball takes place August 13th, 7pm, at the Atlantic AGV on Central Pier 9, Docklands. Tickets cost $85 for members and $90 for non members (includes free membership signup if you so choose), and covers the meal, dessert, drinks, and dancing all night to your favourite jazz oldies. Or some new jazz oldies if you are not old or nerdy enought to have favourites. Surprise afterparty included.

If you would like to see ‘The Impresario’ or ‘Swings and Roundabouts’, you can buy tickets for ‘The Impresario’ at www.operadownunder.org. Swings and Roundabouts doesn’t seem to have any information available, but it’s a fairly safe bet that if you show up at 7 on Friday you’ll be able to buy tickets.