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Undergraduate, Page 3

Finnissy and Grieg for five

Don't miss a rare opportunity to hear Professor of Composition Michael Finnissy perform his own take on Grieg with the fantastic Kreutzer Quartet at Turner Sims on Monday 7 March, at 1pm.  The concert will be followed by a composition workshop with the Kreutzers for Southampton undergraduate and postgraduate composers. Continue reading →

A week with David Owen Norris

David Owen Norris, Professor of Music and Head of Keyboard and Percussion Studies,  gives us a round up of a week's wide-ranging activities... Some interesting coaching this week - the Banks String Quartet at the Royal College of Music in Frank Bridge's 1907 student piece, the quartet in B flat, for the Bridge Study Day, where my fellow contributors included Fabian Huss, Lewis Foreman, Anthony Payne and Stephen Banfield. Continue reading →

Successful Saxophonists!

Three Music students from the University of Southampton have been offered postgraduate places at leading UK conservatoires.  Wayne Hau, Laurence Astill and Emily Cox are all third years studying with Southampton's inspirational classical saxophone teacher Dr Angela Space.  Between them they applied to five of the country's top conservatoires. Wayne, Laurence and Emily all received offers to study Masters in Performance. Continue reading →

The Hoosiers Session

Music finalist Jamie Wall reports on a collaboration between The Edge, SUSUtv and Music, bringing bands into the Music Department studios for live sessions to be broadcast on SUSUtv. From the start of this academic year I have been working alongside people from The Edge magazine and SUSUtv on a project called ‘The Edge Sessions’. Continue reading →

Cantores Carols

Just in time for the holidays:  The University of Southampton Choral Scholars - Cantores Michaelis - have just released their first commercial recording. Christmas Carols 1500-2000 is issued by the Herald label and is now on sale in record shops, at Turner Sims Concert Hall on campus, and through Amazon, and will shortly be available on iTunes. The carols are an eclectic mix. Continue reading →

In praise of opera

Recent alumnus Beth Coopey describes her surprise discovery of Opera during her studies, and how that changed  everything... I arrived at the University of Southampton with little interest in opera. I had sung a selection of arias but knew little about the operas from which they came. That soon changed: my opera experience here has been so immersive and wide-ranging that I am leaving as (probably!) a lifelong opera lover. Continue reading →

Studying music and the web

The Department has constructed a new undergraduate joint honours course in Music and Web Science, with the first student intake planned for October 2016 - the video below gives more details.  In this post Anna Kent-Muller (BA Hons Music 2015) explains how her own interest in Web Science started, and describes how she contributed to the new degree programme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Q7MmdAw0E&feature=youtu. Continue reading →

Behind the scenes at the Proms

Kerry-Ann Bronner spent the summer between years 2 and 3 learning all about the complexities of mounting the Proms, and applying knowledge from her degree course (as well as her tea-making skills!) to a real life employment context: In May this year, I learned of an exciting opportunity offered by the BBC to spend a few weeks on a work experience placement within the Music Television department, working on the Proms. Continue reading →

Interview with the interns

Rhiannon Lewis and Dan Varley (both year 2) are Turner Sims Interns for 2015, with responsibility for the Southampton Showcase scheme for advanced performers.  Here they tell us about their first semester in the job: What interested you in applying for the intern post? Rhiannon: Arts management is something that has always interested me but I felt my knowledge on the profession was limited. Continue reading →

Student support for music therapy

Our first-ever Grade One-a-thon was a sponsored activity with proceeds going to charity. The students selected local music therapy charity Key Changes to receive the donation, and this week our intrepid organiser Catherine Underhill received a wonderful letter of thanks from music therapist Beccy Read - shared here for all the students who took part. Continue reading →

Meet the (modern) pianos

In the final instalment of our Meet the Pianos series for this year, David Owen Norris introduces some of our modern concert grands.  Many people will find these more familiar-looking than our rarer historic instruments. But they're not all the same, and modern piano firms, just like their 18th-century counterparts, search to create instruments with their own characteristic sounds. Continue reading →