On the end of second year, and the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end of the beginning…?

Well that was it – the end of another academic year. In 366 days’ time (give or take) I’ll cease to be a student and start being unemployed. Well…hopefully not, but it’s not at all unlikely. Work – any work – is not easy to get hold of by any means. But you don’t need me to tell you that.

The question is should I take whatever work I can get, regardless of the sector or the pay? Should I stick it out stubbornly and wait for that ideal arts job, with those lovely people in that plush, sophisticated office? Devote incredible time and effort to an internship without any guarantee I’ll get a return on my investment? Or perhaps I should just chicken out of the real world altogether and sink back into university. That’s not a bad idea – there is funding out there if I work for it – and a Masters in marketing or management would certainly serve me well when I do find myself in a job.

Suggestions on a postcard and/or in a comment, please!

I hear you, Princeton and co.

On long days and why rock is the antidote

Yesterday was a bit of a slog. Here’s a quick breakdown of why:

• 0900-1030: Revision for Friday’s Arts Administration exam. Some of it was current and exciting; a lot of it was tediously academic.
• 1100-1205: Music Society committee meeting. Whilst I’m very excited about Estival, our annual four-day musical extravaganza, I’m not so excited about the ins and outs of the Personnel Policy.
• 1230-1500: More revision. And some Facebook.
• 1515-1745: Orchestra rehearsal. It felt like we spent two hours on the same dull few bars of Glazunov’s Violin Concerto…not one of my Desert Island Scores at the best of times.

Then, after a quick cheese toastie, I headed off to Stockport for band practice. Expecting to be far too tired for yet more rehearsing. But I was so wrong! Within minutes of playing, I found energy to play out of nowhere.

I owe it all to the sheer euphoria of Sparks, our incredibly exciting new anthem. Building from a simple opening to a rousing finale, this song is the ultimate cure for tiredness!

Have a listen to the first verse – but ignore the intro, as filmed by Zeb…

On free shower gel and why Manchester is different

Manchester-based company PZ Cussons cannot stop giving me free shower gel, it seems. I came out of a Hallé concert a few months ago and was handed a free bottle of Imperial Leather shower gel, produced by Cussons, their new sponsor. I picked up a free copy of the MEN in April and was handed a free bottle of Sanex shower gel. (Guess who makes it…?) And tonight I got another bottle of Imperial Leather. And a bottle of Morning Fresh fabric conditioner. And a Carex soap dispenser. That’s right, the company that rules your bathroom is now ruling my life.

PREAMBLE OVER. The reason I keep being given soap by these people is that PZ Cussons, a Mancunian business through-and-through since its foundation in 1879, is zealously and sincerely keen to be an important part of Manchester’s community and culture. And more specifically, the reason I got a bag full of their products tonight is that I attended a launch event for Manchester International Festival volunteers. The aim of it was to get us all excited about the biennial festival, which takes place from 30th June to 17th July this year. And it worked because I’m now even more excited than I was before! I had a great time – lots of lovely people, lots of lovely food, and lots (and I mean lots) of lovely wine. Plus lots of surprisingly lovely speeches from various important people.

One of these people was Sir Richard Leese, the Leader of Manchester City Council. He said that while a lot of people talk about modern cities becoming more and more similar – the term he used was ‘homogenised’ – if MIF demonstrates anything, it demonstrates that ‘Manchester is different’. I can’t wait to be part of this amazing event – after tonight, summer feels one step closer…

On Summer’s approach, and why ignorance is the key to avoiding starstruck embarrassment

When the rain falls
They talk of Manchester
But when the triumphant rain falls
We think of rainbows
That’s the Mancunian Way

Lemn Sissay

My last essay of the year is done, my last composition of the year is hot on its heels, and my Arts Admin exam – well, let’s brush thoughts of that under the carpet for now. My point, anyway, is that summer is not far away, despite this deceptively dreary Manchester weather.

The Dickensian view from my bedroom window

It’s starting already, in a way. I’d signed up to volunteer at Manchester Jazz Festival this July, but on Thursday, thanks to a series of coincidences (long story) I found myself getting involved earlier than anticipated, helping out at a glamorous event for potential corporate sponsors. It was a good laugh and I learnt a lot about arts organisations and their reliance not only businesses but also on board members. Plus, I’m slightly ashamed to say, it filled me with an enormous sense of self-importance: among those present were an MP, an MEP and John Helliwell, although I wasn’t informed until after I’d finished chatting to him that he was the saxophonist with Supertramp. As Mum pointed out though, it’s probably for the best that I didn’t know who he was.

Enough of that – bring on the summer!

On losing my work experience buddy but why I’m happy for her

The blog posts are going to have to be a little more sporadic at the moment, folks – that’s because we’re in the middle of May, that time of year when students’ attentions suddenly turn towards their degrees, and away from everything else. Of course, it’s not quite that simple in a music student’s world: for one, last Thursday saw my band Always Awake‘s live debut. It was very successful, very well attended, and very good fun; I can’t wait for more of the same! Oh, plus we launched a stonking new EP.

Meanwhile, we’re edging ever closer to Estival, the Music Society‘s week-long annual music festival. It’s a huge undertaking, especially given how close it is to the climax of the academic year. I’ve got a lot of concert managing to do, but with the combined forces of the outgoing and incoming concert manager teams to work with, we can’t go far wrong. More about this soon, but for now just trust me that it’s going to be great!

In other news, I was looking forward to having my good friend Caroline alongside me during my crazy summer of work experience/volunteering, but she’s gone and got herself a real job, the rotter. While it’s a shame to miss out on her company, I’m really pleased for her, plus really encouraged that it really is possible for someone in my position (which is remarkably similar to Caroline’s this time last year) to go straight into an arts job immediately after the end of uni.

Anyway, back to that degree…

On envelope stuffing and why the taste of the envelopes doesn’t come into it

A staple of the student diet – i.e. whatever happens to be on the Tesco reduced shelf. Best consumed within 10 minutes of purchase, without shame, and at the back of a bus.

Today was a special day: my first real experience of work in an arts administration office. The office in question was that of the Manchester Camerata, and the work in question was, to give it its proper term, envelope stuffing. Take my word for it, it’s a beautiful thing – the smell of freshly-printed flyers; the taste of envelope glue; the thrill I got every time I wasn’t quite sure whether I’d remembered to put the flyer in with the letter but I’d already sealed the tab…

Alright, it wasn’t quite that amazing. In fact, after the first 50 or so envelopes I realised they were the ones you don’t need to lick. Oh, and the only payment was a (very nice!) cup of tea. But I didn’t sign up for this expecting to have fun, or to gain anything out of it in the short term. Instead, my aim was to shift myself a tiny step closer to employment in the Arts, and I think I achieved that in a small way. There wasn’t as much opportunity to network as I would have liked, given that I was tucked away on my own in one corner of the office, but I enjoyed witnessing the day-to-day goings-on of this kind of office, as a fly on the wall.

Plus it was a useful insight into the various inventive methods that such small organisations as this use to publicise their concerts. In this case, in the run-up to a concert of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, they’re sending letters and flyers to a long list of people who recently attended Shakespeare plays at The Lowry, and who presumably consented (at some point during the booking process) to their being sent publicity. It’s a great example of the way Manchester’s arts organisations collaborate, sharing their limited resources in order to keep each other in business. All of them, from Cornerhouse to The Hallé, are linked by an unofficial network of arts administrators, the artistic mafia of the city. Now that is exciting.

Leaving the Camerata's RNCM base, I took a wrong turn and found myself here – must have something to do with that sinister network of arts administrators...?

On Always Awake and why we’re a band of brothers

The most beautiful thing in orange and black this side of Bengal

I’m finally back in Hull after quite an intense 6-day round trip. With the Latitude concert out of the way, I headed down to Headline Studios in Stockport for a quick recording session with my band, Always Awake.

These guys are amazing: not only are they wholeheartedly committed to what they do, but each of them looks out for the rest of us, which makes for a tight group that works very hard but never too hard.

Now, a quick bio. Twins Zeb and Theo Bowyer have been writing and performing with Ben Wood for 9 years, but the band has existed in its current state – with Kelani Koyejo on drums and percussion, and me on bass and cello – since December. Our sound is a tricky one to describe, but our Facebook page calls it ‘Inventive, emotive and anthemic – a perfect blend of smooth sophistication and Mancunian grit’, so let’s go with that.

The reason for recording this EP in such a short space of time is that we need something to play to potential audience members for our first ever gig together, on Thursday 5th May. It has to be something that isn’t heavily produced but that at least beats scratch recordings on mobile phones, and is a good representation of our live sound.

So we recorded all the instruments at once, as opposed to the slower, cleaner method of recording every layer separately, from the drums up. This not only saves time, but will hopefully capture something of the raw energy of live performance. The vocals will be done over the next few days, then the guys will work their computery magic and that’ll be it – four shiny new tracks!

Having never recorded with a band before, what struck me most was how intensive it was –how nerve-wracking it was to know that the way I played in those few hours was going to be permanent, either forever to my credit or forever held against me. But despite my nerves, everything went miraculously smoothly, mostly thanks to the expertise of engineers Ryan Searle and John Wood. I’m very much looking forward to hearing the finished product – keep your eyes/ears peeled…

When musicians aren’t making music, we mostly eat and play with our phones

On my degree and why I don’t feel guilty about neglecting it sometimes

It feels good to be returning to English soil – appropriately on the day of Manchester’s St George’s Day Parade. The Latitude Symphony Orchestra’s debut last night was a success, I’m proud – and relieved – to say, with a very convincing performance and a healthy audience. But now it’s time to get on with my life.

I’m glad that for a change I’ve got time to actually think about and plan my next two coursework deadlines, rather than throwing myself into them head-first days/hours before they’re due. While arts students are often accused of studying a ‘soft subject’, given our relatively small amount of contact time compared with other subjects, in reality we seem to have incredibly long days spent working towards our extra-curricular commitments, in societies and beyond. Having toiled for the best part of 12 hours, we finally get back to our bedrooms and start work on that essay for tomorrow.

Is it worth it? Yes, by far; and I don’t mean in the ‘spiritually rewarding’ sense. I mean that when it comes to getting a job in the Arts, I’ve been told many times that experience beats academic prowess every time. Recruiters want to know that I can pull an orchestra together from scratch and put on a concert in Glasgow, not so much that I know my way around a Bach chorale. That’s not to say that I don’t work hard on my degree – I’m just as keen to get a First as the average microbiologist or chemical engineer. My point, though, is that grades alone won’t ruin my career, and they won’t make it either.

More on Saturday’s concert and why Scotland isn’t so bad after all

Not as big as an English cathedral, but still beautiful!

So I seem to have made it to Glasgow – and so has (most of) the orchestra. And now that the penultimate rehearsal for tomorrow’s concert is in full swing, I can see that the hours spent working through lists of oboists’ phone numbers on Wednesday (courtesy of Google) and the hours of ‘death by sitting’ yesterday (courtesy of Megabus) were well worth it.

Not only does Glasgow appear to be a much nicer place than the news agencies would have us believe – particularly but hopefully not exclusively this bit, the West End – but I’m feeling more optimistic about this concert by the hour. The orchestra is starting to sound amazing, and the reception seemed very positive when I did the rounds publicising the concert in local cafés and such.

There’s not much else I can do now, except to wait and see how it turns out. Is having great musicians, a great programme, a great venue and a great cause enough to guarantee a great audience? I’ll keep you posted.

Rehearsing with soloist Carlisle Beresford

On Saturday’s concert and why I hope the next one isn’t in Scotland

Now, I promised some more information about the concert my housemate Dave and I are organising in Glasgow this Saturday. Wow, ‘this Saturday’ seems a lot sooner than ’16th April’ has been sounding for the past few months – that’s scaring me a little…

Background based on a photo of the Alps by Nicole Kotschate, used with permission

Why Glasgow? Because it’s Dave’s home town and he already had his heart set on St Mary’s as the venue before I got involved. But it’s not ideal, it really isn’t. It’s great experience, don’t get me wrong – but an awful lot of hassle!

Since Dave’s in Manchester most of the time, and since I’ve never even been to Glasgow before, communication can be a real issue – I’ve had to invent faces for the senders of so many emails that it’s going to get very confusing when I actually meet these people. We’ve got an incredibly dedicated team of helpers up there (particularly Dave’s mother Kathy, her friend Helen, Siobhan from the Teenage Cancer Trust and Zoe from the RSAMD) but it’s so tricky to keep everyone in the loop when we never actually see any of them! (The odd transnational Skype session with Kathy and Helen excepted.)

And of course there’s the players – what we’ve effectively done here is set up a brand new orchestra from scratch. That means finding people in one of two categories:

1. England-based players who are willing to organise and pay for their own transport, and crash with other players in Glasgow who they may or may not have met before.
2. Scotland-based players, of whom Dave knows surprisingly few and I know two. Literally two people. And one of those has damaged his shoulder and can’t play.

So you see, it’s not a walk in the park. A Manchester concert wouldn’t be easy either, but we’re so much better connected there that organising the players and the venue would be so much more straightforward. Nevertheless, none of these issues is going to come in the way of this Saturday being fantastic! Although it’s difficult, we’ve worked hard and we’re genuinely confident of a successful evening, and one that raises significant funds and awareness for the fantastic work of the Trust. The really encouraging thing is that right now it feels like if we can pull this off, then maybe we can do anything…! Okay, perhaps not anything, but at least we can be confident the Latitude Symphony Orchestra is capable of future concerts closer to (my) home, no problem.