CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY

Executive Officers: Stephen Cleobury (SC), Nick Collon (NC), Simon Fairclough (SF), Ashley Grote (AG), Liz Harvey (EH), Maggie Heywood (MH.), Craig Hudson (CH),Dora Kemp (DK) Rhiannon Mayon-White (RM-W), Richard Neill (RN), Jon Stainsby (JS), Beth Thompson (ET), Jonny Vaughn (JV),

JW stated that his sub-committee had been aware of a lot of energy in the responses from the membership and it had received a broad range of inputs. It had focused on the short-term solutions at this point but was aware of longer-term issues, which will require further discussion.

It was agreed that MH should convene another sub-committee (to be referred to as the `7a sub-comm' for the rest of these mins.) to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the ensemble sub-committees within the context of the society as a whole, to ensure a greater sense of student involvement and to channel & fully utilise their energies. The `7a sub-comm' will follow the brief in the executive summary, with the exception of the line referring to the budgeting process, which will be addressed instead by the Treasurer and the ensemble sub-comm treasurers. It was agreed that the `7a sub-comm' will consist of MH, TB, DK plus one member of JW's sub-committee. TB raised the possibility of an assistant secretary, both to reduce MH's workload, and to provide arts administration experience. MH responded that four assistant secs - one for each ensemble - would be more helpful to her, and this would not only lighten her workload but get more active student involvement in the running of CUMS; she acknowledged that over time one of these asst. secretaries could in fact become more significant than the other three. AG asked how he, as a conductor, would know who was responsible for what. It was agreed that it was important that responsibilities should be clearly defined. [ACTION MH]

7b) Recruitment: It was agreed to co-opt Claire Pike (chorus) to take on the role of Recruitment Officer, for which is she was well-qualified, and that she should set up a small group with reps from each ensemble sub-comm. to review procedures and make recommendations. MH pointed out that, contrary to the suggestion in the report, CUMS always had the largest stall allowed at the Societies Fair, which was manned throughout the two days with three people at all times, representing the Orchs, Zephyrs & chorus. [ACTION MH / Claire Pike (CP)]

7c) Publicity: ET reported that she had already had a good meeting with the four publicity reps from the ensemble sub-comms and they had come up with several suggestions for improving publicity, particularly by the use of e-mail. She also wanted to address the question of poster sizes, the use of college reps, poster designs, a term-card rather than a Concert Calendar for the whole year, an audience mailing-list, and a better-targeted general mailing-list. ET will make a fuller report to the next meting. [ACTION ET]

7d) Social events: The sub-comm. report recommended that social events were the province of the individual ensembles and that we should see how they develop over the next two terms. There was some discussion on the subject including the Garden Party (Sun 13 June 2-5pm King's Fellows Garden) whether or not there should be a big gathering for the whole society once a term, post-concert parties, the difficulty of providing much refreshment at West Road because of the cost, and general agreement that, if we set up a social e-mail list which was separate from the performers' lists, anyone who had an idea for a social event could access the list and organise it. TB mentioned the annual cabaret of former years that might be revived! ME was invited to speak about the relatively high cost of putting on a party at West Road, and he told the committee of the financial cuts being faced by all Arts & Humanities subjects over the next few years. He pointed out that the Music Faculty Board could no longer act independently with regard to concert hall charges, given the necessity for the Concert Hall to realize an appropriate income in the light of current university financial governance. [ACTION social secs]

7f) Continue the process of consultation? It was agreed that the consultative sub-comm. should continue its work until the end of this academic year. It was agreed that it could continue to ask to meet with CUMS members to discuss particular aspects of the society. [ACTION JW]

the frequency of full committee meetings. It was agreed that in future we should have three full committee meetings in the Mich & Lent terms and two in the Easter term. It was thought to be a good idea that a change should be made to the constitution to allow the bulk of the ensemble sub-committees to be elected in March and serve for four terms. The remaining places could be filled by first years in October, who would serve at least until the following October. This would provide ample opportunity for the new members to work alongside the out-going members, to ensure continuity. It was also thought to be a good idea that the newly appointed conductors be formally invited to join the committee at the meeting following their appointment, to serve until the end of the following academic year. The precise details will need to be considered by the `7a sub-comm.' and, as it will involve changes to the constitution, it was agreed to bring them to the next general meeting. [ACTION MH]

SC outlined the procedures, which had been followed in the past: suggestions from the different ensembles were solicited. After the following year's conductors had been appointed SC & MH met with them to discuss possible works according to: appropriateness, playability, difficulty, artistic merit, appeal to performers, wishes of concerto soloists, predilections of the student conductors, box office appeal, and the overall picture for the whole year within each ensemble, etc. The deployment of the student conductors across the year was also discussed, taking into account other commitments they might have. SC suggested that an incremental step might be taken by inviting to the programme planning committee a rep. from each ensemble.

In the discussion following up SC's statement, TI and MP, as newly- appointed conductors, both expressed a keenness to involve the membership in their decision-making. JV said that the Zephyrs would prefer not to have a set programme fixed at the start of each term, but would like to play through a number of pieces before deciding which ones to work on for the next concert. Since much of their repertoire is in the CUMS library this would not present a great problem (though the need for decisions in time for concert publicity was drawn the meeting's attention). SC suggested that a good way forward would be for the conductors of one ensemble eg. CUMS II, to meet together first to discuss with each other any ideas they had in fairly general terms - having already had a list of suggestions from the members of the orchestra. They might then meet with the ensemble sub-comm. to share their thoughts on the following year's programmes. The sub-comm. might wish to consult the membership again, with firm programmes to discuss, (when the players would need to be sensitive to the conductors' aspirations) and when that has been done the conductors would bring their suggestions to the programme planning committee and thence to the full committee. The programme-planning committee would consist of the six conductors, SC & MH (convenor). [ACTION MH/conds/E-sub.comms]

Long-term planning - TB proposed that CUMS might consider periods of three-year planning, not just the year ahead. This idea arose as a result of the concerto competition, which produced a percussionist as a winner. It might be beneficial to build a programme around him and perhaps commission a work for his concert. The percussionist in question is a first-year student at present so his concert could be deferred for a year in order for this to happen. SC said that he was extremely keen to commission new pieces from students, although he was aware of a certain amount of customer resistance! We have performed student works from time to time although not as regularly as he would have liked.

SC said that he felt that an important role for the conductor of the society was to have some artistic vision and leadership. He drew attention to some forthcoming centenaries & anniversaries, e.g. 2006: Shostakovich centenary, 125 years since Bartok's birth, 2007: Stravinsky's centenary. He wondered if it might be possible to work with the Faculty in promoting a lecture or seminar on some of these composers. TB said that he thought the Faculty would welcome a pro-active approach from us. It was agreed that another sub-committee should be set up to look a future-planning and should have on it SC, MH, ME, TI plus one of the four student convenors (to be selected by themselves: MH to be informed of their choice). [ACTION MH]

Guest Conductors were discussed briefly. TB pointed out that Sir David Willcocks will be 85 in December and, as a distinguished past conductor of CUMS (as well as a vice president) might appropriately be invited to work with us again. The committee agreed. SC said how pleased he was that we could also revert to our former practice of engaging a guest conductor for one of the CUMS I concerts (in recent years the Treasurer had said that CUMS could not afford to do this). However, he also pointed out that a guest conductor was unlikely to put up with poor attendance or unpunctuality, and that this matter should be addressed by the ensemble sub-committees. AG supported these comments having had just three first violins at his final rehearsal recently. SC thought it would be helpful to have a guest conductor who is used to working with student orchestras; Peter Stark was suggested as a possibility. The possibility of a visit from Tim Reynish for the Zephyr Ensemble was also thrown into the discussion.

CG raised the question of relations between the different ensembles and it was agreed that it was an issue that should be discussed at a future meeting. TB re-iterated the need for a gathering, not a sit-down meal, when all members could enjoy a drink together, circulate and more easily get to know more people than by sitting with a few friends at a formal meal.