CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY

A Committee Meeting was held on 16 June, 2005 at 1pm. in the Thirkill Room, Clare College.

Apologies:

3. Matters arising

iii The Chairman raised the question of whether or not we should award prizes for an outstanding contribution to CUMS - musical or otherwise. It was agreed that we would bring the idea forward again next year.

4 Alumni report / Newsletter: we need volunteers to write reports for the tours to Switzerland and Prague, the Tsunami concert, an interview with Sarah Teather & with Sir David Willcocks. Something from SC and this year's student conductors would also be interesting. It will be launched in the Autumn and will be the start of a 4-year campaign towards 2009. We need to come up with goals and targets.

5. Programme planning

SC reminded the committee that the chorus has not always combined with CUMS I in the Lent Term and he proposed that a group called `Prime Brass' should be invited to perform with the chorus next year. If he likes the score of `The Wasps' this could be transferred to May Week. In view of the new plan for the chorus in the Lent term it was proposed that the CUMS I concert with Peter Stark be moved to the end of term to give them maximum rehearsal time for a challenging programme. The Chorus plus alumni are also invited to join with the Yale Alumni Chorus in Ely Cathedral in February. This will not be compulsory, but all will be encouraged to do it.

Budget: ensembles need to budget within a certain boundary. There are some stable costings - venue hire, rehearsals, music, publicity, regular income from instrument hire etc. We need to be considerate in our spending and ensembles need to hit their own targets. CI/Chor is usually profitable, CI could be offered a bit more this year, CII maintain the subsidy already in place. Zephyrs lose money because of the lack of Faculty support for them. If we join Birmingham and Liverpool libraries this might bring down the cost of music hire. The Treasurer & conductors will work on it. When ordering Gershwin and Rachmaninov stress that it's a student orchestra and get student hire rates.

CUMS Fund: If we want to apply for support for any particular venture, such as the Zephyr Concert for Schools, we should do so sooner rather than later. It was also agreed that we should take the Zephyr cause back to the Faculty Board for further consideration. We should also stress that we are grateful for the support the FB offers us.

6. Treasurer's slot

There's been a request from the Zephyrs to purchase a tenor sax - it's hard to find people who have their own instrument, but alto players would all be able to play one. The committee agreed £1000-£2200 could be spent. It was also agreed that future spending on instruments should be discussed at a later date. The new instrument manager has asked for free loan of instruments for his college music society in return for his services. After some discussion it was felt that this should be an automatic part of the principal percussionists job, and not paid.

7. Cambridge University's 800^th Anniversary : Music is one of the universally acknowledged strengths of CU. We should be looking to do something similar to the Tsunami concert. The VC is very keen. One of the pro VCs is working on arts and culture, and it was agreed that a small sub-committee should discuss our best approach. (SC, TB, SF + MH)

8. CUMS I Report It was agreed that in future no business should be sent direct to the committee list without going via the sec. The chairman was very disappointed to read the doc. sent by GT which presented things in a very negative light and didn't address poor attendance or social activities which didn't happen because no-one was prepared to organise anything. It was not made clear that nearly all of the negative comments came from one person. It was agreed that the performance of the orchestra, including their attitude to attendance is largely the conductor's responsibility. The conductors need to be involved in the week-to-week running of the orchestra in the same way as the conductors of CUMS II and the Zephyrs are. It was agreed that next year's conductors would talk over with SC what can be done to make it work better. SC pointed out that the attitude amongst some of the players towards a new piece by a seriously good composer was very worrying. TI suggested that when we premiere new works they might be coupled with lighter more attractive works. TB worries about the negative undertone in CUMS I (although loudest critic is leaving) and wants it stamped out next year! GC thinks work has to take priority in exam term, but that lots of curries and social events in the first few weeks are very important in getting the group to gel. SF said that we need to think about all the issues raised by the report and work out how to address them over the summer.

9. Solo Camerata This proposal, for a new high quality group of soloists - from amongst the best student musicians in Cambridge - performing baroque or modern works was the result of lengthy discussions between SC, SF, CP & MH. One issue was whether to try to make a profit, or whether to subsidise it to show what standards could be achieeved. The Treasurer was concerned about subsidising a very small group, but it was agreed that it would be worth trying.

10. The other ensembles were thanked for their reports, circulated in advance of the meeting. The question of string re-auditions for everyone was raised, but it was agreed that the status quo would prevail for this year.

CUMS II tour to Prague. There were no representatives from the CUMS II tour committee. The committee asked that the organiser be contacted to make sure that the finances were all in order.

Chorus: it was agreed that we need to discuss the viability of doing a big concert in May Week before next year. The habit needs to be re-established.

Zephyrs need to work at recruitment, particularly in the brass sections.

11. The Chairman, TB, announced that he was resigning as of this moment, because there was general agreement that it was important to have a chairman in post during the summer, and with his imminent departure to the USA, it needed to be someone else. The constitution says that we elect a chairman at the first committee meeting of the year, so this election is a temporary one. Simon Fairclough was proposed by MH and seconded by ?? He agreed to act as deputy chair through the summer, and was added to the executive sub-committee which is the on-going section of the committee which functions out of term if major decisions need to be made. A vote of thanks to Tim followed.

12 Dates of committee meetings: It was agreed that we should look six months ahead at items needing discussion and plan the strategy for that period, and not try to discuss too many items at one meeting. We should plan enough meetings that none of them needs to be too long, and papers for discussion should always be sent out in advance. SF/MH will look at possible dates an circulate them.

13 AOB

i) SF will look back over the initial sub-committee report of 2003 and come up with a plan for where we want to be in a year's time.

ii) MA suggested that the leaders of CUMS I & CUMS II automatically sit on sub-committee and main committee. No decision was made.