Queens' Arts Magazine | Page 8

MagSoc

Recitals and Requiems

Alexander Hardwick(Magsoc President)

MagSoc

MagSoc (“The St Margaret’s Society of Queens’ College”) is the go-to society for everything musical in college. We hold a series of weekly solo and small-group recitals on Monday evenings in term-time; we organise a high-profile orchestra and the largest (but very very friendly!) non-audition chorus in Cambridge, and lots more!

Our Michaelmas Concert took place at the beginning of December in West Road Concert Hall. The ‘headliner’ piece was Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, a colossal and truly epic-sounding work: with the forces of the MagSoc Symphony Orchestra and MagSoc Chorus combined, we had over 120 performers on stage! The conductor was Queens’ Senior Organ Scholar and MagSoc Vice-President Edward Reeve (2nd year Music), and the feedback we’ve had so far has included “phenomenal” and “the best student-ensemble music I have ever heard”.

The “MagSoc Mondays” recital series has been in full swing this term, with a healthy audience drawn in by the combination of free music and free biscuits! We enjoyed a wonderful variety ranging from piano works by Bach through musical theatre to songs by Sinatra and everything in between! The freshers’ recital in week 2 was particularly exciting, including a varied programme of voice, piano, flute, clarinet and violin. The Michaelmas series was rounded off memorably by Tom Harvey (3rd year Law) who regaled his audience with Javert, Fagin and other entertaining characters from the musical stage.

Plans for next term are already underway: our Lent Concert will be in West Road Concert Hall on Monday 7th March 2016 (save the date!). The programme will be Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Ravel’s Piano Concerto (soloist: Katie Wong, 3rd year Music) and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor. The concert will be conducted by Joscelin Dent-Pooley (1st year Music) and Edward Reeve. We hope to see lots of you there!

Alexander Hardwick

MagSoc Committee 2015-16:

President:Alexander Hardwick (3rd year Classics)

Vice-President:Edward Reeve (2nd year Music)

Secretary:Sudhir Balaji (3rd year Chemical Engineering)

Treasurer:Tom Hiom (3rd year Music)

Librarian:Michaela Higham (1st year Music)

Orchestral Managers:Bobby He (2nd year Mathematics)

Huaxiang Huang (2nd year Economics)

Publicity Officers:Michelle Lo (2nd year Architecture)

Katie Wong (3rd year Music)

Recitals Officer:Jack Spencer (1st year Natural Sciences)

Social Secretary:Tolu Taiwo-Ashaju (2nd year Engineering)

Webmaster:Arthur Tombs (PhD Engineering)

General members:Helen Barker (1st year MML)

Victoria Barker (2nd year Education with English)

Joscelin Dent-Pooley (1st year Music)

Benedict Morris (3rd year Medicine)

MagSoc (“The St Margaret’s Society of Queens’ College”) is the go-to society for everything musical in college. We hold a series of weekly solo and small-group recitals on Monday evenings in term-time; we organise a high-profile orchestra and the largest (but very very friendly!) non-audition chorus in Cambridge, and lots more!

Our Michaelmas Concert took place at the beginning of December in West Road Concert Hall. The ‘headliner’ piece was Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, a colossal and truly epic-sounding work: with the forces of the MagSoc Symphony Orchestra and MagSoc Chorus combined, we had over 120 performers on stage! The conductor was Queens’ Senior Organ Scholar and MagSoc Vice-President Edward Reeve (2nd year Music), and the feedback we’ve had so far has included “phenomenal” and “the best student-ensemble music I have ever heard”.