Anthony Baylis
Jonathan Holmes
QJazz playing at ‘Bounce’.
Members of the MagSoc Orchestra – ‘A Night at the Opera’ in Cripps Dining Hall.
QJCR Ents
St Margaret’s Society
2013 was the year Qents was renamed ‘QJCR Ents’. Despite this change, bops in Queens’ maintain their reputation as some of the best in Cambridge and are attended with great enthusiasm by Queens’ students. As ever there was a huge variety of themes, and, of course, Fancy Dress opportunities, from the neon ‘Set you Free Bop’ at the end of Lent Term to the annual ‘Back to School Bop’ at the beginning of Michaelmas. We also had a space-themed Silent Disco, a Rocky Horror-themed Halloween Bop and an incredibly popular Christmas Bop to round off the year. The highlight of the year would have to be the Bounce Garden Party in May Week. The new Committee did an excellent job in organising the biggest and best Bounce yet. Accompanying a barbeque was an inflatable obstacle course and a variety of live music acts which gave the evening a relaxed and fun atmosphere. It was great to see a host of Queens’ student DJs perform this year, including Alex Knight, Jay Mehta, Max Cooper and Ant Manning. Ents at Queens’ is a team effort of the whole JCR community: the Committee, the DJs, the workers from college societies and of course the wonderful technical team who do an amazing job to make everything run smoothly and professionally. President: Abi May; Vice-President: Peregrine Dunn; Treasurer: Jason Mavrotas; Secretary: Charlotte Ray; Technical Director: Dave Elliott; Décor: Natasha Bourne and Georgia Macqueen-Black; Design: Eloise Gillow.
This has been somewhat of a reformative year for the St Margaret’s Society (MagSoc) who have made every effort to make music participation in college available to all, regardless of musical taste and experience. The Society is as active as ever with over 25 events held in the Michaelmas Term 2013 alone. Of course, elements of the much-loved customs have remained – the Lent Term annual concert in West Road Concert Hall was a roaring success, with Karl Orff ’s Carmina Burana taking centre stage. Similarly, the popular Summer Concert, featuring a selection of British themed music was matched only by the traditional Garden Party, the second social event of the term following the sold-out Annual Dinner in May; both of these events passed off fantastically. The Stanford Orchestra was re-launched in September as the MagSoc Concert Orchestra, with an exciting repertoire of film music this year. The MagSoc Orchestra became the MagSoc Symphony Orchestra, which, thanks to orchestral manager Miranda Whitmarsh, has been bigger and better than MagSoc have seen in years, with over 55 excellent players at the last concert. The Orchestra continues to both play alongside the thriving Chorus and perform alone in our end of term concerts. The addition of the new choir, Queens’ Voices, adds a new facet to MagSoc’s already vibrantly diverse scene. They give termly concerts of lighter choral music and a range of spirituals and traditional African songs. Weekly themed recitals in Old Hall made for an exciting few terms of Monday night concerts, allowing members of the college to perform in an informal, more relaxed setting in front of their peers. But by far the biggest success of the year was MagSoc’s collaboration with CUOS in their Michaelmas Gala Concert A Night at the Opera. Top soloists from around the University joined forces with the MagSoc Chorus and Symphony Orchestra to perform in Cripps Dining Hall which was, for the first time, transformed into a concert hall for the occasion. Lewis Owen, Nick Morris and Alastair Chilvers conducted some of the best-known opera choruses and overtures, which an enormous audience enjoyed with a glass of wine at the black tie event, an all round success guest-starring Queens’ very own Senior Tutor and Junior Bursar as percussionists in the Anvil Chorus. All round, it was a year of great change and excitement for the St Margaret’s Society. President: Lucy Morris; Vice-President: Lewis Owen; Secretary: Olivia Bell; Treasurer: Gregory Liddington; Orchestral Manager: Miranda Whitmarsh; Publicity: Isla Tyrrell.
Q Jazz
QJazz spent Lent 2013 rehearsing and playing several gigs, including two ‘Jazz Nights’ in QBar, featuring guest acts from out of college, such as the EM Trio. After lying low during most of exam term, QJazz had a very busy May Week, playing sets at both Queens’ JCR Garden Party (Bounce) and Jesus May Ball. The end of the academic year saw a large portion of our band including previous manager Matthew Benton, graduate and move on to grander things. However, a reunion gig was played at a Freshers’ Week event ( Jazz and Cocktails) in Old Hall to raise some enthusiasm for Jazz at Queens’. After this, we have been continuing to rehearse with a new contingent of players and are looking forward to more gigs soon! Manager: Becky Lewis; Band Members: Horns – Becky Lewis, Michael Loy, Martin Blake, Susannah Evans; ; Bass – Tom Hiom , Drums – Richard Mair.
Lorna Radford
Performing Carmina Burana in West Road.
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