Another recent development is the addition of Sketch to the roster of student ensembles. This group is led by Dr Davidson and focuses on new music by UQ composers as well as on improvisation, filling an important gap.
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Undergraduate Performance Studies cohort
Figure 16 undergraduate performance studies cohort on 31 March, 2013 to 2022. Source: UQ Reportal.
The School is proud of the integrated sideby-side approach staff take in frequently performing onstage with student ensembles. Chamber music is a distinctive feature of the School’s identity, with exceptionally highquality ensembles such as Pulse Chamber Orchestra (led by Associate Professor Chalabi and Mr Murphy), UQ Chamber Singers (led by Dr Morton), and SignWaves (flute choir, led by Mr Patrick Nolan) providing students with important collaborative music-making experiences. Numerous small-ensemble chamber experiences, including a focus on collaborative piano (led by Dr Grinberg), also strongly feature throughout the curriculum. Notable recent developments in the School’s performance culture include the return of opera productions to UQ after a 15-year absence. We observed that vocal students had grown in number to be the largest cohort but were receiving little strategic support from the Kinnane bequest for performance activity. The School’s 2021 performance of Puccini’s Gianni Schicci in the UQ Centre was led by Dr Brown, with student performers complemented by student back-of-house, make-up and costuming. The advent of sustainable student-led productions in UQ-owned venues reflects the School’s ethos of creatively and efficiently creating exciting student learning opportunities that also enrich the community.
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Recruitment of high achieving students into more diverse instrument groups in the BMus(Hons) is a priority. Wind, brass and percussion areas are in most need of focused support. In the absence of a continuing academic in any of these 3 areas, momentum is difficult to achieve. Mr Patrick Nolan acts as coordinator of wind and brass, reflecting his seniority and long-standing commitment to the School of Music as an academic casual since the early 1990s. Current recruitment strategies include establishing a wind ensemble-in-residence (on hold due to COVID-19) and running Brass and Wind Discovery Days aimed at high-school students in July 2022. Given the complexity of overlapping teaching and engagement activity involving performance, the School’s Performance Discipline Group focuses on the particular challenges of performance training at the tertiary level. For example, performance training frequently relies on the repetition of practices and approaches in each semester of study from first year through to the final year, with little explicit attention given to the sequencing of materials and progression over time at the course level. In 2020, the core performance courses instituted break-out forums that incorporated classroom-delivered learning on topics relevant to all performers (such as how to practise, the psychology of performance, critical listening and evaluation, creativity, and so on). This ensured that all students have equitable access to universally important aspects of performance training, rather than relying exclusively on the individual one-to-one lesson format to make such learning explicit. This reform was reverted due to COVID-related disruption in 2020. Re-implementing this initiative would be an important aspect of improving research training and preparation through years 1 to 3 but would also have workload implications for performance staff.
