1 December 2016
Dear fellow accompanists and Guild members,
Welcome to the end-of-the year Guild Newsletter!
As you may already know, at the Annual General Meeting on the 7th of August Regis Danillon stepped down as the Guild’s President after 5 years at the helm and I was elected as the new President. We all thank Regis for his many years of dedication and service to the Guild and his leadership of the hard-working committee. I will continue building on his work promoting the Guild and engaging with the music community.
Since the Annual meeting, the Guild continued its sponsorship of local Eisteddfods, in particular donating prizes to the following recipients:
Bundaberg Eisteddfod – split award:
o Jacob King 16 – 18 yrs category
o Sarah Chuey – 15 and under category
Silkstone Eisteddfod –
o 1st Caelan Hamilton, 13 years
o 2nd Oscar Matthews 2nd, 13 years
Goondiwindi Eisteddfod –
o Sam Jessen
Sunshine Coast Junior Eisteddfod –
o Tebany Carra
This year we trialled a new initiative – Accompanying Master Class – at both the Queensland Conservatorium (31 August) and the University of Queensland School of Music (14 October). Tertiary students had an opportunity to work with experienced instrumental teachers and learn more about the art of accompanying. Guild promotional materials were also distributed at these events in a recruitment drive to attract new student members.
The wonderful instrument stickers designed by Joanna Gibson have now been printed and will be distributed through AMEB, various youth orchestras and school bands early in the New Year to make the Guild “the place to go to” when looking for an accompanist.
The committee always welcomes innovative ideas from fellow members – please contact us if you have any suggestions for future initiatives and activities.
We have all worked very hard in the last few months accompanying students for AMEB exams, tertiary auditions and examinations. Time now for a well-deserved break over the summer to re-charge our batteries, rest our fingers, clear our heads and get ready for 2017.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Happy accompanying in 2017!
Katie Zhukov,
President Accompanists’ Guild of Queensland.
Please download and print Newsletter January 2017