OU Orchestra and Chamber Music Club Committee Meeting Tuesday 19th February, 2008, 1:00 – 2:00 Present Bill, Laurence (chair), Tim, Stephen, Ian, Sarah, Jane, David, Tessa, Elaine (secretary). Apologies June, Clare, Debbie, Mike. 1. Minutes of the Previous Meeting The Schedule document has been prepared and put on the website. The new timpani store was now ready and would be formally christened after Friday’s rehearsal. Action brought forward Register on the website New members document Action: David, Bill, Tim Action : Tessa, Tim 2. Finance Stephen presented a statement of the Club finances and emphasised that although money could be vired from one heading to another, it was important to keep within the budget. A number of members had not yet paid their subscription and had been sent reminders. The committee was asked to think about whether a sum for timpani repair should be included in the bid for next year’s funding as a decision about this was needed soon. 3. Publicity Jane circulated a comprehensive schedule of dates for publicity-related tasks. This was gratefully accepted by the committee and Jane thanked for doing such a good job on this. It was agreed the schedule should go on the website. Action: Tim 4. Music for the May Concert The date of the Workshop on Dvořak’s Eighth was confirmed as Sunday, April 27th as more Orchestra members were available this day and there was a better spread of available people. Clare has booked the Church and Recital Room for this day. Bill and Laurence would arrange instrumental specialists to lead the workshop. Action: Bill, Laurence. Brahms Academic Overture and Hungarian Dances had been suggested as suitable pieces to accompany Dvořak’s Eighth. The Orchestra would play through both pieces at the rehearsal on 29th February and would then be given a week to state their preference. It was necessary to determine exactly which players would be playing in the concert so that appropriate extra players could be found. 5 October Concert Bill had spoken to Angela Caesar who was keen to perform with the Orchestra but due to her commitment to the ENO was not available on 24th October. At present she was available on 10th and 17th October but was waiting to see if she was needed by ENO on these dates. It was agreed to wait until March to see if she had further news on these dates. 17th October was agreed as the provisional date for the concert. Should Angela not be available, it was suggested that the October concert consist of a suite of non-symphonic pieces e.g. dances, programmatic pieces. Film music was suggested. Angela would then be contacted about the possibility of performing with the Orchestra the following May. It would be helpful if people suggesting music for the orchestra could check a catalogue to see what the line-up of instruments was and whether it fitted the Orchestra. 6. Committee Meetings for 2008 The OU choir was contacted but does not arrange its committee meetings more than one in advance. A list of dates that suited both Bill and Laurence was circulated, but there were several months without mutually convenient dates. It was agreed that the next committee meeting would be on 4th March. The main items would be the October concert and the filler piece for May. The dates for May and June were fixed as 20th May and 10th June. 7. Open Day 2009/40th Anniversary It was too late to commission anything for the 40th anniversary. The possibility of repeating the May concert or reviving pieces played previously for Open Day was considered. However the 40th Anniversary celebrations are going to spread over several weeks and it would be possible to label the May 2009 concert a 40th Anniversary one. This was considered a better option.