Hey LUUMS, I’m Oliver and I would absolutely love to be your President next year! I’m a 2nd year BA Music student, specialising in composition and conducting, though I’m also a keen singer and dabble on double bass and piano. In my time in LUUMS I’ve been lucky enough to conduct the Chamber Choir and work on exec as the Concerts Manager, and Freshers Rep. LUUMS has been, without a doubt, the highlight of my University experience and spending time on the exec committee and wider exec committee has given me a good insight into how the society runs. I would love the chance to put this into practice and work towards giving you the best possible LUUMS experience!
My key aims are to:
A) Provide more student opportunities such as creating additional performance opportunities for soloists, chamber groups and popular musicians; shadow conductors and managers to give everyone the chance to try a wider exec role; and entry level conducting workshops aimed at giving a fun, and engaging introduction into basic conducting.
B) Engage with first years more, getting in touch with music offer-holders before they arrive, and engaging more with non-music students.
C) Bring a more community feel to the society, making every ensemble feel equal and included, ensuring all ensembles benefit from opportunities and fundraising incentives; I would also like to support the community of the society by making it easier to give feedback to the exec and ensemble management, making sure that we are all working towards giving you the best LUUMS experience possibly. Most importantly, however, I promise more than anything that I will work hard, listening to your feedback, to adapt, develop, and grow the society into the best possible society for you!
If you’d like to know more please feel free to read my more detailed manifesto below or to get in touch with me at luums.concertsmanager@gmail.com!
One of my main aims is to provide more student opportunities for everyone! I’ve seen first hand how beneficial opportunities for music leadership, conducting, and performance can be for someone’s confidence, self-esteem, and mental health. LUUMS is such a brilliant society for providing student opportunities with 11 student-run ensembles, a large student exec, performance opportunities and workshops. That being said, I’d like to push this further, spreading opportunities to a wider audience.
Firstly, I would like to start an initiative of termly shadow conductors and managers. These would be students, not already carrying out a similar role in the wider exec, who get the chance to observe, shadow, and assist the ensemble team. This may look different for each individual depending on their interests but it could include helping with rehearsal planning, observing rehearsals or meetings, learning about ensemble management or maybe even running part of the rehearsals. This would allow people not only to gain valuable experience, but to get the chance to learn more about the roles and get an opportunity to “try before you buy”, seeing if they’d be interested in running for wider exec the following year. The jump to conducting or managing an ensemble can be extremely daunting and a lot of people don’t know if they are ready to make the leap, however, the opportunity to shadow for a term would bridge the gap, allow students to gain confidence, and encourage more people to run for wider exec. I would work closely with all of our shadow conductors to make sure they were getting beneficial experience from the opportunity.
Secondly, while we have excellent opportunities for conductors, such as our yearly conducting masterclass from an industry professional, there aren’t as many opportunities to get into conducting if you’ve never done it before! This is something I would hope to change. As a Young Conducting Scholar for Sing for Pleasure I’ve been able to see the benefit of foundation-level conducting training. I’ve seen a room of young musicians go from shy, quiet teenagers to confident and authoritative musicians that are amazed by what they’ve been able to achieve. Even though many of them have no interest in conducting, a fun and engaging approach to foundation level conducting made them feel more confident and in a way gave them a voice, a few of them in particular were grinning with glee talking about how they planned to start an ensemble at their school. It’s a slightly bizarre and lengthy anecdote but I truly believe that, even for those not interested in conducting, initial training can massively boost someone’s confidence and it can even spark an interest in conducting as a pathway. On top of that it’s also great fun and it’s something that I hope a lot of people would come to for the social aspect!
Thirdly, I would like to encourage ensembles to utilise the Composers Collective. We have a fabulous open-ensemble filled with extremely capable musicians, yet they can sometimes be forgotten about. In my time in LUUMS I’ve been lucky enough to write 4 arrangements and an original piece for our ensembles, and am currently working on more. This benefits me as it gets me great experience, I’m able to hear something I’ve worked on, and I’m then able to sell it with a nice recording to other ensembles. This also benefits the ensemble as they save massive amounts of money buying or renting music, and they’re able to share a great experience with their ensemble members. Last year there were several student arrangements and original pieces performed by our ensembles. These were some of our favourite arrangements and gave everyone involved in performing them a rush as it provided a sense of excitement that you don’t get from arrangements by a stranger.
Finally, as Concerts Manager I brought back the Piano and Chamber Showcase, opening it up to soloists. This gave us an absolutely smashing concert with extremely passionate and varied performances. I would work hard with our Concerts Manager next year to push this even further, holding similar concerts in Winter and Summer, or adding an extra date in Spring. I believe giving students the opportunity to basically do whatever they like is so rewarding and results in extremely creative and passionate performances. It also gives students the chance to shine in a solo or chamber setting.
Another of my goals would be to engage students earlier in the year. I would focus a lot more on engaging first year students, we get a handful of 1st years each year and then the following year we find a swarm of 2nd years who wish they had found us sooner! As a former Freshers Rep I know that we can try to engage first years but unfortunately by the time the Freshers Rep is elected it is far too late. I would focus more on getting students engaging with LUUMS in welcome week and, more importantly, before they even arrive. If elected I would work with the School of Music team to get LUUMS included in offer-holders and introductory emails, this would include a promotional video showcasing LUUMS with clips from all our best concerts highlighting the variety of top class ensembles and performance opportunities we have. I have worked as a student ambassador for the School of Music and would love to use this experience to sell LUUMS to our new First Years! I basically stumbled upon LUUMS in my first year, I could have missed out on amazing friends and opportunities and I want to make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone!
My final goal is to improve the community feel of the society. While we have a great range of socials for everyone and an excellent level of support available for all ensembles, it can sometimes feel like 11 separate societies and I want to make sure all ensembles feel included and equal. I would love to introduce more relaxed socials to promote socialising between ensembles. I would also focus on making sure all ensembles are getting the assistance they need, whether that's logistics, publicity, or finances and fundraising. I also hope to improve communication between the exec, wider exec, and society as a whole.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read - especially if you read my 1000 word waffle! - I don’t have a catchy slogan to end my candidate statement, I just want to reiterate that if elected I have clear plan to make a few improvements to the society and I promise, not only to listen to you, but to be to be passionate, enthusiastic, and committed to creating the best possible LUUMS for you!