University's Music Department Adds the Glitter to Celebration Event

15th December 2009

Bath Spa University hosted a lively evening of music and theatrical entertainment at its Newton Park campus on Thursday 10 December. This was designed as a ‘thank you’ to the many businesses and organisations that volunteer their time and support to mentor our students and to working in partnership with the University. The event celebrated the enterprise and innovation they help us to achieve at Bath Spa University and provided a networking opportunity for businesses, staff and students.

The event included the Vice Chancellor’s presentation of this year’s Innovation Awards for the best new concepts with commercial potential. A programme of entertainment by our talented students entertained people as they networked. This featured the Big Band 2, the Georgian Band and Chamber Choir, 7 Days Sleep and two extracts from Hamlet by graduate theatre company ‘The Ruffled Umbrella’. Additionally, guests were able to watch the showreel from the University’s first Fashion Show this July, which has been instrumental in securing a catwalk show during Graduate Fashion Week in London in 2010.

Paul Ridgers, Managing Director of RH Advertising Ltd remarked “It really was a most enjoyable dose of jazz and classical music and fine acting - very impressive. I picked up some good contacts too”.

For many guests, it was an opportunity to see different aspects of the university that they may not have known about or come into contact with before.

Victoria Jones, Barrister at 3PB, enthused “I thought it was amazing! What an amazing university and place generally! And the effort put in to all the various things going on was amazing too.”

The Music Department

The Music Department at Bath Spa University has over 400 students taking undergraduate courses in Music, Commercial Music and Creative Music Technology as well as postgraduate courses in Composition and Song Writing. Our graduates are active in many areas of the music industry and some have created an international profile for their work.

The acts of performing and creating music are central to the Music Department’s mission and our students perform at a wide variety of venues around the UK. Recent student performances have included Bath International Music Festival 2009 (performing in the Sir Harrison Birtwistle celebrations), Bath Abbey, Guildhall, Bristol Music Foundation, Bristol Watershed, Komedia and Moles Club.

Our student ensembles include:

Symphony Orchestra
Georgian Band (chamber orchestra)
BB1 (large big band)
BB2 (specialist big band)
Wind Band
Choir
Chamber Choir
Material (experimental music group)
Behaviour (electronic ensemble)
Brass Ensemble
String Ensemble
Flute Choir
Clarinet Ensemble
A large number of rock bands

Guests at the Celebration of Enterprise & Innovation enjoyed performances from the following groups:

BB2 - a student big band set up to perform challenging contemporary music, including original student work. The set included the first performance of a new piece called ‘Fuffle’ by Ralf Dorrell. The rest of the programme consisted of ‘Orilla del Mar’, ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ and ‘Critical Mass’.
Georgian Band and Chamber Choir. The Georgian Band was set up to perform music from the Georgian period and to explore Bath’s many historical connections. For the event, they performed an aria and two choruses from Handel’s oratorio ‘Saul’.
7 Days of Sleep – a student band with a knack for crafting a sound that is all at once old-fashioned and yet utterly futuristic!

Further information about any of our courses, ensembles or services can be obtained from Dr Charles Wiffen, Head of Department of Music at c.wiffen@bathspa.ac.uk or 01225 875761. Alternatively, visit the School of Music and Performing Arts website.

The Business Card Draw

Guests were able to enter a business card draw to win a piece of ceramic artwork from Bath Spa University’s award winning graduate business ‘PoeticEarth Ltd’. Claire Baker was a second year ceramics undergraduate when she won £1,000 in the University’s Business Plan Competition to develop her Prayer Pot business.

Winners of the prayer pot and Victoriana jug were Alistair Singleton of Hannover Fox and Andy Fuller of Design Bull respectively.

The Innovation Awards 2009

The Vice Chancellor, Professor Frank Morgan, presented this year’s awards at the Celebration event.

Adam Butler, a third year student studying a BA in graphic communications at Bath Spa University’s School of Art & Design has won this year’s Innovation Award for his concept to develop a machine vision software kit. Adam’s prize is a package worth £10,000, which includes seed-corn funding for prototype development as well as expert business advice, guidance and mentoring from an industry expert in this field.

Runner-up is Amanda Goode, a member of staff in the University’s Fashion, Textiles and 3D Design Department. Amanda wins a package of support worth £4,000 to develop her ‘New from Old: re-working the unwanted to produce the ‘must have’ concept. Using discarded artefacts and materials, Amanda disassembles and combines them to rework them with textile technology into her own designs for the interiors market.