Summer Concert – “Dances and Marches”

Posted by Wayne Cheung (Philharmonic Society) on 20 December 2013

The Philharmonic Society held a fun and successful summer concert during the university holidays.

Is there a better way to spend the beginning of the university holidays than playing exciting music with your fellow musician friends? The Monash University Philharmonic Society’s summer season extended through to the summer holidays, and gave our players an opportunity to play some fantastic repertoire before everyone headed home for Christmas. To conclude a brilliant year, we held a concert themed “Dances and Marches” at Chandler Community Centre in Keysborough, on Sunday 15th December.

The Monash Jazz Orchestra opened the concert, playing some lovely swing classics, such as Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean A Thing along with a few other upbeat charts like Gordon Goodwin’s Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. The players’ talent was showcased by many solos, as in the big band tradition, with a special mention to our male counter-tenor vocalist, Benny Dimas, for some exquisite and captivating singing.

Monash Symphonic Winds then followed, presenting a wide variety of works from the lively Lord of the Dance by Ronan Hardiman, to the quirky “Grand Italian” Florentiner March by Julius Fučík. Adding to the informal atmosphere of this concert, our conductor Amanda Morrison used a lightsaber instead of a baton to lead John William’s Marches from Star Wars, which was a fitting accessory to this epic movie soundtrack.

After an interval accompanied by Irish folk tunes played by our very own Maghnaisch Celtic Band, the Monash Philharmonic Orchestra was our final act, taking the audience from the Viennese ball room with Johann Strauss Jr.s’ Emperor Waltz, to Red Square with Tchaikovsky’s stirring Marche Slave. To finish off the concert, our conductor Benedict Chiu invited a young audience member to conduct Sousa’s Liberty Bell March, with the audience clapping along to the famous theme as featured in Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It was a marvellous way to finish the year for the Philharmonic Society, and for everyone heading into the Christmas holiday season.

Please stay tuned for our 2014 concert season, and if you are interested in joining any of our ensembles for next year, feel free to contact us, or come have a chat with us at our stall during O-week!

Find out more about the Philharmonic Society (MUPS)