AUSTA ACT
AUSTA ACT Welcome
Austa Act aims to provide exciting professional development opportunities and activities for String teachers, performers and students in the ACT and Southern NSW region.
Since Canberra is a relatively small city, string players and teachers here have developed a strong sense of collegiality and friendship through the many years of events and support that Austa ACT has offered.
Each year we run pedagogical workshops for professional development, a large String Festival complete with non-competitive events for all school age groups, competitive AMEB grade level events and graded Concerto Competitions.
We also run a Concerto Day where students get the opportunity to play one movement of a concerto with an orchestra of AUSTA members and friends. Our regular relaxing dinners also provide members with opportunities to network with friends and colleagues.
AUSTA ACT looks forward to welcoming all new players, teachers and students to our upcoming events.
Louise Butler
President, AUSTA ACT
AUSTA ACT – AGM Report – November 2020
2020 has been a very strange year for AUSTA ACT, but we have managed to have several very successful events.
We started the year with many local teachers enjoying our first ‘Teaching Beginners Forum’ with sessions in 2 rooms for upper and lower strings lead by pairs of local members.
Sadly the Covid pandemic caused our annual String Festival and Concerto Competitions to be cancelled, but we still managed to hold a small socially distanced Reading Day, to the satisfaction of our local String Ensemble conductors.
Members have really enjoyed the many zoom events from around the country. It is wonderful to attend workshops in Brisbane, Melbourne and even Perth from the comfort and economy of your own home!
In November we ran our inaugural nationwide zoom event with Dr Evgeny Sorkin exploring Russian history to illuminate the cultural influences which have contributed to the distinctive sounds of Russian music. He will continue his explorations with another event in the coming year.
We will conclude the year with a Covid safe Christmas lunch at a local restaurant.
Thanks very much to Karen for all her technical assistance with zoom and all her ever cheerful support over the last few years! You have done your job very well, thanks!
Louise
January 2020 Report
At the end of November members and their partners enjoyed a relaxing Christmas Dinner to celebrate the end of another successful year.
Unfortunately our summer holidays were less than relaxing as many of us hosted bushfire refugees and tried to entertain bored children whilst blanketed in thick smoke for weeks on end! As if that wasn’t enough, we then sustained severe hail damage to our homes and cars in a massive storm! For some of us it will be a relief to go back to work if we have something to drive!
Our next committee meeting will be on 9th February, where we will continue preparations for our:
- Teaching Beginners Forum on 29th Feb
- Annual String Festival on 15 – 17th May. Robert Harris will be our adjudicator this year.
- Barry Green’s visit
- Annual Reading Day date still to be decided
- Harry Potter Stringfest at the end of August.
In the next few weeks I will be having meetings with the SoM, MfC and many other local groups to encourage them to support Barry Green’s visit, and hopefully accept a great offer of a venue for his evening presentation!
Louise Butler
November 2019 Report
On 7th December Music for Canberra is holding their final String Stream concert for the year and I will present them with a donation of 2 scores from AUSTA ACT. Our committee felt that this might be a good way to support the excellent work that our local youth orchestra organisation does for all of our students.
We have also been busy planning some exciting events for next year.
On Saturday 29th February we will be holding a Teaching Beginners Forum with upper strings to be lead by Gillian Bailey-Graham and Jenny Higgs, and lower strings lead by Lindy Reksten and myself.
Planning is well underway for our annual String Festival in May, and support and enthusiasm is building from other local musical organisations for Barry Green
Notices
AUSTA ACT Report
We have had a fairly quiet start to the year with just one event so far. We held a Bowing Workshop with Rosemary Macphail presenting a session called
Events
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Past Events
November 2023
February 2024
June 2024
July 2024
August 2024