AUSTA TAS – AGM Report – November 2020

Ending a very difficult 2020 AUSTA TAS are hosting online interviews with some marvellous local string professionals:

“In Conversation with Jo St. Leon: an interview and live Q&A with a Tasmanian Violist”  (TBC)

And

“The Menuhin School and Legacy: An Afternoon Chat with Peter Tanfield.” 2.00pm, Saturday 12 December.

AUSTA TAS has a modest online presence reaching over 300 people through our Facebook page: Australian Strings Association – TAS and Twitter feed @AustaTas. With any luck pending Covid restrictions, AUSTA TAS can make more of a community presence in 2021 with our popular events including the Adult Chamber Music Weekend in Oatlands, the AMEB Scales Bootcamps and String Workshops with special guest artists.

The Residential Summer String Camp will be going ahead as planned in January 2021 directed by one of our valuable members Margaret Hoban. Tutors and Conductors will include visitors from interstate as well as string teachers from around Tasmania and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Season’s Greetings,

David Sanzone

January 2020 Report

With our first committee meeting for 2020 coming up this weekend, most of our events and committee roles are yet to be confirmed. We will welcome new members and give thanks to Audrey Akerman for her work as treasurer for the past many years.

Our calendar will kick off with the statewide chamber music weekend held in Oatlands. Events to be confirmed include the string performers festival, AMEB Scales Bootcamps and 2019 Award winners concert. We are all looking forward to hosting Barry Green in June.

November 2019 Report

AUSTA TAS has held one event and free ticket competitions since our last national meeting. The AMEB ‘Scales Bootcamp’ went ahead with a modest turnout at the Hutchins School led by Kate Calwell, Jessica Wright and myself. We have a database of about fifty string players who have participated in the Scales Bootcamp over the years, so we are pleased that it is a popular event however the date always seems to clash with other things so we will consider holding it much earlier in 2020.

Through our online activity we recently held free ticket competitions to Virtuosi Tasmania’s Brahms and Schubert Concerts, which toured around the state in November. It was slow getting the notice out on Facebook so I’m not sure what the problem was there – usually it is pretty quick. We have 232 followers on Facebook and 36 followers on Twitter.

Unfortunately, our winners concert has to be rescheduled due to availability of the venue and committee members. We will look at later in December or January 2020.  The state committee are yet to have our final meeting for 2019, which has been tricky to confirm as so many of us have ongoing concerts and rehearsals. We are looking forward to 2020, which always kicks off with Margaret Hoban’s Residential Summer String Camp.