Two saxophone students recently turned arts managers when they were involved in organising a special concert to celebrate 200 years since the birth of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.
Alice Atkinson and Joshua Jones are both fourth year students. They were tasked with helping to arrange the concert, and used the opportunity to turn the event into a saxophone spectacular, featuring performances, trade stands, a drinks reception and a massed sax performance in the foyer.
Tell us a bit about your involvement in the concert.
Alice: As part of our concert management module, we were set the task of generally helping out with the wind orchestra, but we wanted to go bigger than that. We decided we were going to get TV, trade stands, a champagne reception – and we organised all those things in the end. We got sponsorship from Barnes and Mullins, Made in Cardiff TV and S4C came to film, we were interviewed on local radio, and we had a trade stand out in the foyer.
Joshua: One of our teachers said ‘You’ll get out of it what you put into it’, so Alice and I put absolutely everything we had into it. It’s been so much fun, and so useful for the future.
So what did you learn from working on the project?
Joshua: We’ve learnt all kinds of things, from enhancing our communication skills to opening our eyes to how much goes into planning a concert – from communicating with technical operations to the press team to the box office. Everyone was so helpful, and we got a lot of useful advice.
Alice: I’ve learnt a lot doing it. Our sax quartet has got a big project coming up and an album coming out, and now we have all these contacts, and we’ll be using all of our new-found tools to promote it.
Amy Dickson performed at the Sax 200 concert and took part in a masterclass with students.
You also got to meet Amy Dickson and take part in a masterclass with her. How did that go?
Alice: Amy was really nice and really supportive. I got lots of little technical tips. Someone who’s never seen you play before can instantly pick up on any little habits you’ve developed. There’s so much you can take from a masterclass, you just want to keep asking questions.
Joshua: She definitely nailed the two things you want in a masterclass – she covered technique and how you play the chosen piece. After my piece she went through some of the phrasing – those extra suggestions take your playing to the next level
Alice: It’s really exciting seeing someone who’s doing what you want to do, and really successful at it, you want to meet more of those types of people and ask them how to get there and what you should be doing. That’s one of reasons we organised the drinks reception for Amy and the other soloists – so the students could have that interaction.
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