Queen’s Concert Orchestra Society: A Nascent and Original Ensemble

By Daniel Rankin

A most recent addition to the music world of QUB is the recently established Concert Orchestra Society. I spoke to Matthew Waller, percussionist in the orchestra, with reference to their concert this Friday, Old Worlds New Worlds.

You were formed in September, this last semester. As a new society, how have you been getting on?

M: I think we’ve had a very, very successful first few months, obviously. Any small society, and I think especially an orchestra, has a lot of on their resources and their organisational ability in the first few months and we’ve, despite our limited resources, we’ve managed to organise socials, we’ve managed to organise an excellent concert in December. We’ve taken those challenges in the new semester and we’ve kind of reshaped our vision of the orchestra based on what we’ve experienced. I think the current moment that we’re experiencing is really really exciting, and watch out for us.

What is your role being in the society both musically and in terms of organising it?

M: I am the person standing at the background hitting things; I play percussion. I feel like my role on the committee and my role in percussion is quite similar in terms of supporting the rest of the orchestra in whatever endeavours they wish to pursue. So yeah, obviously I get a lot of musical fulfilment being part of the percussion section, especially as it’s a small section – sometimes just me – but it’s a nice musical challenge and I do feel fulfilled.

You are a small society; how do you work with the scale?

M: You know, we fluctuate, I think it’s about 25, 30. Small… yeah. Intimate. In terms of the kind of governance structure of the orchestra, I’m the Outreach Officer, so I’ve been tasked with maintaining the external relations with the orchestra. I think a big part of our ethos is that we intend on collaborating with bodies both within the SU and outside the SU and more broadly, we aim to do so in the local community. So I think my role is crucially important to the overall direction of the orchestra and I’m very honoured to have it.

Your debut was in December with a ‘Merry Little Concert’. How was that for the orchestra?

M: That kind of encapsulated the collaborative ethos because we did it with the Queen’s Choral and Singing Society who were simply excellent, both musically and great people to work with. It was It was a good kind of learning experience as well, collaborating with a well-established society. In terms of the actual musical concept of this performance, it was obviously a Christmas concert, you can’t really go wrong with much of that. We did some Christmas music and I think we did mainly non-Christmas music actually, thinking of it, because I was shaking up the formula a bit. I think we did a nice range of pieces, we did some quite unique arrangements, so the In Dulci Jubilo arrangement with Mike Oldfield version, in which we had a recorder doing the electric guitar solo, which I thought was quite cool and unconventional… we did some classic classical arrangements as well so it was a mix of comfort and adventure. We attracted a big audience for it and it was a very special evening and I’m elated to have taken part in it.

What is your focus compared to other music groups at QUB?

M: I think orchestral visions can be sufficiently different enough to be able to coexist and mutually benefit from the approach taken by other orchestra and the approach that’s really been fleshed out for us is that emphasis on the unconventional, the more intimate and the more collaborative. I think we’re moving towards a focus on kind of small group work so I think there’s talk of having a baroque ensemble, so there’s a very diverse exploration of genres with entailing an emphasis on small group playing. Collaboration is not just external but internal as well because even though we’ll have quite disparate musical pursuits, it’s about working between those and appreciating each other’s musical interests.

On Friday is the ‘Old World New World’ concert. What’s that about?

The concept of the overall, as you can probably tell from the name, is that we include a mix of music which represents something modern in the time period sense. We play a lot of pieces from, I think we’re doing Where Is My Husband by Raye, so that’s very modern. But we’re also doing some pieces which are both older in terms of the date they were released, but also the feel of them, I think. So it’s a concert of two halves really and it’s a very good musical exploration of different styles and how music’s evolved over a few hundred years which I think should be enjoyable for the audience that we get.

Follow the Concert Orchestra Society on Instagram @concertorchestrasociety to acquire your free ticket!

All image credits the Concert Orchestra Society.