UNSW Orchestra cellist and Society of Orchestras and Pipers Secretary, Cassandra Ly has been actively involved in keeping the music going here at UNSW. We gave her a call to see what she has planned for Term 2! 

Transcript

Alex Siegers: Welcome to Term 2. UNSW Orchestra cellist and SOAP Secretary Cassandra Ly has been actively involved in keeping the music going here at UNSW. We gave her a call to see what she has planned for Term 2.

Cassandra Ly: My name’s Cassandra, I’m a 3^rd year student at UNSW. I’m studying a double degree in Music and Secondary Education. I’ve been part of SOAP as well since 2018 when I started at UNSW and the past 2 years I’ve been a part of their exec team. This year I’m their secretary and it’s been lots of fun – a bit challenging considering the world situation at the moment – but always a rewarding experience.

CL: So COVID kind of hit at the middle of our first term and it was a lot of readjusting to be done on our part because, you know, it was really hard to come to terms with the fact that we’re not going to have any more rehearsals or concerts kind of indefinitely. As a society we felt kind of helpless. And we were trying to do a little bit of research of what other musicians are doing during this time and that’s when we came across the hashtag #KeepTheMusicGoing. And when we looked at it, I mean it was just musicians playing in their bedroom, living room, kitchen, things like that. And we thought we should bring that to UNSW as well. So we reached out to all the members of SOAP asking them if they were interested in just giving us just a 2-3 minute performance, any piece they wanted. We’re really encouraging because we really want to showcase what, all their skills, especially cause they can’t – they don’t have a concert at the end of term.

CL: We have gotten a lot of positive responses. A lot of people are actually willing to perform for us which has been great. Showing it off on our Facebook, Instagram. Sharing it with tutors, lecturers, parents, families. Yeah, it’s been really good to see.

CL: Well in terms of our society, SOAP wants to continue our online concert series. We were thinking of trying to encourage maybe some duets and trios as well, to spice things up a little bit. We also do want to start planning some social events. Of course it will all have to be online. So things like movie night, game nights online. We’re starting to just – we’re in the beginning of planning all that. So hopefully all our society members will come along to that.

CL: For me personally, what I’m looking forward to the most is honestly coming out the other end of this all. Hopefully by the end of this term more restrictions will have lifted, more people will start feeling little bit more safe and healthy walking around. I really do miss going to concerts, and playing in concerts and collaborating – collaborating with musicians and friends in person. So I’m sure there is a lot of excitement to look forward to. Hopefully by the end of this term. Fingers crossed!