- Student
- 30/11/2020
Auletes bakes cookies, but would much rather make music
Step outside your head for a moment, focus on your musical instrument and on the sound of the group: music remains a priority during the corona crisis to the students of wind orchestra Auletes, a sub-association of Eindhoven Student Music Association Quadrivium. But how do you keep your head above water, both financially and mentally, when you can’t play for an audience any time soon, or rehearse together? Well, with Christmas cookies, for example.
It’s not the intention, by the way, to give too much publicity to this initiative. Because, says Auletes commissioner Cas Mous: this first cookie baking round is meant primarily for those among the orchestra’s own social circles - if only because carrying out too many ‘transactions’ on the TU/e terrain seems like a bad idea, in light of the corona measures.
“We tried something new, and set it up rather quickly. But if this turns out to be something of a success, we intend to set up more initiatives in the future, in which we would like to involve other students too,” Mous says. But for now, the QuerstQkskes (Christmas cookies - or kerstkuukskes, in Brabant dialect) will be reserved for family, friends and acquaintances only. If the orchestra earns a few hundred euros with the sale, the commissioner will be very satisfied.
A tasty pastime, but Mous and his fellow Auletes members much prefer to make music. “Step outside your head for a moment, focus on your musical instrument and on the sound of the group you’re in; that’s what matters most to us in the end.” And yes, especially now that the increased number of hours spent behind laptop and computer screens cost so much energy in times of corona, while the need for energy only grows. “I hardly touched my trumpet during the lockdown. There was nothing I had to rehearse for anyway.”
Lockdown
The last time Auletes stood on a podium was on Sunday, March 7. Together with symphony orchestra Ensuite and mixed choir Vokollage, it took part in student music association Quadrivium’s anniversary concert in a relatively small theater in Zutphen. One week later, the much larger podium of Muziekgebouw Eindhoven beckoned. However, two days before that concert was to take place, the corona measures threw a spanner in the works; the first lockdown was a fact.
Read on below the photo.
Since then, Auletes has been trying to cope with the pandemic in the best way possible, just like everyone else. Rehearsing was out of the question for a long time during the spring, only in the summer did the musicians get together physically again, albeit mostly with a smaller group. The orchestra - which consists of fifty members in total - will have to make do after the summer as well. The doors of the Pulsar hall in Luna will remain closed for the time being, which is why Auletes went from hall to hall for some time, searching for a place that would welcome them. Mous, laughing: “We even played in a Turkish wedding room.”
At the moment, the orchestra was forced to split up into two groups of no more than thirty people. “It looked as though we wouldn’t be able to rehearse with the entire orchestra any time soon, which is why we switched to a new program.”
Under the name ‘Auletes 2gether,’ the orchestra is now preparing for a studio session - to take place at the start of the Christmas holiday - during which they will record two pieces, which they will share via Spotify, among other platforms. “That way, we can still make ourselves heard. Making a professional spot-on recording is great fun anyway; really different from a recording with a few microphones during a concert, when something always goes wrong.”
Brass band
One group is made up of “the brass and percussion. We finally have our own Auletes Brass band.” That band is currently working on ‘A journey to the Bermuda Triangle’ by Pimpanit Karoonyavanich. The other group is made up of the woodwinds - including clarinets, saxophones and bassoons - and will play ‘Slavonica!’ by Philip Starke. “Normally, the woodwind section has more of a central position in a wind orchestra, with the brass adding a kind of nice flavor. We play in an entirely different setting now, and you can see that musicians are developing in completely different areas as a result. Very instructive.”
In addition: “Everyone is just really happy that we can do something. At a one-and-a-half-meter distance, admittedly, and without drinks afterwards; it’s just rehearsing and going home again. Everyone is very precise in that, and that makes me really proud. But at least we have some kind of social moment for everyone to go to and look forward to every week.”
No ticket sale
Even though Auletes managed to arrange the planned studio recordings, mixing and mastering for a friendly price, all of the orchestra’s activities still need to be paid for. And that creates an extra challenge this year, since ticket sale for concerts is usually the main source of income: “That normally generates thousands of euros.” And the chances of successfully applying for grants are slim as well this year, due to the lack of an audience. That is why Auletes hopes to maintain its finances with other, sometimes playful initiatives (such as the QuerstQkskes).
“We feel that it’s important that activities can still take place. Many people within the association share their ideas on how to realize that.” But regardless of all online activities; an orchestra can’t do without an audience in the end, Mous says. “With an audience in the hall, all the accumulated energy erupts in a single moment. That is what you work towards.”
Woman Up!
The anniversary concert in the Muziekgebouw that had been cancelled earlier, is now scheduled to take place in November 2021. But the student musicians hope to play live again sooner, in a musical project that has women’s emancipation throughout the years as its theme. ‘Woman Up!’ is planned for March 21 of next year in the Augustinium in Eindhoven, where the orchestra hopes to give two concerts for an audience of one hundred for now.
“That is under the condition that we can rehearse with the entire orchestra, and we should really return to the old threat level for that,” Mous says, referring to the Dutch corona road map. Auletes wants to make a decision about its plans (or an eventual plan B or C) immediately after the turn of the year. The orchestra hopes to secure financial contributions from, among others, TU/e’s Diversity Fund for this production.
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