Volunteering at the 20th ACCET Conference

This year I was asked to help out in the kitchen at the 20th ACCET (Australian Choral Conductors Education and Training) Conference in Melbourne.
www.choralconductors.org.au 

This involved helping with the "Sing for Life" choir rehearsal all day on Sunday and then with the four days of the conference proper. All the delegates were very well fed and watered - tea and coffee available in the morning before the day's sessions started, and then a succession of morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. On the day with the "Sing for Life" open rehearsal in the evening, there was a late afternoon snack beforehand as well.

I was surprised as to what a labour-intensive and time-intensive process this all turned out to be, and went home each day exhausted. Tables had to be laid out with plates, cutlery, napkins and serving implements before each food service and then cleared and cleaned afterwards. Massive quantities of fruit had to be chopped up into individual portions before each session. Leftovers had to be packed away, water and cordial jugs, urns, tea, coffee and sugar topped up and catering trays and implements cleaned and washed. Whew!

The compost bugs in the back yard were the beneficiaries of most of the food which would otherwise have been thrown out - something which I cannot bear to see. There were some edible leftovers as well, which were shared around. It was also interesting to see the vagiaries of calculating the right amount of supplies and fruit for the entire week. Even though we had to "hang back" in terms of taking something to eat, we didn't miss out on too much. The catering was pretty good - by Rumbles. I didn't like everything they came up with, but I suppose you are never going to please everybody all of the time. Most of the delegates were very complimentary about the catering, and sometimes it was as if a horde of locusts had descended on the tables (particularly the day that warm quiches were served for lunch - no luck in getting any of those!).

What's that you say? What about the Conference?

Ah well, I did get to some of the sessions but not as much as I would have liked. It was possible to get to the morning sessions until about 10-10.15am, but sadly not the sessions between morning tea and lunch as these were too close together (10.45am and 12.30pm). Usually I saw a little of the session after lunch before having to head back for afternoon tea prep, and on a couple of days got to part of the final afternoon session.

The guests of honour were Dr Edith Copley, a conductor and educator from North Arizona University, and Bob Stewart, a singer, conductor and educator originally hailing from Canada but now an Australian citizen. Bob was a delight, with his infectious enthusiasm and approachability, and Edith came across as very knowledgeable, charismatic and a great motivator. Probably some of the highlights were the Wednesday evening recital given by attendees from the Piano Accompanists' Summer School and soloists, Edith's session on voice placement, Faye Dumont's warm-up session and Bob's enthusiastic sharing of useful apps he has on his iPad. It was good to be able to attend part of some of the repertoire sessions involving singing through a variety of music from the generous music pack provided to conference attendees. I certainly found some pieces which were of interest and have put some forward for my own choir in the coming year.

The Conference is organised by the small ACCET Committee, all volunteers, and they do a sterling job. There were also three "Student Assistants" ably helping out with the catering, office managements and A-V matters. I have been to the Conference three times now, and it has been very successful and very worthwhile for the attendees each time. Some music retailers also attend and this is a great service for attendees who live in regional and remote areas.

Ideally I would have liked to participate in the conducting tuition workshops to continue developing my skills, but at least I was able to watch some of the tuition sessions for the advanced group and picked up some tips from this.

I would highly recommend this conference for anyone interested in choral conducting, and even if you are "just a chorister" with no conducting aspirations, you still get a lot out of it - singing, warm-ups, a better knowledge of what conductors might expect and getting to watch lots of different conducting styles.