Options for the assignment

As you have seen before, I didn't get a single positive reply for my e-mails sent to various orchestras, musicians and venues. Therefore, I am forced to reconsider what I am going to work on for my final assignment.
As I have written before, I will be recording a concert of Fitzwilliam Choir which is singing together with St Edmunds Hall Choir in St Peter's Church in Leicester. Quite possibly, this recording will became my assignment for the Final Project - that is now being discussed with my supervisor. The other option is to use the Kettle's Yard recording and finally finish the production of the album to hand it in as the Final Project.
As for the recording of the 2 Choirs, so far I know that it looks like it is going to be quite challenging:

'...the main choir will be singing near the front of the church, but during two of the pieces there will be groups of four soloists who would probably be singing near the back of the church.

[...] the organ scholar at St Edmunds Hall still doesn't know exact numbers for the concert. I'd guess numbers in the combined choirs would be between 25-30, but will tell you as soon as we get a definite answer!'

Looks like I will have to take big, fat and heavy Fostex HDD recorder with mixing table and a tonne of microphones...

Another e-mail sent

Yesterday I found information on another concert of Academy of Ancient Music themed '4 Seasons' (that is the first one coming up on the list here).
...and I still haven't got any reply to my previous 3 e-mails.

After Christmas Break

After long break, time to get back to work.
As Final Studio Practice was cancelled today, I spent some time looking for more concerts to record. I managed to send 3 e-mails: to Cambridge Symphonic Winds, National Youth Jazz Orchestra and Restaurant Alimentum, which hosts weekly Jazz Club.
Also, I got the proposition to record Fitzwilliam College Choir giving a concert together with some other Choir (sorry for imprecise information, but I can't get to my Fitz e-mail from my university network) on the 14th of March. I already agreed and I plan to have this concert as a backup material for the live performance.
Now, I just wait for the replies to come...

Searching for a concert to record

A couple of weeks ago, I started searching for the concert I could record to produce a live album for the Final Project.

I started looking on the website of Corn Exchange, probably the biggest event venue in Cambridge (http://www.cornex.co.uk/ccm/portal/). For some reason, as you can probably guess from the recordings I've done so far, I really like recording classical music. Therefore, I found International Concert Series very interesting and I sent an e-mail to Corn Exchange asking for possibilities to record one of the concerts. To have enough time both for preparing before the concert, and for processing and producing the album afterwards, I have only 2 options: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on 22.01.2009, or Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra on 3.02.2009.

I got very nice reply saying that as long as performers are happy to record the event, the venue will let me do it as well - good start! Today, I sent an e-mail to BSO, and now I am searching for a contact to RSPO. Fingers crossed!

UPDATE:

On this website, I found out who is managing the tour of RSPO in the UK, and e-mailed him as well. Fingers crossed again!

Final Project confirmed

Today I had my first chat with my project supervisor, John. He basically agreed and confirmed that my proposal is OK. He advised me to get in touch with British Library in London and search for logbooks of some good sound engineers that worked on live performances. Great idea for an initial research.
Apart of that, as a part of initial research, I should start looking for a concert to record. Hopefully, there is something interesting going on this autumn / winter in Cambridge.

Final Project - beginning

The draft idea for my Final Project is to record the whole live concert somewhere. I wish it to be a bit bigger than a Lunchtime Concert in Mumford and after my first meeting with my Project Supervisor (John W. kindy agreed to supervise my project), I will start looking for an appropriate event.

Introduction

This blog is a log of my activity during the final year of Audio and Music Technology. At least 2 modules, both lasting for 2 semesters, require me to have a sort of log - hence this blog.
The logs of different modules will be labelled accordingly.
Although the main purpose of this blog is to keep the record for my tutors and myself, everyone is more than welcome to have a look :)