Community outside rehearsals: The role of cricket at NMC
National Music Camp is about music. No prizes there unless there is an Order of Australia for Services for Stating the Bleeding Obvious. But in the small snippets of time between rehearsals, tutorials, more rehearsals and (depending on who you hang around with) 3-8 hours of sleep, there are a few other things that occupy students time. One of these is cricket.
Cricket is not a matter of life, death or transfiguration (do you hear that Ricky?) but it does however occupy a fairly significant part of camp life. I went to my first music camp in 2001 and in the 10 years since, it seems that cricket is as much a part of the camp experience now as it was then. Our Music Director Paul Dean seems almost as excited about the prospect of unleashing his pull shot on Thursday night (dream on Paul, you can’t pull past 35, just ask Ricky) as he does about the concerts. You can also be sure that many a student will relish the prospect of sending a bouncer screaming past a conductor’s nose in retaliation for any perceived slight in rehearsal.
Over the next few days, any conductor or tutor who says ‘just once more’ for the 10th time or ‘very good, but again with feeling’ should be careful. They can guarantee that any bowlers in the orchestra will be plotting just how quick their yorker is or evaluating the ethics of bouncing Dale Barltrop.
We all know what will happen: the staff will win in an orchestration of match fixing that would make Hansie Cronje blush- you read it here first folks. The result however is not important (really Paul, it’s not,) because the effect of activities like the cricket match is much deeper. Such social activities allow all musicians; students and staff, to relax and connect over an activity other than music. The relationships formed at these AYO activities extend all the way through student’s careers and lives. If I had scored a run for every time I heard that people originally met at camp, I would have had a higher Ashes aggregate than Michael Clarke (read that how you will).
These relationships create better musicians and better people and helps camp to continue its role as an engine room of Australian youth music.
Now perhaps that would make Ricky Ponting feel better.
Jack Chenoweth