SCUNA's 40th Birthday celebrations

The SCUNA logo On this page: Hartley's toast | Official invitation | Weekend activities
Elsewhere on this site: Photos from Gerrie Titulaer
On the SCUNA website: Programme booklet from the 40th Birthday celebrations
Includes history of SCUNA by Michael Sawer
Send pix! If you have photos you'd like to share from the reunion,
please me.

From the dinner

A toast to Australia and the Australian National University
by Hartley of Garran Hall

I rise to propose the first toast to our nation,
And our beloved centre of high education.
As we enter its halls with a sense of elation
To attend our old choir's 40th year celebration
Which once was our means of artistic creation,
We remember with joy every standing ovation
That greeted our chords of sacred incantation.

How we used to aspire to create a sensation
Through reaching new heights of divine inspiration,
More often with aid of some spirituous libation
We sank to extreme depths of intoxication.
Sometimes with a sense of renewed aspiration
We might try to arrange a discreet assignation
With one of the same sexual inclination,
Though this often would end with a sense of frustration
Due to too far advanced state of inebriation.

But, now since I'm starting to sense your impatien...
Ce, I'll straightway proceed to my brief peroration.
To music, to art and to versification.
Our dear ANU and our glorious nation.
Please raise now your glasses to show acclamation.

The official invitation

The ANU Choral Society (SCUNA) is celebrating its 40th birthday this year, on the weekend of 12-14 December 2003 in Canberra. You are warmly invited to join us in the festivities!

SCUNA will present an afternoon concert on Saturday 13 December. The program will include works from SCUNA's very first concert as well as carols and a selection of songbook favorites. All former SCUNA members are encouraged to participate in part of this concert.

A Reunion Dinner will be held on the Saturday night at University House, in the grand tradition of Intervarsity Academic Dinners, and may include carol singing on the lawns afterwards.

There will also be an informal get-together on the Friday evening, a BBQ/picnic on the Sunday and a variety of other activity possibilities. Discounted accommodation is available at University House [mention the SCUNA 40th!] and child-minding can be arranged.

Registration forms for SCUNA's 40th Reunion Weekend are available from the SCUNA website. Responses are now due and tickets for the dinner must be paid in advance. Please pass this message on to other ex-SCUNAe or else tell us of their whereabouts.

We hope to see you in Canberra in December!

Caroline Woolias, SCUNA President (email president at scuna.aicsa.org.au)
and the SCUNA 40th Working Group (email scuna40th at scuna.aicsa.org.au)
(Helen Guy, Val T, Michael Sawer, Belinda Ketley, Mark Chapman, Alan Girvan, Annabel Wheeler, Cyndy Kelchner)

The SCUNA 40th Birthday Celebrations are supported by the ANU Office of Alumni Relations

Activities

Dear SCUNA Friends,

Here's a rundown of activities for the weekend which we hope will be of interest to everyone, coming or not. Saturday is the most structured day, with the concert and dinner, but there are opportunities to relax and socialise with other former and current members on Friday and Sunday.

We may need to send out a further update before Friday 12 December. We're hoping you'll stay on our mailing list after the reunion for occasional updates about ongoing projects (to be announced at the Reunion Dinner) and about SCUNA activities, but please let us know at scuna40th at scuna.aicsa.org.au if you wish to be removed from the list.

Thanks to those of you who've let us know you're unable to come - your greetings will be conveyed at the Reunion Dinner. And thanks to those of you who've registered - we're looking forward to seeing you soon!

- SCUNA 40th Working Group

Reminder: Registration forms due

Please get your rego form and payment to SCUNA, PO Box 2593, Canberra ACT 2601 immediately!

Concert dress

Concert dress is SCUNA or 40th Reunion t-shirt and black bottoms, or white top and black bottoms.

Call for singers from Judith Clingan AM

If there are any past or present SCUNAE who would like to be in a small group to sing some of Judy's compositions at the Reunion Dinner, with a maximum of two rehearsals on "not-straightforward" music, please email scuna40th at scuna.aicsa.org.au

Other musical items for the dinner

Limited time may be available on the programme. Please email scuna40th at scuna.aicsa.org.au with details.

Friday 12 December 2003

Till 9pm: Collect your dinner ticket, programme and merchandise from the reunion stall in the main foyer of University House
  Dinner possibilities:
  • The Cellar at University House: eat indoors, or in the Fellows Garden with live jazz from ~5-8pm
  • Other dinner ideas
7pm-9.30pm
  • Current SCUNAe have a compulsory rehearsal in Manning-Clark Theatre 2
  • Ex-SCUNAe who are singing in the carols/song book part of the concert programme don't need to attend the Friday evening rehearsal
7.30pm-~9.30pm Canberra Playback Theatre (with our own Rik Allen!) presents Back Yard Yarns at Downer Community Hall, Downer Shops, Frencham Street. Entry by donation ($10-$15 suggested). See end of this message for details
8pm onwards Ex-SCUNAe are welcome to meet at a SCUNA member's house (location in your dinner programme) where you'll be joined by current members for coffee after the rehearsal

Saturday 13 December 2003

Till 1pm Collect your dinner ticket, programme and merchandise from the reunion stall in the foyer of the Hall at University House

If you're singing in the concert...

10am:Dress rehearsal, University House
12 noon-1pm:Quick lunch (prepaid) at University House between rehearsal and choir call
1pm:Choir call
2pm-4pm:SCUNA 40th Birthday Concert at University House

If you're not singing in the concert...

Morning:See In your spare time... section below
Afternoon:Attend the SCUNA concert!

The Dinner

7 for 7.30pm:SCUNA 40th Birthday Reunion Dinner at the Hall, University House
11pm:Carol singing on the lawns outside the Hall, followed by Post Dinner Party (location in your dinner programme)

Sunday 14 December 2003

Recovery party/picnic lunch (location in your dinner programme)

In your spare time...

Various times:Visit a local winery
Sunday only, 9-10am: Visit the belfry of St Paul's Manuka (corner Canberra Avenue and Captain Cook Crescent) to watch service ringing in progress. Note: access to belfry is strictly limited and must be arranged in advance with Susan Tonkin - please email scuna40th at scuna.aicsa.org.au with your request. Alternatively, arrive early for the 10am (Anglican) service to glimpse, and hear, the ringers from the nave below.
Saturday / Sunday from 9am: The National Museum of Australia (Acton Peninsula, adjacent ANU) may be new to you if you haven't been in Canberra for a while. Admission to general exhibitions is free, inspect the steamboat at the Museum wharf, or you can pay to see 'Outlawed! - rebels, revolutionaries and bushrangers'.
Saturday / Sunday 9am-5pm: Questacon - The National Science and Technology Centre, King Edward Terrace, Parkes. Duration: 2 hours minimum. Cost: $11 adult, $6 child, $7 con, $32 family (2 adults and up to 3 children). Extra child $4.
Saturday / Sunday 12 noon-5pm: 2003 ANU School of Art Graduating Students Show - School of Art, Ellery Crescent Acton.
Saturday / Sunday 12 noon-5pm: Canberra Museum and Gallery, Cnr. London Circuit and Civic Square, Canberra City. Free admission. Permanent exhibition, Reflecting Canberra, recently revamped to include inter alia objects from the Canberra bushfires. Other current exhibitions: lace, quilting, ceramic installation.
Saturday / Sunday 10am-4pm: The Old Bus Depot Markets, on the Kingston Foreshore: over 200 stalls - craft, food, buskers... free parking off Mundaring Drive (look for the signs on Wentworth Avenue).
Saturday / Sunday 10am-5pm: National Gallery of Australia, Parkes Place, Canberra. Current exhibitions:
  • Hard edge: geometry in design
  • French Paintings from the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (Adults $15, Members/ Concessions/Booked groups $10)
  • Home Sweet Home - Works from the Peter Fay collection
  • After Image - Screenprints of Andy Warhol
Saturday / Sunday 10am-5pm: Australian War Memorial, Treloar Crescent, (top of ANZAC Parade) Campbell. Free admission. Current exhibition: Captured in Colour - Rare photographs from the First World War.
Saturday / Sunday 10am-5pm: National Film and Sound Archive, McCoy Circuit Acton. Free admission. Current exhibitions: Cops on the Box - from Homicide to Blue Heelers: touring exhibition of favourite Australian police dramas from the Justice and Police Museum, Sydney. Sights + Sounds of a Nation: an interactive exhibition examining 100 years of Australian film, television, radio and recorded sound.
Sunday only CAMRA (Canberra Academy of Music and Related Arts) presents Amanda Forbes in Concert. Winner 2003 Dame Joan Sutherland Society of Sydney Award & 2003 Australian National Operatic Aria. St Philip's, Sunday 14 December 8pm. Adults $30, concession $20

But hey, if you used to sing with SCUNA then you know Canberra already. What more can we say? There's a lake, numerous parks and bike tracks, several hundred cafes.... If you need more info, try http://www.visitcanberra.com.au/

What is Playback Theatre?

Playback Theatre is spontaneous, improvised theatre in which audience members tell stories from their lives and then watch as actors and musicians enact them on the spot using movement, music and words. The result can be funny, moving and insightful. Playback Theatre honours people's stories and reveals the individuality and commonality of human and community experience.

Back Yard Yarns

In this performance we'll see stories from "out the back"; these may be stories about beautiful gardens, childhood memories or family pets, or stories about Australia's backyard, concerning issues and events that have occurred in our region.

When:7.30pm Friday 12 December 2003
Where:Downer Community Hall, Downer Shops, Frencham Street Downer ACT 2602
Entry by donation - suggested donation $10-$15

SCUNA stories

Backyard/outdoor stories - pool parties, BBQs, swimming to Springbank Island, President's Pyjamas - could be told.