Events

QUMS organises a Choir Camp during one weekend per semester, from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. Camp will include lots of fun social activities, including a themed party on Saturday night, a revue, games night, crafts, as well as intensive workshops and rehearsals for the upcoming performances and our end of semester concert. Attendance at camp is quite important as it equates to several rehearsals worth of learning and practice time (not to mention it's a fun weekend with a bunch of cool people (if we say so ourselves)). The price of your ticket includes: Accommodation in shared, indoor bunk houses (up to 8 pax per room) Use of the hall for our rehearsals, social events, etc.   All catering (breakfast, lunch, and dinner for full weekend campers, lunch and dinner for day trippers + tea and coffee and snacks for all) Professional music direction, conducting, and accompanist for the weekend (a.k.a paying for Guillaume and Jerica's time, skills, and experience) Social activities, (friendly) competitions, and good vibes.  If you cannot attend the entire weekend, consider participating in at least one day of the weekend. However, be sure to communicate with your Section Leader and the Musical Director if you cannot attend for the full weekend as we may need to work with you more closely to ensure you're caught up with the practice that you'll miss.  If you have financial concerns, we don't want you to miss out! Please do not hesitate to speak with our Treasurer, Jess, who is happy to work with you around payment plan options to help ensure your attendance without leaving you totally broke in the short term. All arrangements will be held in the strictest confidence.  IMPORTANT - so that we can help arrange lifts for those who need it, as well as knowing where people will be throughout the weekend, we require ALL MEMBERS who are attending camp to complete this transportation form, in addition to the administrative and dietary question that are asked when purchasing a ticket. Note - We will make every reasonable effort to coordinate suitable transport for our members to and from camp, including coordinating contact between members where lift‑sharing may be helpful. Lifts are offered and accepted on a voluntary basis, and we encourage you to consider what you need in order to feel comfortable with either providing or receiving a lift. This may include meeting the person you are paired with beforehand, viewing their vehicle, or requesting/providing proof of registration and insurance. Note for those requiring a lift - there may be a small chance that we are unable to pair you with someone who can provided a lift at your prefered time/to align with your schedule. Where this occurs, we will work with you individually to determine next steps so that you don't miss out! Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. 

Sop/Alto Picnic We’ll be having our first Sop/Alto event this month, make sure to fill out the form to let us know if you’re coming! Date: 21st March 2026 Time: 3pm-5pm Location: near Kaohsiung Place, Southbank Parklands ( https://maps.app.goo.gl/xYpTsSAxw4Wzh1vVA?g_st=ic ) If you can’t find us, meet at the South Bank Ferry Terminal and let Haise know (phone number in notices email). We’re going to do origami, have a fun Kahoot quiz, play board games and enjoy some afternoon tea! Please bring a plate to share with everyone! If you would like to join us for the picnic, please fill out this form!

Help us celebrate local residents becoming new Australian citizens, on the Australia Day Public Holiday. The event runs from 10am til approximately 12pm (times TBC), we'll organise some snacks and refreshments afterwards for those who volunteer their time on the day to sing with us. Singers will need to arrive before 10am for soundcheck. Details to be finalised, lifts organised.   Rehearsal Files (you'll need to be signed in).

2025 QUMS members - and their invited guests - are cordially invited to our annual Academic Dinner!  Come enjoy a two-course dinner, toasts, awards, and, of course, singing to close out a wonderful 2025. There will be food. There will be drinks. There will be toasts. And since we are a choir, there will be some singing involved. You may familiarise yourself with the songs here. On the night, we will also award several awards to celebrate the many choristers who have contributed to QUMS this year. Some are selected by the outgoing executive, and others will be voted awards. Voting will remain open until the week of the event! Dress code: formal Car parking: Please note that unfortunately Ovolo are unable to offer on-site conference & event parking. Alternate Paid Secure parking is available at Valley Metro Secure Car Park (52 Alfred Street), Ann Street Secure Car Park (1024 Ann Street) and Wilson Parking (949 Ann Street). There may be street parking around the vicinity. It is also not too far from the Bowen Hills and Fortitude Valley train stations, and drop-off is easy.

As a followup from our camp theme (and Nelson's excellent social activities), we have organised a group activity to come and try archery together. Eleanor is part of the Centenary Archers Club, based in Wacol, which offers instructor led 'Come 'n Try' classes on select Saturdays each month. Each class has 20 people and 4 instructors. They will fill up quickly so please book now if you would like to attend. We will be going as a group on the 15th of November, the class will run from 10am-1pm and you are welcome to stay after the class and continue shooting. The class is $65 per person, please register on the QUMS event page and then pay directly to the club with their sign up form. The Centenary Archers club is 15km (approximately 20 minutes drive) from UQ, when registering on the QUMS event page, please specify if you will need a lift to Wacol. To speed up your sign in on the day, please complete and return the temporary membership form to Eleanor at a rehearsal prior to the 15th of November. Please see https://www.centenaryarchers.org.au/try-archery/come-try for more information, including arrival times and what to bring. Critical points from the above link: Arrive before 9:45 so that the class can commence on time - for safety the club will not be able to allow anyone to join the class if they arrive late and the class has commenced. You will need to complete a temporary membership form for insurances purposes, this will allow you to shoot at the club for the whole day. What to Bring: Wear enclosed shoes (runners or normal shoes but not sandals or thongs) Wear a hat (not a baseball cap, these do not provide adequate protection from the sun and interfere with the bow string) Bring water & a snack (if needed) - Some drinks and snacks are available for purchase at the club and there are shops nearby. Put sunscreen on (there is shade to sit down but the shooting line and targets are in the sun) Accessibility Information: From the main carpark, there are approximately 20 concrete steps down to the shooting line. To bypass these, you can drive down onto the field for direct access onto the concrete shooting line. Shade and club amenities can all be accessed via concrete pathways. The targets are 20m onto the grass field, if this is an issue, people you are shooting with can assist you in retrieving arrows. There are toilets on site (beside the main carpark) but you will need to climb a few steps to reach them.    

Tickets on Sale Now - see below and press "Get Tickets" button to purchase.  The Queensland University Musical Society (QUMS) is proud to present our Semester 2, 2025 Concert, "Bread and Empty Chairs", conducted by Guillaume Lemay-Yates. The concert features three distinctive works that explore aspects of the human condition through a nuanced interplay of voices and instrumentation: Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands draws inspiration from Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, integrating fragments of early music with modern compositional techniques. The piece invites reflection on themes of vulnerability, displacement, and shared responsibility, combining choral textures, spoken word, and tonal ambiguity. In the fifth movement the harmony is passed around, overlapping only briefy, while numerical fgures are spoken by the choir. These are global fgures of internally displaced persons, by country, sourced from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) data. As Caroline states - "sometimes data is the cruelest and most honest poetry".  Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass, which premiered in Oslo in 2008, blends the traditional Latin Mass with atmospheric and cinematic musical textures. The work traces a path from abstraction to emotional clarity, with movements titled The Spheres, Sunrise, The City, and Identity & The Ground frame a journey from the abstract to the personal, mirroring the music’s transition from tonal ambiguity to grounded resolution. Brisbane based composer (and QUMS member) Mia McKinnon's SUM is a choral work that examines how identity is shaped through personal and ancestral influence. Drawing from the concept that “we are a mosaic of everyone who has ever touched our lives,” the piece traces everyday habits and creative expression back to people and moments that left a mark. The text reflects on heritage across generations - recognising that our existence depends on thousands of lives stretching across centuries. Through this lens, SUM presents a perspective on legacy and continuity, positioning each of us within a broader historical and cultural narrative. Location: The concert will be held in the GHD Auditorium, which is inside the Advanced Engineering Building (49) at The University of Queensland, St Lucia.  UQ is very accessible by public transport, bicycle, or car. The best parking is the Grassy Knoll car park (P11) or on Sir William MacGregor Drive near-by. A limited number of accessible car parks are available closer to the building. For more info on accessible parking, see the UQ website.  The venue is wheelchair accessible, please do let us know if you have any further questions. Tickets: We have a special discount for groups of 3 available now. We are happy to discuss volume discount for groups larger than 3, contact treasurer@qums.au for more options. Tickets also available at the door. Special Mentions:  QUMS is grateful to Jerica Lau for sharing her time and skills with us this semester, accompanying our rehearsal sessions.   This semester, we were lucky enough to receive funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. We thank and acknowledge both these organisations for their contribution to community music.