Musical meeting of minds
by Vincent Ciccarello
The Mawson Student Network has found another way to bring students and community members together – and uncovered a wealth of musical talent at UniSA in the process.
Putting together their inaugural Music Concert, President of the Mawson Student Network (MSN) Partha Saha found he had a problem on his hands – how to choose from the more than 25 groups and solo artists from right across the Uni wanting to take part.
"We didn’t expect that many but there were very good quality applications. It was quite hard for us to decide," Saha said.
"Initially we had a plan for a three-hour program, but we had to extend that to a four-hour program to fit in as many artists as we could."
Some artists still missed out but those who performed at the concert at UniSA’s Mawson Lakes campus on Saturday May 10 were certainly well received by an enthusiastic audience made up of local and international students and members from the Mawson Lakes community.
Rosanna Afford, a social work student at Magill, who is on placement as a community development officer for the MSN, said there was a great cross-section of musical genres.
"We had performances by Endeavour College students, the Lake Edge Community Church and UniSA students performing in bands such as the Ocean Uprising, Gracewood, the Tracey Wheeler Band, Funky Scum Rumour and Persian band, Nava," she said.
"Others, like Remy J, Jimmy Marran and classical pianist Shalem Lee, gave superb solo performances."
Dean of Teaching and Learning, Associate Professor Brenton Dansie was on hand to give the welcome address and the Mayor of Salisbury, Gillian Aldridge also joined in the fun.
Saha said that since 2005, MSN has put on an annual cricket match, soccer tournament and Christmas home hosting event to allow international students to interact with local students and people in the Mawson Lakes community.
"We have been trying to organise a music event like this for a while," he said, "and we were very lucky to get a lot of help from Network Mawson Lakes, Learning Connection, ITEE division, MDU, International Relations and the local community, such as the local Rotary Club and Mawson Lakes Community Church, who put on a barbecue and Devonshire tea.
"It was a great event – a great experience for us, for the performers and for the people who came along."
For more information about MSN, visit www.mawsonstudent.com or contact David Jodjaja by email at david.jodjaja@postgrads.unisa.edu.au