ARU lunchtime concerts

A hefty chunk of glorious culture for your Friday afternoons (13.10-13.55 in the Mumford Theatre)!

With every type of music you can think of, and a whole load that you never knew existed (I didn’t anyway!), Anglia Ruskin Lunchtime Concerts are the highlight of the academic week. Every production is worth coming to just to get a bit of chilled out time away from your course, where everything is taken care of and you can sit back and enjoy the free show. It’s helped me maintain some perspective on my course, and I hope will continue to do so (fingers crossed for no timetable clashes) over the next three years. Science degrees can be all-consuming and insular in their subject matter, and so the music, whatever it may be, reminds me that there’s a world out there that doesn’t care about dioptric values, wavefronts and formulae, but that thrives on its own creativity and lives for passion and performance.

To be whole individuals when we leave ARU, we need to incorporate the wide world in all its wonderful forms into our lives, and exposure to cultures through music can be a major part of that. At first glance it may not be your favourite genre of music, but unless you experience it, you can’t form an opinion on it – and you might just watch something new and discover unknown inspiration.

Work to live, don’t live to work (even if you like your job!).

I’ve been to many lunchtime concerts in Adelaide, Australia and at the University of Cambridge – and guess what, ours are by far the best! From freestyle jazz to Beethoven to theatrical productions using everything from cutlery to toothbrushes as instruments, the concerts have it all. No matter what’s on, who’s playing, come along for an hour and escape. Did I mention it’s free?

Thank you ARU for hosting these concerts every week – the queue outside Mumford Theatre is testament to the work that goes on to make these happen. Long may they continue!