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- My name's Chloe Rook.
I'm a music student at St. Catherine's College Oxford.
I'm in my final year,
of my third year of the degree,
and outside of the degree I'm a conductor
and I work with lots of the ensembles around Oxford
with opera companies and with orchestras.
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♪ My heart is ♪
♪ My heart ♪
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♪ My heart is yours ♪
- To start off, can you tell me a little bit about,
just your experience with music,
how you got involved with it, how you got started?
- Okay,
so I mean,
for me, my career as a musician
started with the piano when I was about six,
as a lot of people do,
- [Interviewer] Mm hmm.
- [Chloe] And then when I was 11
my granddad gave me his second flute so I took that up,
and I was planning on applying to music college to do flute,
and then in the last couple of years of my school,
I was chatting to my music teacher
and we kind of figured I wasn't so set on flute
that I wanted to go and do a degree in it.
In the UK,
the music degrees, you either go to a Conservatoire
and you study an instrument.
- Right.
- Or you go to university and it's much more
of a broad academic degree,
so the degree here at Oxford it's very broad.
You're studying history of music,
you're studying philosophy of music,
and kind of different topics
and it gives you a really good grounding
in understanding music before you can then go
and do performance afterwards if you so desire.
- [Interviewer] So take me through a little bit
of the Oxford music program.
Like how is it broken down?
What do you have to do to graduate?
- [Chloe] Yeah, so the first year course,
most things are compulsory,
and they kind of get you up to an even playing field,
because different A-levels in music
when you come from school,
kind of teach you different things.
They want to get everyone on an even playing field,
so for the first year there's a special topics module,
which is different history modules.
I think you end up writing on three various things,
so I think I ended up writing on a module on Strauss
and the representation of women,
Schubert and his string quartets and things,
- [Interviewer] Mm hmm.
- [Chloe] and then Machaut,
who was a medieval French composer,
so like really random,
- [Interviewer] Right.
- Broad things, but it's kind of based on what
the tutors specialize in.
Second and third years you're working towards your finals,
and that starts in second year
with no exams at the end of second year.
It's all at the end of final year,
and then you have much more freedom in what you choose.
- Actually, tell me how did you start
doing conducting so much
and how did you figure out
that that's what you wanted to do?
- [Chloe] I think, so like I said,
before I came to university, I'd done a bit of conducting
'cause I went to one of the junior music colleges
as a flute player on Saturdays while I was at school
during the week,
and I did some conducting classes there as a side study,
and very much didn't really think that was gonna be
a career path,
- [Interviewer] Mm hmm.
- But I just did it as a side study.
It was a really interesting skill
just to learn about directing music
and what goes on from the front of an orchestra,
and it was really interesting to learn the skills
and just to get some basic baton technique going,
like how you beat time and that sort of thing.
- Two, three, four.
- One, two.
- Great.
- Louder on the two, but three, four.
(giggling)
- [Chloe] So, conducting to me is very much a combination of
loving groups of people and creating unity
in groups of people and loving music.
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So this is G&D's,
it's one of the favorite places of music students to come
after rehearsal,
so I come here on basically,
a weekly basis for my weekly top-up of ice cream
and hot drinks and bagels,
and it's open 'til 2:00 a.m.
so it's a really nice alternative to the pub
if you just want to have coffee,
have a drink, have some ice cream
with friends after rehearsal.
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So this is the Sheldonian,
it's where in your first year you matriculate,
which is a big Latin ceremony that basically says,
"You're part of the uni."
And you wear gowns and everyone has a big party after.
- Alright
- And there's a ceremony all in Latin
and everyone is in their white shirts and gowns in there,
but for me, more importantly,
this is where most of the concerts happen in Oxford.
So in a few weeks time I'm working a lot
for what we're going to be doing in here.
- This is a huge concert hall.
- Huge venue, and it's in the round,
you have seats either sides
- Ooh.
- And then a big space.
- [Interviewer] Is this all the same building, all this?
- [Chloe] No, this is the Bodleian,
that's the main library in Oxford.
And actually the Bodleian is the
second biggest library in the U.K.,
except for the main library in London.
But it's all underground between here and all the way along
down this road there's a whole underground library.
And Bodleian is one of the few libraries that
has to have a copy of every book ever printed.
- Pretty cool.
(laughter)
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- [Interviewer] They even have the Da Vinci Code.
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♪ Ooh ♪
So tell me a little bit about the social
and residential life at Oxford.
- Yeah, so Oxford's a little bit different
to other universities, in that,
you're part of the university
but you're also the member of a college.
So there are just over thirty colleges
across the university
Each one has a different character,
a different vibe about it,
it's known for different things.
So I went to Saint Catherine's,
and it was built in the 1960's
as one of the newer colleges.
And your whole sort of life happens in college.
So you live in college,
I'm lucky in that my college offers accommodation
for three years,
so that we get all three years in the college.
There's a dining hall,
there's a library, there's a gym,
And there's the JCR.
And then the social scene.
It's just a really nice space so you can get to know
a smaller group of people in the university.
- [Interviewer] Mm.
- The great thing is as well,
there's a spread of all the subjects in each college
so each sort of,
well there are four music students in my year at my college
but most of my friends are on other courses.
So it means you can just take a step back from the academics
and hang out with people and learn about different subjects.
- [Interviewer] Cool.
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- For me the academics and music here are great
and there are some really world class professors here
who are the top in their field.
So that's really exciting to come and learn with them.
I love the college system,
being able to have a one-on-one or two-on-one tutor,
and the opportunities to a musician are vast.
So I think from a musical perspective,
think about whether you
want to be studying a practical course,
or an academic course.
And remember if you are doing an academic course
you could always go on to do a practical course
later for Masters,
because Oxford there isn't really,
in terms of the actual degree,
there's not a lot a practical content.
You can do a recital but there's loads going on
outside of that but in terms of, towards your degree,
there's not much.
If you're just into studying and instrument,
probably this isn't the place,
but if you're interested in learning about academic music
and history, and philosophy
and things related to music,
this is the place.
Although I think a lot of the stereotype is that it's a very
high pressure environment,
and it is.
There's a lot of work
and I'd say I have two or three essays a week.
So, there is a lot of work but if it's in a subject you love
don't let that put you off from applying.
Because Oxford interviews,
and one of the things they try to gauge at interview
is whether you'll suit the environment.
- Right.
- So don't just assume you wouldn't be able to get in
because actually the tutors are really good at
assessing whose gonna suit this environment
and an interview is generally like a tutorial.
So actually, if you find the interview engaging
and interesting just to chat with someone
who's at the top of their game and learn about ideas,
then that's exactly how tutorials are, and that's,
yeah, so just enjoy it and see if you enjoy that process
then probably this is the place to come.
(50's style pop music)
♪ Missing someone ♪
♪ Love is, love is hard ♪
♪ Missing someone ♪
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