Seniors Rock Out The Door

By Jeremy Winograd '13

As term winds down and campus becomes warmer and brighter by the day, the departing seniors’ thoughts, when not fixated on their hopefully not-too-uncertain lives after Bennington, are inevitably turning to what they are departing from. What will they be remembered for? What kind of legacy will they leave behind?

For some of the more musically inclined of the Class of 2010, a significant part of this potential legacy is their senior concert, each one being a culmination of all that the students have learned from and contributed to the music community at Bennington. For one week, the seniors’ music will migrate from the halls of Jennings to provide its audience a chance to celebrate it properly. For some seniors, their concert will supply them an opportunity to solidify their musical presence on campus; for others, it is one last chance to experiment. But overall, the senior concerts display a staggeringly eclectic and impressive range of talent and ambition.

Jenna Jurgelewicz kicked off senior week with a highly unique vocal showcase. Despite the fact that her plan is focused on costume design, Jenna’s voice studies have led her to design an accumulative concert featuring her renditions of pieces she has studies and performed over her career at Bennington: classical pieces, arias and, oddly enough, even a few doo-wop songs. “Doo-wop and classical music… is sort of a strange combination,” she said. “But it’s been a really big part of what I’ve worked on here as a voice student.”

Danny Brylow’s sonorous pipes were put to good use as well. And although said pipes have been applied to gems such as an open mic night rendition of Britney Spears “Lucky” in the past, Danny struck a more serious tone at his concert, applying his studies of classical voice and composition. He elected to perform a famous song cycle by Schumann, Dicthterlibe, interspersed with various recorded vignettes that were prepared in the studio for the concert which tie into his time spent studying experimental theater at Bennington. He hoped this ambitious project would both “help [him] grow as a singer,” as well as “reflect [his] personal experience with both music and theater.”

Bennington’s composers are provided their chance to shine as well. Joel Kennedy’s concert, for instance, contained creative pieces for mediums as disparate as percussion, piano, cello and a chorus. But Joel aimed to go beyond just the music, as he hoped to create “an immersive performance environment for the audience and use the [performance] space in a stimulating way.”

Anastasia Clarke’s concert was also impressively eclectic. It included a piece composed for, believe it or not, glass bottles, requiring six performers, as well as a piece combining percussion and electronic elements, a guitar improvisation piece, and two more conventional singer-songwriter efforts. Anastasia hoped this “variety” would keep her audience from being “isolated from each other” and interested in the spectacle on stage.

On Sunday, in Kinoteca, Tom Greenberg, whose studies have focused mainly on video and recording and who has been known to perform his rock-oriented music around campus (particularly in the band Twigz), also sought to design a concert that would be immersive and wide-ranging in its ambition. He described his concert as a “somewhat live musical installation involving screen projections, smells and acoustic instruments combined with electronic instruments.” Tom’s concert was designed to be reliant on its audience more than any other element, as he hoped each person’s “connections between sounds and smells and visuals” would provide “a different personal experience for everyone.”

Tom’s bandmate in Twigz, Roby Moulton, attempted to exhibit a more established side of himself at his concert, which included all original songs that ranged from psychedelic rock to folky acoustica to pieces of a more improvisational vein. He hoped the show would be “sort of a microcosm of the different types of music and collaborations that I’ve had here.” Roby’s concert may also be something of a portent to the future, as he said that some of the collaborations that were on display “should last outside Bennington.”

Other upcoming concerts include that of Tim Kretchmer, Bennington’s resident folksy songwriter, who, on Saturday in Martha Hill, will perform eight original songs—four with a full band and four solo—culled from an album he is currently in the process of recording. Tim relishes the “more formal forum to exhibit a larger body of work,” and especially the opportunity to play with a full band, a luxury he does not typically enjoy during his frequent performances around campus.

Amanda Vorce’s concert, on Sunday, is sure to be intriguing. Amanda, who has studied music primarily in a historical context at Bennington, intends her senior concert to be proof that “everyone makes a different kind of brownie even if you give them all the same brownie mix.” Though she will be performing some fiddle tunes herself to reflect her time working with John Kirk in the traditional music ensemble, most of the show will consist of other people playing compositions Amanda designed especially for them; “for their instrument, desires, style and what would be fun for them to sing.” She hopes this experiment demonstrates that the style and passion of the performer is equally important as they music they are performing. What’s more, the affair will be catered by Faith Griffiths, who is making a three-tiered wedding cake for the occasion.

Amanda’s sometime musical partner, Sara Lewis, will be performing her own concert on Saturday, and Martin Zimmerman performed his concert at Martha Hill on Friday.