In Professor Lei Bryant’s opening class of “Music & Dance Cultures of the World” this semester, she played students a clip of Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”  When it became apparent that most people in the room almost immediately recognized the piece and its cultural significance, she asked the class to brainstorm musical works or performances from our own generation that would similarly remain so potent.

Hamilton, the smash-hit 2015 Broadway show about the life of its titular founding father, was one of the first to be mentioned.  Conceived of and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the hip-hop musical that cast people of color in the roles of famous white historical figures was a huge commercial and critical success, breaking box office records and receiving 11 Tony Awards.  Few cultural phenomena have registered with quite as much magnitude in the past couple of decades, with NYTimes reviewer Ben Brantley calling it “proof that the American musical is not only surviving” but also evolving and thriving.

One of the people responsible for no less than the invigorated future of an art form is Renee Elise Goldsberry, the actress who originated the role of Angelica Schuyler and who will this week visit Swarthmore College as part of the 2018-2019 Cooper Series, giving two performances on Friday, September 21st at 6:00 and 8:30 p.m. in Lang Concert Hall.  As Angelica— the sister-in-law and close friend of Alexander Hamilton—Goldsberry sang one of the most memorable numbers in a show full of musical highpoints. In “Satisfied,” she wistfully explores her unresolved romantic feelings for Alexander, which she chooses to ignore for the benefit of her sister, who has just married him. It’s a decision, she sings, that she “just might regret… for the rest of [her] days.”

While Goldsberry has said in interviews that she draws extensively upon personal experience in playing any character, these days regrets are one aspect of life that it appears she and Angelica can’t really share.  While accepting a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2016, she ends by pointing out how important both her work and her family is to her, and how lucky she’s been to find such fulfillment in both areas.  Goldsberry later wrote of winning the Tony that “the celebration for me was that I chased both family and career very hard, and the fact that I could celebrate having my children and that Tony award was a miracle.”

And although she was quite a successful actress before Hamilton, both on Broadway and on television, the popularity of the show has given Goldsberry a level of freedom in artistic projects she didn’t have before.  Since the end of her run two years ago, she has played the titular character in a movie adaptation of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and appeared in Netflix’s sci-fi series Altered Carbon.  She has also taken on the challenge of figuring out how to adapt the whole shebang of Hamilton into pieces that make musical and narrative sense for independent performances, such as at Swarthmore.  In an interview before her debut at the Boston Pops this summer, Goldsberry speaks to how difficult it is to perform individually songs that were meant to be interwoven into the fabric of a whole story, without real beginnings or ends, and in conversation with other actors.

But, she ultimately feels that “to reconceive them, so that they can live as solo pieces, is really redeeming and hugely important because the message in these songs is too important, too necessary, too universal, to only be able to experience it in the entire production.”  And it seems that, based on their response to her upcoming solo appearance, Swarthmore students quite agree; it sold out just a few hours after advance reservations became available. Fortunately, the college was able to accommodate a second show.

Between the afternoon discussion with Goldsberry on Thursday, and the two evening performances on Friday, hopefully all Hamilton fans will head into their weekend on a suitably “satisfied” note.

Lydia Roe ’20

Each semester, the Swarthmore College Orchestra performs a culminating concert of various musical works in Lang Concert Hall. This semester, the orchestra is playing two pieces: the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, also called the “Emperor Concerto,” and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. Professor Andrew Hauze of the Music and Dance Department directs the orchestra and has put careful time and thought into choosing the pieces the orchestra plays each semester, deliberating what will be challenging and simultaneously rewarding to play.

This year, Josh Mundinger ‘18 won the Concerto Competition; a contest held each spring, the winner of this competition performs in the Orchestra’s spring concert. Mundinger chose to prepare Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto,” which is why the orchestra is playing this particular piece in the concert. Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances was deliberately selected as a rich learning experience for the orchestra students, as the musical work is interestingly complex and notoriously challenging.

Professor Hauze spoke on his decision to have the orchestra play the Rachmaninoff piece: “with the personnel that we have, all the students want a challenge and I want to give them a challenge. This piece is one which is very difficult but I think it’s the kind of piece where everyone has at some point a very important part and it’s all very musically satisfying, there’s no filler in this piece. Everything everyone plays, there’s a reason for why it’s there, and the way that it interacts with the other parts of the orchestra I find interesting and complex. The learning experience of the piece is very rich, my own study as well as learning with the orchestra.”

Rachmaninoff wrote the work to premiere in 1941 for the Philadelphia Orchestra, with which he had worked a number of times and was close friends with the conductor, Eugene Ormandy, as well as the orchestra players. According to Professor Hauze, this may contribute to the reason why the work allocates importance to every instrument in the orchestra.

Although Symphonic Dances is considered a difficult work to play, Professor Hauze was confident in the capabilities of this group of musicians to tackle such a stylistic challenge. According to Hauze, though the work has become a more common repertory piece for orchestras, it is very rare for college students to have already played Symphonic Dances in their high school orchestras, and he was hopeful that it would be new and exciting for everyone involved.

“[The orchestra is] game for a challenge and really strive with a lot of enthusiasm and energy to improve every week. I think they bring a freshness to it. In a way, this piece combines a sharply etched and sometimes satirical style with late nineteenth century, sweeping textures. It’s a tricky style to figure out. The group brings this sense, and they don’t have any preconceived notions, we’re going at it and learning it together.”

The Orchestra concert will be held on Friday, May 4 at 8pm in Lang Concert Hall. This performance will be free and open to the public.

Marion Kudla ’19

What do the musical Into The Woods, an experimental student orchestra, and a cello/piano sonata have in common? These are just a few performances featured in the Fetter concert series, which will run from April 20 through April 28.

Professor Michael Johns has been coordinating the Fetter Program since 2001. The program, originally called “Pollard Scholarship Funds,” debuted in 1975. As Professor Johns explains,

“In 2001, the program, which had initially supported a single string quartet, was renamed the Elizabeth Pollard Fetter Chamber Music Program and expanded to support the coaching of multiple chamber music groups. Funding continues to be enhanced by successive generations of the Fetter family. Students wanting to participate in the Fetter Program need to audition, and the time commitment is two hours a week: one hour with an assigned professional coach, a second hour-long rehearsal by the students.”

The Fetter Program has earned recognition beyond Swarthmore. Ellen Liu ’18, who will be performing in the first concert of the Fetter series, is taking part in the program for the first time this semester, after a four-year break from music classes.

“I heard about the program prior to coming to Swarthmore, because I had planned on getting involved in the music department from the beginning,” says Liu. “…last semester, one of my friends, who has played in a chamber group for all his time here, encouraged me to reach out to the department and see how I could get back into it. I was put into this group and I honestly couldn’t be more excited to be able to play again…I hadn’t played piano seriously in a long time and I was really happy to be able to return to musicsince it was such a big part of my life before college.” Liu will be performing a Beethoven trio for flute, bassoon, and piano – a rarely-seen combination.

This year’s Fetter concerts feature a variety of musical pieces and instrumental combinations. Rebecca Rosenthal ’20, another first-time participant in the Fetter series, will be singing and playing the role of the Baker’s Wife in the opening from Stephen Sondheim’s acclaimed musicalInto The Woods.

“I got involved when [a friend] asked if I would be interested in learning the piece…It’s been a lot of fun — besides learning the difficult music, which has a ton of moving parts and a lot of tricky spots, we spent last weekend actually staging the 15-minute sequence. So I had to learn how to act, too! Channelling your emotions is an integral part of so many musicalperformances and is often overlooked.”

Not all Fetter students are first-time participants: this is Kevin Lai ’18’s fifth semester participating in the program; four previous Fetter concerts have not dampened his enthusiasm or energy. He will be performing the Grieg Sonata on the piano, accompanied by Kyle Yee ‘19 on the cello.

“I think last semester’s Fetter concert was by far my best. I really enjoyed the music, and the crowd was entertained by our playing,” says Lai. “For me, if we please the crowd and play as well as we do in rehearsals, then that makes me extremely happy. I have worked with the same coach for 4 semesters now, so at this point, we have developed an amazing working relationship. Our coach pushes us to not only nail all the notes but also bring out the emotions and feelings from the piece.”

Another Fetter performance to watch out for is the Lab Orchestra, a group launched in Fall 2016 to give student conductors some practical experience. Shira Samuels-Shragg ’20, one of this year’s conductors, explains that “musicians in the ensemble are paid to rehearse on Saturday mornings with two student conductors. Andrew Hauze brilliantly coaches us [the conductors], suggesting changes and pointing out problem areas. In that sense, Lab rehearsals function as conducting lessons. Since fall 2017, Andrew Kim ‘18 and I have been the two conductors of Lab, so each of us rehearses for an hour with the ensemble every week…this semester we’re conducting Bach’s Violin concerto in E Major with soloist David Kim, and that has been such a blessing. He is simultaneously a world-class violinist and an incredibly generous and kind collaborator.”

Each of the Fetter students expresses excitement for their upcoming concerts. Audience members can enjoy a variety of performances, from a Renaissance vocal quintet to jazz improvisations. As Samuels-Shragg sums it up,“the Fetter concerts are a wonderful break from end-of-semester craziness. It’s always exciting to see what other groups in the musicdepartment having been working on over the past several months.”

The Lab Orchestra and David Kim will be playing in the second Fetter concert, on Sunday April 22nd at 7:30 PM. The other Fetter concerts will be on April 20th, 27th, and 28th, at 8:00 PM in Lang Concert Hall.

Emilie Hautemont ’20