Spring Senior Concerto Spotlights

By Steve Kim

Whether it be in Phillips Academy’s chamber music, solo or orchestral performances, cellist Rainer Crosett ’10 and violist Jacob Shack ’10 never fail to make an appearance. To celebrate the nearing end of their music career at Phillips Academy, the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras will showcase their senior concertos on May 21st.

Rainer Crosett ’10 Crosett’s upcoming senior concerto is not to be thought as yet another sleepy classical performance. No piece gets as showy and passionate as the “Cello Concerto No.1 in A Minor” by Camille Saint-Saens. Having already won a concerto competition with this piece, Crosett will have listeners on the edges of their seats. The concerto begins with a powerful chord immediately in the orchestra followed by an intense, glorious cello entrance. The frenzied scales near the opening later meet with melancholic, lyrical cello solos that show off Crosett’s technical and musical ability. The Academy...

Mixing Culture and Music: Indo-Jazz

By Apsara Iyer

How often do you hear African drums, jazzy saxophone tunes and exotic chords of the Indian veena working together to produce a thrilling multicultural fusion? Last Friday, Cochran Chapel hosted the premiere of a collaboration between the five-person Indo-Fusion group Natraj and a world-renown trio of Indian Carnatic Musicians. Chand Sripad, Supervisor of the PA Chemistry Laboratory and main organizer of the event, said, “The music department [at PA] is really strong, and the kids are very creative. I think exposing them to these new forms of music, because the music scene around the world is changing, will allow them to incorporate these different elements into their compositions and in their playing.”

Opening with a lively beat and teasing melody, Natraj performed “Ava de Se,” which is based on a traditional West African song. Natraj transported the audience to a festive dusky African savannah, guided by thrumming ewe...

Campus Is Cookin': Refreshing Spring Drinks

By Apsara Iyer and Eve Simister

When faced with plain water and black coffee, sunny memories of sipping smoothies on beaches or mochas in foreign cafes can seem miles away. This spring term, bring the senses and flavors to your cup with these four refreshing beverages.

Imagine a lush, green rainforest, with bunches of bananas clinging to the trees and cocoa plants wafting a rich, earthy aroma. You can conjure up these flavors easily in Commons with a creamy Chocolate Banana Milkshake.

Cocoa fanatics can start with a tall glass of chocolate milk, but regular milk works for a lighter banana shake. Add a small cone’s worth of vanilla frozen yogurt and stir the concoction. Next, peel an especially ripe banana and mush half of it vigorously in a bowl with the back of a spoon until there are no more chunks.

Pour the banana into the glass and stir the shake until it is smooth...

The Glass Menagerie

By Stephanie Liu

What if memories, relationships and love were all so fragile that they could shatter like glass in a single breeze or a light brush of a hand? In The Glass Menagerie, four talented actors, Eric Sirakian ’10, Calista Small ’10, Lily Shaffer ’10 and Ryan Marcelo ’10, create a timeless, delicate production that questions the fragility of human nature in the face of pressure and failure.

The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, meaning it is the recollection of the protagonist, Tom, played by Sirakian. Set in the historical Bulfinch Debate Room, the play takes viewers back to 1937 in St. Louis. Small plays Amanda, an anxious and overbearing mother of two, haunted by memories of her husband who abandoned his family. A portrait of her husband is displayed upon the podium. Shaffer plays Laura, Tom’s crippled sister, who lacks confidence and spends much of the day polishing...

Johnny Cardinale: Stand-up Comedian and Musician

By Eve Simister

After a week buzzing with the anxiety of college acceptance letters, visiting performer Johnny Cardinale posed an alternative path to Phillips Academy seniors on Friday night: quitting school and becoming a stand-up comedian. “I was an accounting major in college and one day I realized that I was only doing it for the money, and I wanted to do something different, so I dropped out the next week, and moved to LA. I started going to open-mic shows, and that’s how this all got started,” said Cardinale.

Cardinale travels to high schools, colleges and clubs throughout the United States. He goes abroad to entertain with his quick lines and spot-on impressions of singers complete with guitar playing. Recently, he spent a month in Afghanistan amusing the troops.

Cardinale opened the show with a teasing nod to famous alumnus George W. Bush. From a tame start to a raucous ending,...

Andover Idol 2010: And the Winner is...

By Paul Noh

Last Saturday in the Den, Phillips Academy crowned this year’s Andover Idol, Kristina Rex ’11.

The show starred Rex, Faiyad Ahmad ’10 and Camerin Stoldt ’12, the three amazing finalists from a starting pool of 35 contestants. The contestants vied for the chance to record a CD with WPAA and a $50 gift card to My Brother’s Pizza, the contest’s sponsor.

The final round of Andover Idol was hosted by Julian Chernyk ’10, the General Manager of WPAA. Chernyk introduced the first singer, PA’s one and only School President, Ahmad, onto the stage.

Ahmad sang “Baby” by Justin Bieber. Fellow competitors Stoldt and Rex, along with Elizabeth Carollo ’11, provided a rap interlude. The WPAA band, which included Dominick Chang ’11, Sam August ’10 and Derek Farquhar ’12, provided accompaniment for Ahmad’s singing. “Faiyad’s song was really sweet and it was executed really well,” said Laura Wu ’10.

Ahmad’s tenor voice...

The Faculty Blues

By Ray Thamthieng

It is finally spring, the weather is brightening up and the Music department is off to a great start with the Faculty Jazz concert. The term’s first show took place last Friday evening in the Timken Room. Faculty musicians showed off their improvisational skills through a variety of pieces ranging from blues tunes and ballads to their very own compositions.

First to perform were Instructor in Music Joel Springer on the saxophone, Peter Cirelli on the trombone, Vincent Monaco on the trumpet, Bob Baughman on the piano, Jesse Williams on the bass and Bertram Lehmann on the drums. They strolled on stage with ease and started off by playing “Foreign Intrigue” by Barney Kessel, impressing the audience with their seemingly flawless improvisation.

The woodwinds and brass took turns delighting the listeners with their solos, each of them receiving appreciative applause. The drums and bass then took the spotlight with...

“Oh Canada!”: Cantata Tour 2010 Travel Journal

By Paul Noh

Day 1

I woke up to the shrill ringing of my cell phone at 5:50 a.m.. Ignore. Back to bed… Wait, didn’t the Cantata Tour leave at 5:30a.m.? I threw off my sheets, grabbed my things and ran up to the Chapel to get to the bus where everyone was waiting with tired eyes. This was how the tour began.

It was a seven-hour ride to Montreal, Canada. When we arrived in Old Montreal, the oldest part of the city, we had time to enjoy a brief tour of the city before our performance at the Basilica of Notre Dame de Montreal.

The basilica was stunningly beautiful with stained-glass art and gold statues. When the 83 student and faculty musicians began to play for the anxiously waiting audience, the sound reverberated around the huge chapel. The concert program provided a diverse series of music.

Under the direction of conductor James Orent,...

Rohan Malhotra ’11 Embraces His Heritage

By Supriya Jain

Whether or not most PA students have heard of the tabla, they probably have heard of Rohan Malhotra. Malhotra has displayed his skill as a percussionist and expressed dedication to his heritage by playing the tabla, an Indian hand-drum, in numerous Indo-pak events, Drumline and the Academy Jazz band. Furthermore, Malhotra embraces the challenge of adapting an ancient musical style to modern situations, as demonstrated by his unique role in last term’s production of “Oedipus Rex.” Q: When did you start playing tabla? Why? What has given you the motivation to stay so dedicated to this instrument? A: Wanting to retain some of my Indian culture, I started learning tabla when I was eight years old. Ironically, my teacher is not Indian…I have been studying under Jerry Leake, a Boston-based musician who plays all types of percussion, ranging from the West African talking drum to the western...

Music Review: Why You Runnin’

By Patrick Brady

It is rare that I find myself stumbling upon so-called “Indie” music. Well, that is, before it’s two years old and reached the top of the iTunes Top 10 List, which, as Indie snobs have told me, is an embarrassing place to buy music. Whoopsies.

Apparently, to be a true connoisseur of trendy music, one must scavenge through dusty vinyl records and unreleased CDs in the basement of a dimly-lit Soho store where skinny jeans and a judgmental expression are prerequisites for entering. My recent encounter with underground music, however, did not require me to squeeze into a pair of skinny jeans, fortunately, for my thighs. The source of my discovery was, of all people, my father. While most teenagers tend to rebel against the music of their parents, I seem to gravitate toward it.

So when my dad suggested that I listen to Lissie Maurus, a new female...