A soft voice echoed throughout Timken Hall as Lilli Lewis ’93 held a note — teasing the audience as if the song was about to end — but before the audience could clap, the drums and guitar joined in and Lewis picked up the melody, creating an exciting atmosphere. Audience members swayed with the beat before being invited to sing a small part in the next song.
During Lewis’ time as an Andover student, she found her place in the Music Department as a safe haven from other more overwhelming aspects of the school.
“In some ways, the Music Department really embraced me, and understood that I was born for music, even though I didn’t have a lot of the experiences other students had. They really taught me well in ways that served me for the rest of my life,” said Lewis.
Audience member Emily Wu ’25 came to see the performance because she had heard of Lewis through some of her teachers. She wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of getting to see her perform on campus, as it is not a frequent occurrence.
“It was quite different from my expectations, actually. The drummer and the bassist were amazing to me. The way they kept the group, and the way they kept doing music [after] high school, that’s really what 30 years of dedication [looks] like… The performance was so inspiring because they looked like [they] cared about what they were doing, and were happy onstage, which is what music is all about,” said Wu.
Growing up in the deep South, Lewis faced racial discrimination and did not have much support to fall back on. Coming to Andover was a formative experience for Lewis, as she found a home away from home in Timken Hall. She reflected on the importance of Timken Room to her, mentioning her instructor, Chris Walter, who actually suggested she return to campus to perform this concert.
“I went to every single recital in this hall when I was here. I sat in that corner up there where no one could see me, and the only person who noticed I went to every single recital was Chris Walter, to whom this piano is dedicated. I remember one time I missed one, and after he said, ‘There must have been something really going on with you because you haven’t missed a single one!’ So yeah, my whole world changed, all my chemistry, all my molecules, changed in this room, and so it’s incredible to be able to play in this room and with these people,¨ said Lewis.
Audience member Madelyn Esposito ’27 shared that apart from Lewis’ singing and playing, one of the most memorable parts of the performance was how she would stop after each song and share her Andover experience with the audience. Esposito recalled one of Lewis’ stories that stuck to her.
“One story I found that was particularly memorable was about how one day she and a few other students had a workshop on improvisation, and she learned that as long as everyone was playing from the heart, it sounded beautiful. She said ‘It didn’t matter what they thought, or what they loved, as long as they all lived together,’” wrote Esposito in an email to The Phillipian.
Moreover, Lewis wants to mend the trend of self-doubt in Andover’s competitive culture. She hoped her performance would encourage the students to be more self-confident and share who they are with the world.
¨I tried to portray hope but also responsibility. There’s that saying [of] ‘to whom much is given is required’ and I think that’s really true. It’s really easy to get competitive, and there’s a lot of vanity involved in that. I want to remind people that you have a responsibility to be yourself, to lift your gaze, even when It’s hard to walk in the world, it’s not altruism, it’s really just necessary,¨ said Lewis.
