In honor of Earth Day, the Phillips Academy Sustainability Coalition (PASC) held a festival full of music and talent on Friday to celebrate. Held indoors this year in Lower Right of Paresky Commons, several music performances, from solo piano riffs to bands, were featured.
Performer Nathan Ramani ’27 described that the festival had last-minute obstacles to overcome. Just thirty minutes before performing, Fidelo and Chorus lost a conductor and asked Bruce Ru ’28 to conduct their piece. Prior to their performance, the two vocal groups did not practice the piece together.
“Even if we just did it once all together before going up, we would have been super comfortable and everyone would just be able to focus on making music, not making music at the exact right tempo, etc. But more than that, it’s really important that everyone cares about the song, understands the significance of it… Given our circumstances, we did really well. What this performance demonstrated, that some of our other ones haven’t, is we are all capable of singing things, learning a new piece in a short amount of time, and we’re able to adapt quickly to new situations and work on a very short timeline and still make great music and have fun together,” said Ramani.
Regardless of the pressure and unexpected changes in plans, Ru recognized the work done by the chorus groups.
“Fidelio did very well today. They put together that song fairly last minute. They are very committed to all sorts of events on campus. There’s a chorus concert every event, but they make their way to many, many events. throughout the year. I respect that. They are great musicians, but they also make an impact on campus and I really respect that they’re doing that here today as well,” said Ru.
After the performance, Ramani described the sense of community within Fidelo despite the last minute challenges.
“[Fidelio and Chorus are] definitely one of the most welcoming communities on campus. Every time you step into that room, it feels like everyone there is just trying to have a good time and have fun. In a lot of popular media, music can be often displayed as a very stressful experience, and no doubt it can be a stressful experience depending on the circumstances. But in both Fidelio and Chorus, what we really try to do is make singing about the joy instead of just the stress. Dr. Siegfried, our conductor, plays a really big part in making us all feel welcomed and valued in that experience, in that community,” said Ramani.
Performing for the first time, the Ampersands played Go Away by Weezer. Band member Reina Hisada ’28 explained the sense of community built throughout the preparation process.
“[My favorite] moments during practice are when we have a silly mishap. There was one point on our Thursday practice where five different things were happening at once as people were either taking a break and doing something else, or just doing something silly on the piano. Those moments are really fun to just be friends instead of super formal, we have to do this. It’s that kind of energetic vibes,” said Hisada.
Playing for the band Goose and Moose, drummer Cameron Butler ’28 performed Sunday Morning by Maroon 5.
“It was fun. The energy was there. Vibes were good. People seemed to have a good time. The band was having a good time. So all around, good performance. Zach [Yuan ’27] took a really awesome solo on alto saxophone. He usually doesn’t solo on this song, but we said at the last minute to give him a solo, and it was a really fun, really good solo. Playing music is always a collaboration for us. We’re constantly reacting to each other, feeding off of each other’s energies. So just anything we play is always collaborative by nature,” said Butler.
