Three time Grammy winner Kevin Olusula ’06 practices inside Falls Center before his performance.
With a cello in hand and beatboxing woven through his music, Kevin Olusola ’06, a member of the a cappella group Pentatonix, returned to Andover with a concert featuring performances by Fidelio Society (Fidelio) and Chamber Orchestra.
Olusula opened the concert with a solo repertoire, including his rendition of “Julie-O” by Mark Summer, the piece that first went viral online during his senior year of college. He followed with “Hallelujah (I Don’t Think About You).” Cellist Philip Jeong ’27 described his experience at the concert.
“It was a very novel take on classical music, and as he says, it’s a very overarching pedagogy for musicians. Adding modern elements, such as beatboxing, is unexpected. Yet, it works. That’s why so many people came to watch, and everyone had a great time,” said Jeong.
The following piece was a collaboration with Andover’s Fidelio Society. Fidelio performed a nuanced arrangement of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley with Olusula on the cello. Fidelio member Hannah Oh ’27 reflected on the process of rehearsing with Olusola.
“I would say that our rehearsals were super chill. In our first rehearsal, we got to talk with him for around 40 minutes and get to know him and his life story. Then we just sang with him a couple times and it was great… I was surprised that he had earpieces in his ear and Dr. Siegfried had to go along with a click track. Honestly, it was a little scary because the click track didn’t work 3 times before we started. But then it ended up working out,” said Oh.
The Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Instructor in Music Derek Jacoby, followed with “Dark Winter.” The piece meshed virtuosic elements of Vivaldi’s original concerto with contemporary elements like high-energy beat drops. Their second piece, “Kevin’s Fifth,” is a reimagined version of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Jacoby reflected on the rewarding challenge of adapting to Osula’s rhythmically driven style.
“The pieces were really cool. They all had a really great rhythmic drive. They had a feel and a way about them that we don’t typically get in classical music, so it was really interesting to learn how to play the music and then dig into the music and play it more in the style that Kevin wanted. We had to be rhythmically precise to a higher level than we’ve ever had to before because we had that click track that I was listening to. It kept me and Kevin and the orchestra in perfect time together. It was the level of attention to detail with rhythm that was a good challenge for us,” said Jacoby.
Beyond the musical performance, Olusola spoke at All-School Meeting (ASM) on Friday about his own path as an artist and the importance of originality. Oh reflected on how his message resonated with and impacted her.
“I think he is genuinely one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever met in my life. I feel like people might see his speech or his message as something cliché or crazy, but at the end of the day, it’s genuinely true. What he talked about with finding his path was really cool. Overall, I found him really inspirational, and he motivates me to keep doing what I do. Like him, I’m also trying out different things at school, and I feel a little crazy, but I really connect with his saying about how we’re all original,” said Oh.
