This past Saturday, the Phillips Academy Department of Music put on HerStory, a student performance in honor of the 50th anniversary of co-education at Andover. To celebrate the Abbot Academy merger, the recital exclusively featured pieces from female composers. The show was meant to be an opportunity for students to showcase what they had been working on while highlighting the breadth of female talent within the music space. From violin, piano, cello, bass, and erhu, to trumpet, saxophone, flute, and voice, the show encapsulated a variety of instruments and sounds which kept the audience engaged and entertained.
Beyond being enjoyable for the audience, HerStory also succeeded in imbuing the message of female empowerment into the audience. Karishma Caro De Castillo ’25 remarked on the intersection between womanhood and music and how the show’s variety enhanced the communication of this message.
“I really enjoyed the diversity. It was such an interesting range of pieces from all these different time periods. It was really wonderful to hear all the different ways of being a woman and ways of expressing yourself through music,” said Caro De Castillo.
This feeling of novelty was appreciated by both the audience and performers alike. As an opt-in performance, the show attracted a group of students who hadn’t necessarily worked together in the past. April Arabian ’24 shared how the show had a unique sound in addition to a unique message.
“It was awesome getting to perform with other performers that I haven’t heard before. This is a group of people that I haven’t actually sung with before and in general, I have not heard some of the instruments that have been played. I just think it’s incredible that we each get a chance to perform in a different and unique way,” said Arabian.
Arabian continued on to explain the inspiration behind her piece “When He Sees Me,” from the musical Waitress: “This piece is about this girl in the musical. She’s looking for love, but she doesn’t want to admit she’s looking for love, so she pretends to cut herself off. But, at the end, she realizes that if somebody’s in love with me, I really actually want that kind of a romance. I think it’s such a great message because there’s so many people who cut themselves off.”
“Lan Hua Hua,” an Erhu performance by Brian Zhu ’26, was one piece that really stood out to the audience. The piece tells the story of a Chinese woman living in feudal times who longed for freedom and true love, but which tragically ended with her death. This performance left a lasting impression on Caro De Castillo, who was pleasantly surprised by the compelling narrative and the unique sound of the Erhu instrument.
“There was this piece that was about this Chinese woman during the feudal period… And that instrument was just something I had never seen before, and it was played in such an interesting way. I really loved how it was more than just one person on the stage at once,” said Caro De Castillo.
Jacob Kaiser ’24 collaborated with Brandon Fu ’25 to perform the piece “Interlude” by Toshiko Akiyoshi. Kaiser’s love for performing jazz came from the collaborative aspect of it.
“I think Brandon and I are very spontaneous when we perform. And that goes on to make it a lot of fun. Brings out new things every time we get on stage,” said Kaiser.
Moreover, Kaiser was also very impressed by the performances of other groups, and the messages and diversity of musical styles at the event.
“I didn’t really know what to expect, but there was a lot genre-wise. We got to see a bit of everything. Everyone seemed to put in a lot of effort. It was very well polished [and] very well curated. Very impressed all around,” said Kaiser.
