January 12th, 2009

“You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” was last year’s show, making CHC history as the first musical entirely run and organized by students. Sophomores Kelly Wilson and Mark Urmson directed the show with guidance and approval from Sr. Kathleen McCloskey, the head of the music department. The show was a hit, especially to those familiar with Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip.

My personal favorite scene revealed the actions and thoughts of the characters when they had to tackle the daunting task of writing a one-hundred word book report. Charlie Brown lamented about how he should be outside playing rather then doing homework; Lucy inserted extraneous amounts of unnecessary words to meet the length requirement; Schroeder used a fight scene from Robin Hood in attempts to make an analogy; Linus wrote a deep and philosophical analysis of the story…all while Sally, Snoopy, and Woodstock chased down a rabbit—appropriately so, seeing as how the book report was about Peter Rabbit.

This year’s student-organized production is “Godspell.” Kelly and Mark have returned to direct the show, and both new and familiar faces are expected to be seen on stage when it debuts on January 30, 2009.  Break a leg in advance, cast and crew!

January 31st:   2pm

The Motherhouse Auditorium,
behind St. Joseph’s Hall

Tickets are $5!

 

Tagged As: Godspell, Music Department, Musicals, Plays, Student Production, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown
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October 14th, 2008

This past weekend at CHC was indeed a special one. Student Activities and countless hard-working individuals organized special events for Family Weekend, including an outdoor carnival complete with a moonbounce, giant-sized checkers, chess, & connect-four, tricycle races, sand art, a beanbag toss, fundraising tables, a juggler, and fun music blasting while everything was going on. I could already hear everything as I was leaving my dorm at Sugarloaf to head down to the festivities. If being outside and soaking up the sun was overwhelming though, there were tables and chairs set up for those just wishing to sit and catch up with family members or friends. Not to mention free food!

Alison and I in front of my Hogwarts-esque school, with goodies from the bookstore

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Tagged As: Casino Night, Family Weekend, Music Department, Overnight Guests
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September 23rd, 2008

The Chestnut Hill music department is slowly but surely making its way up in the world, as my fellow blogger Andréa has stated in one of her previous blogs. However, one just doesn’t realize how many options there are besides the already established performing groups if he or she is having trouble finding their niche in the music community.

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Tagged As: A Capella, Brass, Flute, History, Jazz, Lessons, Music, Music Department, Open Mic, Pep Band, Philly, Theory
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July 30th, 2008

Last semester, I was lucky enough to attend a concert at the Kimmel Center with several of my fellow musician friends of Chestnut Hill College. Sister Kathleen, the head of the music department at CHC, had gotten a hold of some tickets to see pianist Christian Zacharias perform in the Perelman Theater. When I heard that tickets were up for grabs for those of us involved with the music department, I jumped at the chance to go.

When concert night came, the group of us (all gussied up in our concert attire) loaded into two CHC vans and were on our way. If Christian Zacharias hadn’t been amazing, I would have said that just the ride to the Kimmel Center made my night. Picture a group of mostly music majors, plus other music obsessed students, and a fuzzy sounding radio station. Of course, the radio just wasn’t doing it for us so we improvised and made up our own soundtrack as we went along. I’m sure our driver thought we were an amusing bunch, as we were belting out everything from Disney songs to Queen to the Backstreet Boys.

Upon unloading at the Kimmel Center and settling down into our seats, we were exposed to some of the best piano playing I think I’ve ever heard. I know talent isn’t all about speed, but I was in awe at how Zacharias was even able to physically make his fingers move about the keys as fast as he was, while still making them sound musical at the same time. I play piano also, and I know that when I come across fast passages I tend to fudge the notes a little and just hope that I hit the majority of them. During Zacharias’ pieces though, I heard every single noted he played. As a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and found it an experience to remember. I’ve even begun trying to break out of my bad practice methods to actually learn Prestissimo marked music passages down pat!

The Verizon Hall, not where we saw Zacharias, but another room at the Kimmel Center, for bigger performing groups.

My friend Mark and I studying our program while waiting for the music festivities to begin.

Tagged As: Concerts, local attractions, Music, Music Department, Philadelphia, trips
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July 12th, 2008

CHC’s music major was only revived a few years ago, but the music scene is already thriving up on the hill. In the ever-growing music department, there are multiple options for majoring and minoring, plus several performance groups, including the Chestnut Hill Community Chorus, the Hill Singers, two ensembles, a Gospel choir, and the Roasted Chestnuts. And there are always opportunities to perform, from our two musicals to CHC Idol (pictured) to coffeehouses and concerts.

While our music department is great, the real musical highlights of CHC are our many indie artists. The school might be small, but we’ve got a heck of a talent pool! Mike Mitchell is probably the campus’s most well-known musician, with many coffehouse and concert performances under his belt. He has performed in City Line and Just Six Spaces as well as under his own name. Rising sophomore Celeste Maldonado is making a name for herself too, both as a solo singer/songwriter and as a duo with fellow CHC-er Elena DiCostanzo.

In the post punk / indie / psychedelic category is Maxwell Spaceman’s Criminals Hate Answering Machines, another regular at CHC concerts. Ryan M, who sometimes plays with Criminals Hate Answering Machines, also has a few acts of his own, including Anymore Or with his girlfriend Sue, who’s also a CHC student.

Technically, Andrew Chase is a former student, but his song “I Laugh When People Die” is too good not to include in a round-up of CHC music. With such a wide variety of music present at Chestnut Hill College, there’s something for everyone, whether you want to join in the fun or just kick back on the Piazza and listen to some good songs.

Tagged As: Music, Music Department, students
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