standard “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” then scrolls through Woody Herman, Archie Shepp, and Duke Ellington versions as bassist Carlo D’Angelis ’12 tries out chords with Best playing lightly along. “OK, everybody got it?” asks Nazarenko. “You want to try it? One, two, three”—and off they go, playing by ear and learning by heart from their own quick grasp of the YouTube videos. It’s technology that lets youngsters sit, figura- tively, at the feet of legendary music makers, studying tech- nique and working out how the masters handled a blues line here, why they chose a D-flat diminished chord there. “This is transforming my teaching,” says Nazarenko, a jazz pianist with years of instruction, performance, and recording to his credit. His old studio was “a closet opposite the recital hall’s green room—no windows, no ventilation, no audiovisual. You had to bring in your own tape or CD and a boombox.” Now, “Say Thelonius Monk comes up in class discussion. I can push ‘on,’ a screen comes down, and in 30 seconds I’m playing a Monk tape. I’m pinching myself—this is reinvigorating the way I work.”
PRACTICE MADE PERFECT
To get in their requisite hours of solo practice, stu- dents flock to more than a dozen third-floor practice rooms. Small and elegant, each has a tall window
looking out on a balcony. “In Filene, you’d hear noise spilling out from all the other rooms and you’d get distracted. Here, you can’t hear anyone else,” says jazz pianist Boniece. “The sound is so clean I can’t hear anything except the music I’m creating,” agrees Chris Carillo ’13, who sings with the Skidmore Chorus, Vocal Chamber Ensemble, and Bandersnatchers. And Ashley Storrow ’11, a Sonneteer turned jazz singer, reports that Skid- more’s numerous student a cappella groups, long scrambling for practice space, finally have room enough to rehearse. In a nostalgic nod to Filene’s often-charming acoustical over-
flow, the music faculty and the architects, Ewing Cole and Bel- son Design Architects, made sure that the sounds of music still drift out from the practice rooms through their less heavily proofed doors. To walk Zankel’s third-floor hall at peak practice times is to sample one musical treat after another.
MUSIC IN THE LIBERAL ARTS
On a grand scale, Zankel Music Center brilliantly reaf- firms “the arts as an integral dimension of a Skidmore education,” as President Philip Glotzbach has said. It’s home to the music department, but it’s also a dramatic stage for Skidmore’s mission to spark bold new cross-disciplinary connections. For instance, when the Skidmore Orchestra’s con- cert in March featured Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, the performance also provided a dazzling finale to the Class of 2013’s first-year experience, whose theme was Lincoln and the American presidency. Big enough to seat an entire Skidmore class, Ladd Concert Hall can host major events presented by the special programs, first-year experience, and other offices— and without as much reliance on simulcasting into overflow auditoriums.
18 SCOPE SPRING 2010
All things considered, the new building synergizes a rare blend of “conservatory-level private music instruction for aca- demically bright students who don’t want to be limited to a conservatory curriculum,” says Anne Turner, who teaches voice. “Skidmore is one of very few to offer this.”
CONCERT STAGE AS CLASSROOM
For students pursuing music performance, all of the Zankel’s finest qualities come together in its concert hall. There, on the intimate scale of the student recital, pedagogy culminates in public performance, which flutist Vinci defines as “a significant part of both solo and en- semble music.” Great things can happen in rehearsal, she says, but “there are things you learn only in performance.” On a Saturday night in February, her student Rebecca Rawl- ing ‘10 steps out on the large, shining stage to begin her senior flute recital—the first in the new hall. Regal in a long white gown, Rawling gravely regards her silver flute for a moment and nods to her Skidmore staff accompanist Patricia Hadfield. Then she launches into Bach’s Sonata in E Minor, followed by a Mozart concerto, a Prokofiev sonata for flute and piano, and Higdon’s challenging contemporary piece, called Rapid Fire. Ladd Concert Hall, which sounds so lush for large ensembles and full audiences, sounds equally warm and rich for Rawling’s flute and a receptive group of family, friends, and faculty. “The sound just wrapped all around you, no matter where you sat,” marvels Nazarenko. Dramatic stage lighting stepped the presen- tation up yet another notch. (FYI, the recital was framed with movable acoustic panels, staged, lighted, and recorded by a stu- dent crew supervised by jazz ensemble member Boniece; all were trained by the Zankel’s new technical director, Shawn DuBois, in a work-study program of music-production manage- ment. But that’s another story.) Vinci’s verdict: “Rebecca’s recital was very, very good, and I think the hall helped. She was playing the best I’ve heard from her.” “I really liked playing in the new hall,” says Rawling, a Fi- lene Music Scholar and English major. “The acoustics made me sound good and definitely enhanced my performance.” And, she adds, “it was nice to be onstage.”
INDEFINABLE GRACE NOTES
As the music department settles deeper into its new digs, “I notice more of a ‘bounce’ in my students,” says Chuck Joseph. Chalk some of that up to “the brightness of the classroom,” but Joseph thinks that the bright- ness also “translates to our discussions. Students seem more alert to me, more eager to participate in whatever the dialogue evolves.” Turner too detects “a psychological lift—we’re happier. The students are happier, and that leads to more motivation.” Kudos aside, perhaps all that the new building can actually do for Skidmore musicians is give them the finest, best-tuned bricks-and-mortar “instrument” that lets them play their best —and what’s not to love about that?
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