The Kalamazoo College Singers will present the Michigan premiere of Hymnody of Earth, a song cycle composed by musician and choral director Malcolm Dalglish, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 20, at K’s Stetson Chapel, 1200 Academy St.
The composer himself will play the virtuosic hammered dulcimer and will be joined by International Percussion Ensemble Director Carolyn Koebel on percussion. Associate Professor of Music Chris Ludwa will be conducting the 45-voice college choir.
This 70-minute program features 19 songs, many of which are inspired by eco-poet Wendell Berry. This is the fourth time Ludwa has directed the piece, having previously led three performances in Indiana. He notes that the work is an all-time favorite among participating singers and audiences.
Hymnody features the hammered dulcimer, an ancient instrument, often considered an ancestor of the piano, that has been popular in various cultures, including in the Middle East and Europe. Dalglish and Koebel are performing the piece with several other choirs in the Midwest this spring.
While a music education student at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Dalglish designed and built more than 60 hammer dulcimers. He was a founding member of the popular folk trio Metamora and has nine albums, including solo offerings on the Windham Hill label. The American Boychoir, the St. Olaf Choir, the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and others have commissioned his folk-inspired music. In 1997, he formed the Oolites, an engaging young group of folk singers. Hymnody of Earth was their second CD; it is a spiritual celebration of nature that has been performed by choirs around the world.
The Kalamazoo College Singers are a mixed soprano, alto, tenor and bass choir.
Composer Malcolm Dalglish
Associate Professor of Music Chris Ludwa serves as the director of the Kalamazoo College Singers.
International Percussion Director Carolyn Koebel
“Dalglish’s songs are instantly accessible to anyone, yet somehow speak to the deepest part of our being on a soul level,” Ludwa said. “I’ve encountered few composers that can move both the skeptic and the most devout in the same way. His music is a balm to the weary human as he knits ancient musical traditions, texts that magically describe the magnificence of nature, and melodic and harmonic material that sends shivers up the spine and brings tears to the eyes.”
Tickets will be available at the door for a suggested donation of $15. For more information, contact Ludwa at 231-225-8877 or cludwa@kzoo.edu.
Shruti Debburman ’26 has found a home away from home on study abroad in Clermont-Ferrand with her host parents, Arielle and Stéphane Calipel, pictured here on the Puy de Combegrasse volcanic peak.
Study abroad in Clermont-Ferrand has been a dream come true for Debburman, pictured here with Olivia Cannizzaro ’26 at vendanges (grape harvesting).
A double major in French and psychology with a minor in music, Debburman has studied pipe organ at the conservatory of Clermont-Ferrand during her study abroad.
Living in France is everything Shruti Debburman ’26 dreamed of since she was 9 years old.
In fact, Debburman had been in Clermont-Ferrand on study abroad from Kalamazoo College for only two weeks before she started to feel that the six-month study abroad program—which had seemed overwhelming in advance—would not be long enough.
“I got here at the end of August, and once I was here, time went by so differently,” Debburman said. “Time started to move very quickly, and I knew that in six months I was not going to be ready to leave, and that I would want more time. I am so happy here; I don’t want to leave when there’s so much to do that I’m not going to be able to have done by February. I wouldn’t be fluent enough, and I don’t want to leave not being as fluent as possible. And I thought, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, why not take full advantage of it?”
With the support of program administrators, her parents and her host family, Debburman extended her stay from a February end date into the middle of May.
“I want to make the most of it, to really speak French without giving in to English, to push myself in terms of grammar and vocabulary and speaking correctly,” Debburman said. “I would like to make some more French friends, and I’m excited to travel more.”
Growing up in Lake Bluff, Illinois, as a fan of both reading and baking, Debburman got hooked on France thanks to a French cookbook of her mom’s from Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute.
“It’s really complicated, all the types of doughs you can make, all the types of sauces, all the types of creams,” Debburman said. “I read the thing cover to cover, and I was like, ‘I must learn how to do this. And I need to learn about France, because all of this is so cool, and it must be an interesting country that it comes from.’ I was at a Montessori school and we didn’t have a language class, but what’s incredible about Montessori is that it encourages students to spend time pursuing their interests during the school day, so for example, our assistant teacher had studied French in college, so she was giving me little French lessons on the side.”
K appealed to Debburman based on small class sizes, flexible curriculum and emphasis on study abroad. While her intention to major in French persisted, she took advantage of the ability to explore other areas of interest, considering a second major first in history, then in classics, then music. Currently, she has declared a double major in French and psychology with a minor in music.
For study abroad, Jan Solberg, professor of French and Francophone studies, encouraged Debburman to consider Clermont-Ferrand.
“It’s a very immersive program, but it’s also a small and very supportive program,” Debburman said. “I think she knew it was the right place for me.”
The Clermont-Ferrand program runs during K’s fall and winter terms in partnership with Institution Saint Alyre, an educational establishment that includes primary and secondary schools as well as higher education. Students live with host families and take classes in French language, culture and civilization designed especially for K students as well as classes in French literature and philosophy or modern world history and economy alongside Saint-Alyre students. They complete an Integrative Cultural Project (ICRP) and volunteer at the international short film festival held in Clermont in early February before returning to Kalamazoo for spring term.
An anxious flier, Debburman remembers feeling surprisingly calm while soldiering through the journey to France, including a long flight delay, being met at the airport by the program’s resident director and her host dad, and her host dad driving her to their home. There she met her host mom and a younger daughter who lives on her own but came for dinner and brought her boyfriend—and the travel caught up with her.
“It was such a long day, and I gave everyone the most scatterbrained impression of myself,” Debburman said. “I’m normally pretty put together on the outside, but I was so worried about making a good impression that I kind of forgot how to speak French. My host mom is fluent in English, thankfully, so there were some moments of half English, half French going on, and it was a lot. But everyone was wonderful, incredibly welcoming and kind. I was worried about being an imposition, and they did such a good job making me feel like I was not intruding or an imposition and I felt like part of the family right away.”
Her host family has been a highlight of her time in Clermont. Having grown up as an only child, Debburman relishes the opportunity to experience family dinners, game nights and life with siblings.
She also loves getting to know Clermont-Ferrand, which she finds an interesting city with a manageable size. The city’s population of just under 150,000 is roughly double the population of Kalamazoo, but with a size of about 16 square miles, it covers between half and three quarters as much land as Kalamazoo.
“You can walk most places downtown,” Debburman said. “I have a 10-minute walk most places, because I’m close to the middle. If you’re going somewhere farther out, there is decent public transportation. It’s not super cosmopolitan, so you have to speak French and get good at it quickly.”
Improving French fluency is also necessary in the coursework, which Debburman found challenging at first.
“Classes were more lecture heavy than in my classes at K. In French, especially, and in the rest of the humanities, K classes are mostly discussion based. It also felt fast. The first couple of weeks, I was just writing stuff down as fast as possible, without having a clue what I was writing. But then it got easier. The more I was around the language, I started understanding it better, until it felt like I was actually learning the material in class.”
The study abroad program at Clermont-Ferrand proved a perfect fit for Debburman, pictured at the Mémorial de Caen.
Debburman, pictured at the Loire River, extended her study abroad in Clermont-Ferrand when she decided six months was not enough time.
In Clermont-Ferrand, Debburman visits the Chateau de Chavaniac, the Marquis de Lafayette’s childhood home, with Jacob McKinney ’26, Françoise Evangelista, resident director, and Didier Croze, civilization teacher.
Learning French literature and economics alongside French students offers an intriguing contrast for Debburman—one class right in her wheelhouse, the other brand new to her, and both with a distinctively French perspective.
In addition, Debburman and (until February) the other two K students studying in Clermont-Ferrand this academic year attend a French language class, a French culture and civilization class, and a time set aside for extra support with the economics teacher, where they review material from class or go deeper on topics that are relevant to their interests.
“Those classes are very flexible,” Debburman said. “It’s what we need to learn or what we want to learn.
Our teachers are absolutely fabulous. They’re so engaging.”
Debburman also takes pipe organ lessons at the Regional Conservatory for music, dance and theatre, and she completed her ICRP at the Conservatory, researching and writing about the history and current state of the pipe organ in France.
For the ICRP, each student chooses a topic or question of interest to him or her and completes 40 hours of work on a site and 10 interviews with professionals in the field, often tied to an internship. Having played piano since she was 5 years old and viola since high school, Debburman grew interested in the academic side of music at K and started pipe organ lessons during her first year.
“I didn’t realize how absolutely in love I would end up with the instrument,” Debburman said. While true mastery of many instruments requires an early start, pipe organists often begin as teenagers, because they need to have achieved their full height and a level of piano competence.
“It’s usually a weird connection—in French, they call it ‘un coup de foudre,’ which is like love at first sight,” Debburman said. “It literally translates to crack of lightning, so it’s like love struck; you hear it or you play it for the first time, and it’s like destiny, you just know it’s your instrument.”
Struggling to find 10 pipe organ professionals in Clermont even with her contacts at the Conservatory, Debburman expanded her interviewees to include students of the pipe organ, which enriched her final product.
“I didn’t think of doing that at first, but I found that the students put a lot of thought into it, they answered very thoroughly, and I feel like some of the insights that I got from them were more creative and out of the box,” Debburman said. “The kids still have that enthusiasm in them, a spark. It was interesting to have the kids explain how they fell in love with it while it’s still fresh for them.”
Debburman did get to meet (and interview) professionals—people who are important in the pipe organ world—and she had the opportunity to play historic instruments in the process.
In her time abroad, Debburman has traveled to many places; Normandy, Florence and London were highlights for her, offering natural beauty, architecture, history and amazing food.
“We went skiing in the Alps,” Debburman said. “I think that would be a collective highlight for all of us. I’d never skied in my life. I was terrified, and it was really fun. It’s the coolest possible place to try it.”
Since the two other K students left Clermont in February, some things have stayed the same for Debburman—her host family was happy to extend her stay; most of her classes remained consistent—while other things have shifted. In addition to adjusting to the absence of her fellow Hornets, Debburman has been thinking about her Senior Integrated Project (something related to medieval feminist literature), started a French book club with her former resident director, and added a Latin class with high school students to her schedule.
“That’s been an interesting experience, because translating Latin to English is one thing, but translating Latin to French, one language that is not my first language to other language that’s not my first language, is complicated,” Debburman said. “It’s also interesting being with high school kids, because they have so much energy. They talk differently, and they’re a lot more willing to test out their English. They ask a lot of questions that tell you a lot about how French people see the U.S.”
Her K-specific classes are now one-on-one, opening opportunities to explore topics of particular interest for Debburman.
“In French, we don’t have much grammar to do, and the teacher has been bringing in documents on all these different French women of interest, like one of the lawyers who was instrumental in legalizing abortion, a female artist, female scientists. I’m focusing on a lot of medieval history with my history teacher. It’s very flexible, very individualized, which is a special opportunity, because that’s not usually how school works. This is unique, and I think it’s valuable to my education.”
Debburman’s experiences in France have improved her fluency, flexibility, communication and confidence.
“Study abroad has changed my life,” she said. “I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened and will happen for the next couple of months. I have a family here for life now, I’ve gotten to see incredible places, I’ve met wonderful people. I’ve gotten to play organs that are 200 years old. I’ve made new friends. I’ve reconnected with old friends from high school, and that’s been lovely as well. It’s very much a dream come true to be here and to be enjoying it so much. I am sure that little me would be so proud and absolutely over the moon.”
She hopes other French students will consider Clermont-Ferrand.
“It’s an extremely special program, and all the people in the program, the teachers, the families, the satellite families you can do activities with, they’re all wonderful,” Debburman said. “There are so many unique opportunities, and you will not regret going there. It was one of the best decisions of my life.”
Connecting Back: From France to Kalamazoo
While reflecting on her study abroad experience in Clermont-Ferrand, Shruti Debburman ’26 also appreciates other opportunities K has offered her, both on and off campus.
“Being part of Kalamazoo Philharmonia, K Phil, has been a big part of my time at K. I did not get in on my first try, but got in on the second try, so it felt very fulfilling. I play viola, and K Phil is mostly community members with a pretty small group of students, which means that we as students get close. Some of the closest friends I have at K are from orchestra.”
Debburman has worked in the Music Department office as well as the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL), through which she also takes part in Interfaith Student Leaders.
“ORSL was another place I made some of my closest friends,” she said. “When I first came to K, I was not sure that K was the right place for me. My second term, I found Interfaith, and it’s been a community that has made my experience at K so wonderful. It’s made me grow and think, and it’s pushed me, and I love that.”
In the ORSL Cavern space, Liz Candido, College chaplain, has proven an important mentor for Debburman.
“She’s been supportive throughout my ups and downs at K, and also so open and encouraging of all the weird questions I throw at her,” Debburman said. “I have a tendency to walk into the Cavern at the start of my shift and have some theological question that I’d been thinking about, and she is so kind and talks me through it. We go into the history and the language, like the Greek, and it’s so interesting. She’s been very encouraging of my interest in theology and helpful whenever I’ve done something in classes that involves something religion-related.”
In the French department, Jan Solberg, professor of French and Francophone studies, has offered invaluable support and connection.
Debburman, Cannizzaro and Adrien Chandioux, a Saint-Alyre student, visit the Manoir de Clos Lucé, Leonardo da Vinci’s home.
“She was my first French professor at K, and the way she taught French, it made me keep loving the language,” Debburman said. “I had definitely had my moments of hating it; every single year of high school, I said, ‘I’m going to drop French next year.’ She helped me love the language, and she’s been incredibly supportive of me academically; she’s helped me through some of my decisions and classes. In terms of life, she’s been there for me throughout my time at K and has been super supportive. And she’s in orchestra, too, so that’s fun. She’s there in every part of my life.”
During the summers, Debburman has completed an internship at the National Alliance on Mental Illness in their North suburban office of Chicago and research at Rosalind Franklin University in West Chicago.
Returning to Kalamazoo for her last year, Debburman looks forward to returning to Interfaith and collective music making as well as tackling her Senior Integrated Project. Beyond that, she plans to apply for a fellowship or scholarship that would allow her to spend more time abroad post-graduation exploring her interests before settling into a Ph.D. and research path.
Join vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Isabella Pellegrom ’25 when she shares new music from her upcoming second album, tentatively titled Lavender Bushes. The event—at 7 p.m. Friday, April 18, in Recital Hall at Light Fine Arts—will serve as her Senior Integrated Project concert performance.
Pellegrom released her first album, Nomadic Tendencies, in 2022. She said she decided to produce a second album for her SIP with inspiration from her brother, Jory, who she says is a fabulous guitarist and songwriter himself.
“I have distinct memories of sitting beside him as he played and wrote,” Pellegrom said. “There are three songs on the album—For a Cent, Oil Spills and Lines in Between—that were originally written by him. As he never had a chance to produce them himself, I wanted to take his songs and make them my own, whether that be in the arrangement for the studio version or getting to collaborate with him on finalizing lyrics. The album was then filled up with songs that I wrote throughout my years at Kalamazoo College.”
Pellegrom notes that some of the songs, such as the title track and In My Back Pocket, have been stashed away for an album since her first year at K, meaning they’re more polished. Others—such as Rainbows, So Sweet, Ocean Tides and Better Left Unknown—she fell in love with because they had a certain lyric or feel while going with the healing, introspective nature of the new album.
Pellegrom is a biochemistry and music double major and a member of the Chemistry Club at K. She’s also been a President’s Student Ambassador, representing the College at formal events for community leaders, alumni and donors as an extension of the president’s office. Plus, she has participated in inorganic chemistry research and completed a summer clinical research program at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern.
As a musician, Pellegrom is a member of the Academy Street Winds, the Kalamazoo Jazz Band, the College Singers and the Limelights a cappella group. However, the songs on her SIP album are special, she said, because they are a representation of the creative growth she has experienced over the past four years.
“I wrote them during experiences of joy, sadness, confusion and clarity; all the while discovering more about who I am and who I want to be,” Pellegrom said. “Since writing my last album, I have continued to feel grounded in songwriting and I’ve found inspiration in nature.
“The biggest difference from the last album is that this one feels even more rooted in my personal emotions and events. I want to keep finding my voice through my lyrics and my sound through how I am feeling. This album is an exploration of the beauties found within the world. Even more, to me this album represents healing in its many forms and the ways in which I heal. I find healing through joyous moments with friends, through love felt in relationships, through support during moments of hardship and most of all through music. I hope that these songs are in any way healing for those who listen as well.”
Isabella Pellegrom ’25 sang music from “Nomadic Tendencies” during Founders Day in 2023.
Lavender Bushes Demos
Get a taste of whatPellegrom will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, April 18:
Update: The in-person lecture has been canceled, but the livestream will still be available.
Scott Aalgaard, an associate professor of East Asian studies at Wesleyan University, will discuss folk and protest music through the lens of Japanese performers such as Takada Wataru and Kagawa Ryō in this year’s Kafu Lecture at Kalamazoo College.
Aalgaard will present “Folk Music Revolutionaries: Protest Music in Modern Japan” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in Room 103 of Dewing Hall, 1219 Academy St. A livestream will be available.
The discussion will challenge attendees to step away from thinking about American musical storytellers in the 1960s when they think of protest music to consider what it involves elsewhere. The talk will explore how Japanese folk singers performed amid Japan’s political circumstances in the turbulent 1960s and developed musical projects that challenged limited notions of what “protest” is or can be in the first place.
Aalgaard works on cultural production in modern and contemporary Japan with particular emphases on popular music and literature. His work addresses geopolitics, political economy, regional and social histories, nationalism, fascism and disparate modes of protest and critique, among other topics. His first book, titled Homesick Blues: Politics, Protest and Musical Storytelling in Modern Japan (University of Hawai’i Press, 2023), explores the interplay between music and everyday life and how music is used by artists, fans and others to imagine and re-imagine social, political and cultural life in modern Japan. It is oriented toward understanding the ways in which artists, authors and individual social actors use music to understand the world and envision different possibilities for living in it.
The Kafu Lecture was established in 1982 by an anonymous donor in honor of Nagai Kafu, an acclaimed 20th century Japanese writer. Kafu studied at Kalamazoo College during the 1904-05 academic year. The free, public event is co-sponsored by Kalamazoo College and the departments of East Asian Studies and Music at K. For more information, contact Professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori at sugimori@kzoo.edu.
Kafu Lecture speaker Scott Aalgaard is an associate professor of East Asian studies at Wesleyan University.
Musicians, like all artists, are people obsessed with the details of their art. And like all artists, they require quality tools to create their best work. Vocalists, of course, carry their instrument with them at all times. Instrumentalists often spend years, even decades, learning the idiosyncrasies of their instrument. Pianists, however, don’t have the luxury of bringing their own piano to a lesson, a practice session or a performance.
“If you’re a pianist trying to work on those details, and you have an instrument that cannot respond to the subtleties that pianists work on extensively, then your learning is hampered. Your performance is hampered. Even the audience’s enjoyment of what they’re hearing will be somewhat diminished,” said Andrew Koehler, Kalamazoo College professor of music, music department chair and conductor of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia.
That’s the big picture explanation of why, for more than 20 years, the music department at Kalamazoo College has wanted to restore, enhance and update its piano and keyboard collection in support of every student, faculty and community member who makes and enjoys music on campus. Now, thanks to grant support from several local organizations, that work is almost complete.
The keyboard renewal project funded the restoration of the College’s performance pianos, added new pianos to classroom and studio spaces, and updated the instrument collection in several of the College’s practice rooms.
For more than 20 years, the music department has wanted to restore, enhance and update its piano and keyboard collection in support of every student, faculty and community member who makes and enjoys music on campus. Now, thanks to grant support from several local organizations, that work is almost complete.
Many of the pianos had aged beyond the lack of nuance that would impede a professional pianist, and into a space of no longer being functional instruments.
“Pianos are very complicated technological mechanisms,” Koehler said. “They break down, and they need to be repaired carefully and expertly to remain in good functioning order. It takes a lot of money, and it’s complicated to do.”
In addition to the professional rebuilding of two nine-foot Steinway grand pianos in Stetson Chapel and in Dalton Theatre and significant restoration of a Mason and Hamlin piano in the Light Fine Arts Building Recital Hall, the project has provided a variety of electronic keyboards and tiers of pianos for all levels of musician.
Rebuilding and restoring the three performance pianos is key to the continued use of both Stetson and Dalton for College as well as community events and concerts, said Susan Lawrence, Kalamazoo College music event coordinator, piano teacher and accompanist.
“We do a lot with community here on campus, hosting other music organizations, bringing in community works with some of our ensembles,” Lawrence said. “People use Stetson for weddings and a lot of different things. In Dalton, people rent that out, and we bring artists in that the community comes to hear. There are community members who play with the symphony or with some of our other ensembles. The community benefits from those pianos.”
Among the music department’s ensembles, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia orchestra, the Academy Street Winds band and the Kalamazoo Choral Arts choir intermix K students with a substantial number of community members.
“That’s a town-and-gown kind of relationship,” Koehler said. “Community members are here, they’re using these facilities, the concerts are also thus populated by their acquaintances, their friends. Beyond students and parents, the music department is a place where people come to campus to hear these performances. Any choir concert will feature the piano; a lot of orchestra concerts do. We have guest recitals. Our final exam in music is an opportunity to perform for others. That is the end goal of almost all our performance-based activity. We want to play for others. We want to share what we’re doing. That is a critical part of the ethos of music making, that’s how we’re sharing with the larger community, and those instruments will make a big difference.”
As students develop their musical abilities toward that end goal, offering a range of keyboard and piano options for their use is crucial regardless of their primary instrument or type of musical interest.
“Every musician who walks through this department touches a piano in some way, for theory, composition, music production,” Lawrence said. “Most of them don’t want to be famous pianists, and they may not sit down to hone a craft, but they need a functioning instrument.”
The department worked to create tiers of instruments for the range of student needs.
“The piano is a really important part of how all musicians come to understand music, because the keyboard is a visual representation of the spectrum of notes: the lower pitches ascending to the higher ones, arranged from left to right,” Koehler said. “All musicians are expected to have at least some passing familiarity with how it works. Even if you’re a singer or a violinist who’s trying to make sure you’re in tune and you’re hitting the right pitch, sometimes you have to go to the keyboard, even if it’s one-finger kind of level of piano playing, to say, ‘OK, I think I’ve got those intervals right. I’m doing it correctly.’ All of that absolutely is necessary.”
Electronic keyboards in some of the practice rooms in the Light Fine Arts basement serve as basic or entry-level options. They offer full keyboards—88 weighted keys that mimic the feel of a piano—as well as the ability to connect to a computer for recording, theory, composition and music-production work. In addition, they will weather basement conditions better than an acoustic piano.
High-quality used upright pianos in several practice rooms provide a step up from the electronic keyboards for an intermediate or advanced student, while grand pianos in other rooms allow faculty to work with more serious students. Finally, there are the fine performance pianos in Stetson, the Recital Hall, and Dalton.
“The end result of this project is instruments that support our students’ learning, that allow them to do that kind of nuanced work that I was talking about earlier, and that fundamentally is what we’re here to do: Support the learning of our students and allow them to share it with the community,” Koehler said. “We want to make sure that we provide the materials that they can do that with.”
College pianos endure heavy use, and so it is important both to start with strong pianos and for students to learn how to care for them.
“Students learn to take care of their own instruments,” Lawrence said. “Pianos seem more like furniture to some people in some ways, and they may think it’s going to be there forever, and it’s not if you don’t take care of it. We have covers and locks on all the performance pianos. It’s important that we teach anyone who comes in and uses a piano how to take care of it.”
With that careful maintenance, and aided by recent improvements to climate control in Light Fine Arts, the music department expects the keyboard renewal project to make a difference on campus and in the wider community for years to come.
“Our annual maintenance fund helps us do simple things, like keep the pianos in tune, and maybe some basic action regulation to make sure the hammers are the right shape to hit the string in the right way and create the range of sounds that you want,” Koehler said. “Then sometimes, of course, like we’re seeing here, whole things have to be replaced, or much more significant work has to be done to re-regulate aspects of the complex machine that is the piano. We’re grateful to these organizations for supporting this work, because in the 20 years we’ve been waiting to get this done, these complex machines kept getting worse. It’s just wonderful to turn the corner on this, and we should be in a good place for 10, 20 years or even longer.”
Shayna M. Silverstein, an associate professor of performance studies at Northwestern University, will visit Kalamazoo College on Friday, November 1, to discuss the topics in her book, Fraught Balance: The Embodied Politics of Dabke Dance Music in Syria.
At 4:15 p.m. in Dewing Hall, Room 103, Silverstein will talk about dabke, one of Syria’s most beloved dance music traditions, which is at the center of the country’s war and the social tensions that preceded conflict. Drawing on almost two decades of ethnographic, archival and digital research, Silverstein’s book shows how dabke dance music embodies the dynamics of gender, class, ethnicity and nationhood in an authoritarian state.
Silverstein, originally from Spokane, Washington, has studied in New Haven, Connecticut, and Chicago; lived in New York City, Washington, D.C., Syria, and Lebanon; and is now permanently based in Chicago. She holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University.
The lecture, sponsored by K’s Department of Music, is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Music Event Coordinator Susan Lawrence at 269.337.7070 or Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.
Northwestern University Associate Professor of Performance Studies Shayna M. Silverstein.
Music has always been a part of life for Tyrus Parnell ’25, and his summer 2024 internship was no exception. Working for the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center in a Community Building Internship (CBI) through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) immersed Parnell in the field he loves and helped him prepare for life after college by redirecting his future path.
Growing up in a musical family, Parnell has sung for as long as he has talked and drummed since he was a toddler banging on his family’s pots and pans. In middle school band, he frustrated his parents by bringing home a new instrument every few weeks. “I just really like them all,” he said. By seventh grade, he was training his ear by teaching younger band students. In high school, he became an unofficial assistant to his choir teacher, helping run rehearsals.
“I’ve always been really integrated into the music aspect of my life, and teaching it came easily for me,” Parnell said. His plan coming to Kalamazoo College was to teach music of some sort at the high school or college level. His advisor, Chris Ludwa, suggested that a CBI with the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center would tie in perfectly with Parnell’s K-Plan and his quest to find his avenue within music.
The internship at Helen Fox offered Parnell the opportunity to both teach and work behind the scenes administratively. He was surprised to find that while he enjoyed the teaching, he truly thrived in the music center’s office.
“I really found a knack for administration and being in the weeds a little bit with trying to make sure that every kid that comes through any type of program is accounted for, they have what they need, and just doing the big reach to help as many as possible,” Parnell said. “I was helping with writing grants, planning schedules, learning the software that we use, and being an extra pair of eyes, extra pair of ears, helping to manage what we’re doing great, what wasn’t going so great.”
In the center’s summer program, Parnell taught piano to a class of students ranging in age from about 6 to 15.
“We did a little showcase at the end of it, which was really fun,” Parnell said. “As diverse in ages as my class was, they all had to start at the beginning. It was nice to see how at the end, they were helping one another, knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and leaning on each other to learn the pieces.”
Parnell also taught drumming through the center’s summer camp. Working with another drum instructor, they planned a routine with choreography around a Motown theme. The camp also included a trip to Detroit and a visit from a former member of a Motown singing group, the Velvelettes.
“It was nice to have that moment where it felt like our community stretched and was really kind of just all over,” Parnell said.
Through the CBI, Parnell developed and practiced skills that will serve him well in any future endeavors, including flexibility and adaptability (the center’s shared space in the Douglass Community Center sometimes necessitates last-minute changes in plans) as well as patience and understanding with different family dynamics and life experiences. In addition, he learned about himself, his own strengths and challenges, his preferences and skills.
“It’s been so much that I’ve taken away from the internship, and it’s given me a good look as to what nonprofit work entails,” Parnell said. “I really appreciated that.”
At K, Parnell has served in various roles in the music department and different ensembles, including as section leader for the College Singers and co-music director for the a capella group Premium Orange. He also serves as minister of music at his church, Sanctuary of Praise, and helps run a ministry-related podcast, Driven in Purpose. Parnell has been a President’s Student Ambassador since his second year at K. Heading into his senior year, the music and religion double major is exploring a new interest in digital music, writing an album, planning a live recording, and looking ahead to grad school and beyond.
Tyrus Parnell ’25 interned at the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center in a Community Building Internship this summer through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement.
Parnell has served in various roles in the music department and different ensembles at K, including as section leader for the College Singers and co-music director for the a capella group Premium Orange.
“Where I want to go for grad school is the biggest unanswered question, because I know the work I want to do,” Parnell said. “I really have found a love for nonprofit, so I would like to stay in that realm. I want to go to graduate school for public administration and learn how to best serve nonprofits or even start my own.
“I think that music will always be a part of my life. In some way, some of the work I do will probably heavily rely on music, but it’s really finding your voice with the music. I’ve always wanted music to be the thing that opens a conversation. For me, music has been a way to communicate what I couldn’t with words. It’s the emotion behind music. There’s this subliminal message happening that I’m just playing and dialing into. I remember my grandmother telling me, whenever you are going through a block or going through a hardship or whatever, you let it out through your music. Let that be your outlet. That’s the relationship I have with music.”
Three Kalamazoo College music ensembles are concluding their 2023–24 academic years with spring concerts in the coming days, starting tonight, May 29.
International Percussion
Tonight’s International Percussion performance, beginning at 7, will take place outside, in front of the Light Fine Arts building. There will be chairs and grass to sit on. Bring a blanket if you would like to sit on the lawn.
Carolyn Koebel is the director of both groups within International Percussion, the West African ensemble and the Japanese Taiko ensemble, which are a combination of K students and community members who learn drumming techniques and then play together as a group.
The free concert will feature marimba player Julia Holt ’24, performing two selections written by composer Keiko Abe, who collaborated with Yamaha Corp. to develop the modern five-octave concert marimba. The Taiko ensemble will present two selections dealing with the giving of gifts to the Taiko community from special sources with music shared by Sensei Esther Vandecar.
Taiko drummers will be among one of two groups performing in the International Percussion ensemble at 7 tonight, May 29. Three ensembles have planned their spring concerts for this week.
College Singers
The Kalamazoo College Singers, under the direction of Associate Professor of Music Chris Ludwa, will present “Be Like Water.” The free concert—slated for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 30, in the lobby at Light Fine Arts—will present songs from a variety of sources and styles from the Renaissance, folk and popular music, each one centered on a theme of water. The concert is designed to uplift, inspire and transcend the current climate around politics, economics and war, offering a bit of hope.
Academy Street Winds
With nearly 50 years of teaching and conducting experience from elementary school through higher education, Academy Street Winds Director Tom Evans will lead the group for the last time in a concert titled, “It’s Time to Say Goodbye.”
All the music selected on this program has special meaning for him, which he will share at the concert. The compositions being performed are Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich, Second Suite in F by Gustav Holst, As Summer Was Just Beginning by Larry Daehn, Canzona by Peter Mennin, Stormbreak for percussion octet and band by Jim Casella, and English Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughn Williams. The free performance is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts.
For more information on any of these ensembles and their performances, contact Susan Lawrence in the Department of Music at 269.337.7070 or Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.
Under the direction of Andrew Koehler, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia will perform Carmen on Friday in Grand Rapids and on Sunday in Kalamazoo.
Carmen is one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon. Composer Georges Bizet died at just 36 years of age, only a few months after the premiere of his magnus opus, while early audiences in Paris were still scandalized by the way the topic and music broke conventions.
According to the Philharmonia’s season brochure, “The verité grittiness of the story, full of soldiers, thieves, cigarette factory laborers; the disastrous (if compulsively watchable) choices of the male protagonist, Don José; the seductive qualities of Carmen, precisely because of her complete disregard for societal niceties; and, of course, the picaresque, effortlessly melodic music of Bizet: all of these combine to create one of the most arresting dramas ever created, one whose influence was felt in almost every opera that followed.”
Professor of Music Andrew Koehler will direct the Kalamazoo Philharmonia this weekend in a semi-staged opera performance of “Carmen” in collaboration with the West Michigan Opera Project.
Friday’s free performance will start at 7 p.m. at Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain Street NE, Grand Rapids.
On Sunday, May 19, the Philharmonia will play at 3 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 212 S. Park Street in downtown Kalamazoo. Tickets will be sold at the door and will cost $7 for general admission, $3 for students and free for Kalamazoo College students. Credit cards will be accepted.
Founded in 1990 by Barry Ross as the Kalamazoo College and Community Orchestra, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia brings together students, faculty, amateur and professional musicians of all ages to perform great music.
For more information on this concert, contact Susan Lawrence in the Department of Music at 269.337.7070 or Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.
Music Professor Tom Evans says he has dreamed of seeing a standing-room only crowd for a Kalamazoo College Jazz Band performance since he arrived at K in 1995.
He’s never truly had that experience. But if there’s ever a time for a packed house, it’s this Friday, May 10, during Evans’ last concert as the Jazz Band’s director. The free and open-to-the-public performance—aptly themed That’s All, Folks—will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts.
The concert will leave its audience Feeling Good, which conveniently is the final tune on the docket. Other selections on the program have special significance as they were among the first songs Evans played in his high school jazz band. They include Fever, Soulful Strut,Kickin’ It, Blues for Percy,Intro to Art, Out of the Doghouse, Hard Right and Puente Ariba. Attendees are encouraged to bring their dancing shoes to swing and sway in the aisles should the music inspire them to do so.
“Finding the right words to express my gratitude to all my students and colleagues, from 1976 to the present, is difficult,” Evans said. “Quite simply, my career has afforded me some of the best experiences of my life. As such, I am sincerely grateful to all who have supported me along the way. And I am especially grateful for those with whom I’ve had the pleasure of making music. While my years of teaching and conducting were meaningful and momentous, I also hope that they were meaningful and momentous for those who shared my journey. How lucky I am to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
