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The newly formed Spoken Word Ensemble gave its first performance, “Word: An Ensemble,” a free event held April 9 at the Williams Center for the Arts.
The eight-person group was created by Tom DiGiovanni ’96, director of the concert and pep bands and part-time instructor of music, and Ross Gay ’96, Dean of Studies Humanities Fellow, to mark their two-year post-graduate experience in Easton together. The ensemble addressed “the point at which words lose their contextual meaning or definition and become just pure sound,” according to DiGiovanni.
Group members wrote pieces for the performance that demonstrate the concept through tools such as word repetition and change in pace.
“The idea was originally to give Lafayette students an opportunity to work on the production of musical art in an independent situation, working hand-in-hand with professionals who have done this before,” explains DiGiovanni. “The spoken word idea is also an unusual concept, so it serves the purpose of stretching students’ perspectives of what art can be.”
“Word: An Ensemble” is described as “choral-poetic-instrumental orchestrations composed by students, faculty, and friends,” and features Alison Ahart ’03, a double major in music and English from Phillipsburg, N.J.; DiGiovanni; Gay; Dave Mitchell ’05, a music major from Bear Creek, Pa.; Lisa Oliveri ’04, a psychology major from Oradell, N.J.; Jenny Roberts ’03, a double major in religion and anthropology & sociology from Royersford, Pa.; Toby Heineck ’06 of Bellport, N.Y.; and Brad Carbone, a percussionist from Queens, N.Y.
Others involved include: John O’Keefe, manager of instructional technology — technical adviser; Rick El-Darwish ’03, a computer science major from Ferney-Voltaire, France — videographer; Allison Blatt, Williams Center operations director — house manager and publicist; and Tim Frey — sound engineer.
Compositions for the show included an updated version of “9 poems,” which was presented at this year’s Fringe festival, and DiGiovanni’s “I see the sky, I see the people,” which uses a quote from a would-be suicide bomber explaining why she relented. Ahart composed a piece as part of a senior project using a quote from Galileo, as well as responses to that quote from George Panichas, professor and head of philosophy, and Easton native Jared Mast ’04, among others. Mitchell and Oliveri created “Three Stories,” an improvisational piece that involved three people speaking different parts while Oliveri used hand signals to control the outcome of the piece. Other composers for the concert included Gay and playwright David Ives. The concert will conclude with an interactive piece in the Williams Center lobby.
“The pieces are all very solid,” says DiGiovanni. “I think they’ve all grown to the point where each has a statement to make.”
Marquis Scholar David Mitchell ’05 (right) collaborated on a non-credit musical composition with Tom DiGiovanni ’96.