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A$AP Ferg makes his Brandeis debut

(04/24/18 10:02am)

For the first time in my four years at Brandeis, Springfest actually felt like spring! On Sunday, April 22, Brandeis students had more to celebrate than just the end of the school year. Students flooded the Foster Mods and Chapels Field to soak up one of the first warm and sunny day of the semester. This year’s headliner was A$AP Ferg, first known for his song “Plain Jane,” which is frequently played at campus parties. Brandeisians who knew of A$AP Ferg before Springfest and liked his music “rode with the mob” and had a fantastic time in the mosh pit in front of the stage. Those who wanted to be a part of the action by indulging in the food trucks and free pizza or by taking advantage of the other giveaways parked themselves on the other side of Chapel’s Field opposite the stage, where they could get a good view even if they didn’t want to be part of the action.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/asap-ferg-makes-his-brandeis-debut

‘Vagina Monologues’ empowers and entertains

(04/24/18 10:00am)

If your vagina could talk, what would it say? If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear? These are some of the questions posed in Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” which Brandeis students performed on Thursday, April 19 and Saturday, April 21.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/vagina-monologues-empowers-and-entertains

Boston Lyric Opera does Bernstein

(04/24/18 10:00am)

On Sunday, the Boston Lyric Opera kicked off the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts in Slosberg Music Center, setting a high bar for the student performances to come. The first three pieces in this nine-piece set went perfectly and flowed well into one another. The first solo performance was by Vincent Turregano; his performance of “A Simple Song” from “Mass” was incredible. The title of this song vastly undersells the rich complexity both of the music itself and of this actor’s performance. It was a semi-staged performance with movement direction by Nicola Bowie, but the underwhelming and confusing staging and choreography only detracted from wonderful acting and vocal performance, as it would for the entire performance.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/boston-lyric-opera-does-bernstein

Vaskrik impresses audience

(04/24/18 10:00am)

On Sunday, April 15, Ridgewood Commons served as a stage for several student groups to showcase their talent for admitted students and their families. One of these groups was Vaskrik, a Korean hip-hop dance group featuring first-year students Chenxi Dai ’21, Yaxi Huang ’21, Yimeng Huang ’21, Yuning Liu ’21, Yuechen Ta ’21 and Zhixin Tan ’21. This group performed three pieces and displayed some of the most remarkable coordination I have seen in a dance group. The first piece was a more traditional hip-hop group style, making use of jerking and breaking moves with quickly changing formations. The second piece was solo-based, which gave individual members a chance to demonstrate talent in solo pieces that featured slower moves. For the third piece, they invited young members from the audience to come onstage and dance with them. In addition, the outfits that the troop members wore complemented their moves well. Each member wore a red top and black bottoms, but the types of tops and bottoms they chose were all different, expressing their personal fashion choices and highlighting each of their dance styles. Hopefully, Vaskrik will continue to perform at more events in the future and show us their unique style of dance.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/vaskrik-impresses-audience

Folk Fest is a great chance for a picnic

(04/24/18 10:00am)

This past Saturday afternoon, on-campus folk a cappella group Too Cheap For Instruments held their annual Folk Fest on the Great Lawn. With the sun shining brightly, many attendees spread out blankets on the grass and held picnics to enjoy the long-awaited spring weather and the tinkling folk tunes. Too Cheap For Instruments organized five sets to play throughout the afternoon, in addition to a set of their own. These musicians included Molly Pinto Madigan, Lauren Pratt, Crowes Pasture, Walter and the Night Owls and headliner crowd favorite Cold Weather Company.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/folk-fest-is-a-great-chance-for-a-picnic

Bernstein’s Birthday Party

(04/24/18 10:00am)

The Great Lawn hosted a large birthday party on Thursday evening to commemorate Leonard Bernstein’s lasting impact on both the Brandeis community and the arts at large. Various festivities, including a slideshow presentation of photos from past Leonard Bernstein Festivals, took place throughout the night. The slideshow clearly conveyed the importance and excitement of the festival for anyone studying music. Complementing the slideshow were performances from Prof. Eric Chasalow (MUS) and a student-led band. The performances were so passionate and polished — a display well befitting Bernstein’s birthday celebration. Prof. Mark Berger (MUS) also gave a talk about the lasting legacy Bernstein left at Brandeis, demonstrating how truly loved and appreciated Bernstein is by Brandeis students and faculty. Inside the tent, cookies and a birthday cake helped partygoers celebrate Bernstein’s 100th. Arts lovers came together to mingle and collect their Leonard Bernstein bookmarks and literature packets. The party was a great way to begin the end of the festival, and also a great way to be involved with and learn more about the arts, especially music, on campus. Although Bernstein passed many years ago, his influence on the arts at Brandeis is evident.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/bernsteins-birthday-party

Music and Dance rocks Ridgewood

(04/24/18 10:00am)

Ridgewood A was packed with great performances from groups of various branches of the arts. However, my favorite would have to be the Music and Dance Band. Their renditions of pop favorites across decades energized the room. Director Steven Tarr ’19 arranged “Jet,” as played by Maynard Ferguson, “Baba Yetu” by Christopher Tin, “Temple of Boom” by Lucky Chops, “Africa” by Toto and “The Saints Go Marching In.” Tarr, his co-director Matthew Kowalyk ’18 and their 10 or so players put its audience in a mood that made you forget about the gloomy weather outside. Despite the fact that “Africa” has had a recent resurgence in popularity, you could hear the audience singing along to the primarily brass band performed their best during “Temple of Boom,” creating an apt atmosphere for the Ridgewood A Commons with strong trombone and tenor sax solos. The hallmark of a great performance is when the performers are having just as much fun as the audience, and you could clearly observe the group’s passion and dedication to their music. Catch them at the Midnight Buffet if you haven’t heard them yet.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/music-and-dance-rocks-ridgewood

Kotoko Brass gets everybody moving

(04/24/18 10:00am)

Children dancing. Students dancing. Adults dancing. Grandparents dancing. This was the effect Kotoko Brass had on its audience in the tent on the Great Lawn last Sunday. The group performed blends of West African, Japanese and American styles of music with a saxophone player, a trombone player, a keyboard player, a drummer on a traditional drum set and two men playing various types of African drums. The atmosphere was electric. My fingers were moving to the beat of the drums as I typed away messages dragging people into the tent. The music boomed across the Great Lawn through the drizzle. The musicians went on 5-minute-long solos over steady drumming beats, but the fun really started when the drummers themselves began their solos. There was not a frown in the tent. Everyone enjoyed themselves and had a great time dancing and tapping their feet during what I feel was the best performance of the festival that I attended last week.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/kotoko-brass-gets-everybody-moving

Toxic pops and locks it

(04/24/18 10:00am)

Last Sunday afternoon, overcome by a mid-April winter storm, eager audience members packed into Ridgewood Commons to see a dance performance from Toxic. The group, Brandeis’ only majorette dance crew, was anything but bogged down by the bog that forced them into the rain location, delivering a characteristically fierce performance set to the track of “Freedom” by Beyoncé. The dancers — poised, crackling and confident — were on fire. Toxic has a way of bringing a unique energy into a room, one that they not only imbue their performances with but also share with their audiences, creating a collective experience that feels almost spiritual, if not downright heavenly. One audience member appropriately cheered for the group rather vocally throughout their routine, as if speaking for everybody in the room. The evident commitment in the dances that Toxic performs bolsters the energy, leaving you begging for more. When they exited through a back door after their dance for the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, there was not a disappointed audience member to be found. Put simply, there are not enough praises to sing about Toxic. These ladies know how to put on a show, and they deliver it flawlessly.

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2018/04/toxic-pops-and-locks-it