The University of Rhode Island’s fifth music convocation concert of the semester drew a large crowd, including students, faculty and staff, while also featuring six student performers.
Each convocation is held weekly by the College of Arts and Sciences as well as the Department of Music. Students, faculty and “special guests,” according to the URI website, offer live music as well as a discussion after their performances.
Although the Oct. 28 concert is only the fifth convocation of the Fall 2022 semester, URI has been coordinating these convocations for decades.
Music Department Chair Mark Conley is no stranger to these weekly events.
“Convocation is a standard thing that most music departments have if they offer professional degrees,” Conley said. “You are supposed to have an opportunity for students to come, hear performances and they are also supposed to demonstrate on a regular basis that they can do what we’re training them to do.”
While the convocations are open to the public and free, students majoring or minoring in music who are enrolled in specific classes are required to attend each performance of the semester. Many of those students sat in the first few rows of the concert hall, as close to the action as possible.
The first performance was a group of six students: Autumn Casey on clarinet, Andrew Ligouri on tenor saxophone, Ben Marcotte on trombone, Wyatt Crosby on bass, Andrew Dyson on drums and Armando Mirabal on piano. The sextet performed the 1963 song “Mood Indigo,” originally composed by American jazz pianist Charles Mingus.
Many of the songs performed during the convocations were classical pieces, which helped to better accentuate the talent of the singers and musicians by choosing songs that could help get the most out of their voices and instruments.
Nearly all students performing in URI’s convocations are in at least their second year of their studies.
“Sometimes we’ll let first-year students do it if they really want to, and it’s okay with their teacher,” Conley said. “They get special permission to perform, usually in the spring semester, but it is not an open forum for performance. It’s for the [music] majors and minors.”
Next up was a performance from Cami Carpenter, a soprano vocalist, with Nathaniel Barker on piano. Carpenter sang a cover of the 2015 song “She Used to Be Mine” by Sara Bareilles’ hit musical “Waitress,” and was met with a very supportive audience reaction both before and after her performance.
Barker stayed put at the piano for the next performance, this one tenor vocalist Gavino Puggioni, who sang the 1722 piece “Vergin Tutto Amor,” originally written by Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante. This performance was also sung entirely in Italian and earned another uproarious reaction from the audience.
According to Conley, each performer chooses to take part in a convocation not only because they want to but also to gain something more meaningful from the experience.
“It’s a short excerpt of what they’re going to be doing with their lives,” Conley said. “They’re taking away how to improve their performance skills, what it’s like to actually be on stage…it can be very easy to criticize what other people do, but then you have to get up there and do it and then suddenly that changes your viewpoint.”
Samantha Shriner took the stage next and played No. 17 and 18 from “24 Preludes,” Op.11, by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, and did so by memory. Both pieces, varying from one to two minutes in length and being wildly different in rhythm, key and tone, struck the audience as particularly impressive.
Following that, Barker returned to the keys and was joined by soprano vocalist Carrie Sullivan who sang the 1891 song “Mandoline” by French composer Gabriel Fauré, followed by the 1903’s “Silent Noon’,” originally by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Like Puggioni, Sullivan is also bilingual, as “Silent Noon” was sung in English and “Mandoline” was sung in French. Both vocal performances were encased in an impressive vibrato.
The final performance of the convocation belonged to In the Pocket, an upbeat choir made up of soprano Madison Kimbal, alto Katelyn Belyea, alto Ricki Rizzo, alto Grace Anderson, tenor Beckett Collins, tenor Ted Kutcher III, bass Louis Shriber and bass Armando Mirabal. Also featured were Wyatt Crosby on the upright bass, Andrew Dyson on drums and David Gilliland, assistant teaching professor of collaborative piano, on piano.
The group performed “One O’Clock Jump,” an upbeat, jazzy piece that was composed by American jazz pianist William ‘Count’ Basie in 1937 with lyrics written by American lyricist Jon Hendricks in 1957. Following that, they performed “Doodlin’,” composed by American jazz pianist Horace Silver in 1954, with lyrics written once again by Hendricks in 1962.
It was clear just from watching them that this group enjoys what they do. Their bouncy vocals mixed with the fact that they were bopping and hip-swaying and practically dancing on stage, most likely to match the “doo-wop” style of music they were singing, made for an infectious attitude that was the perfect closing to the convocation.
The final 20 minutes involved audience participation. Students attending the convocation posted questions to Brightspace for the course requiring their attendance. Once questions were submitted, the performers took seats at the foot of the stage and responded.
In The Pocket was asked about the challenges they faced while having to rehearse with a group as big as theirs. They said that the biggest issue was only having two days a week to rehearse, and due to classes and schedule conflicts, they had to rehearse in two separate groups most of the time.
Conley said that participating in convocation is the best way for students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to their real lives.
“Everyone needs to see what it’s like to perform, and they need to learn how to be a supportive audience member,” Conley said. “It’s important to the entire department and faculty, you’ll regularly see faculty there in support of how important we believe that is.”
First-year marine biology major Ashlyn Decker claimed that, while she would not have gone if her friend had not suggested it, she found the concert to be engaging.
“It was definitely interesting,” Decker said. “It’s a good place to listen to eclectic music.”
It seems that if a supportive audience is a goal the department of music is looking to achieve, they have already done it by their fifth convocation.
The convocation takes place every Friday at 1 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall and is open to anyone who would like to come to see the students majoring or minoring in music at URI.