Sounding off on four decades

Happy birthday to us! Members of the music department plan to attend and perform in Friday's concert, including Lucy Hayes Davis, Doug Reach, Chris Mitchell, Greg Servant, Lynn Stodola, Philippe Djokic, Marcia Swanston and Gary Ewer. (Bruce Bottomley Photo)

From classical to jazz, from 1968 to 2008, Friday’s alumni recital promises to be diverse and exceptional.

St. Andrew’s United Church will reverberate with music that reflects four decades of Dalhousie’s musical achievements and academic excellence. The concert takes place Friday, Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m.

Alumni such as Gina Burgess and Adam Fine of Gypsophilia, Jeff Mosher and Jody Lyne of the Mellotones, Lorna MacDonald and many more will be performing. Dal music grad Shauntay Grant, the host of CBC’s All the Best, will officiate. Alumni are expected from all over Canada to attend, perform and reconnect with classmates.

“The fact that it’s all coming together and we’ve got so many alumni that are willing to perform and donate their service is really very heart-warming,” said Dr. Gregory Servant, chairman of Department of Music.

The money raised will go to the department, and students will vote on how the money is spent.
The founder of the Department of Music, Dr. David Wilson, will also perform in the recital.

“Almost everybody who is going to be performing has been a student of mine. It’s just so interesting, knowing how they performed then, to find out how they’ve grown and become really mature artists,” said Dr. Wilson.

“It seems like yesterday that we started. I’m really very, very pleased at how the department has grown, because we really started from scratch,” he added proudly.

Putting together this celebration was no easy task either.

Lesley Brechin, the administrative officer for the music department, says this recital was hard to organize because of the number of alumni and the fact that they’re sometimes difficult to locate after all these years.

She’s looking forward to “seeing everybody reconnect with their classmates and teachers.”
Music is different from other departments because of the constant interaction with the public.

Dr. Servant says he loves music because of “the sheer power that it has to move people, to bring them together... Music is a language of emotions and language of your brain and you don’t have to speak one another’s national languages to be able to communicate. Four string players from four different nationalities can sit down and play Beethoven or Bach. Just the way their body gestures and musical gestures, they communicate and create something of beauty.”
For more information on the Alumni Recital, visit the Department of Music.