On Thursday, September 1, I got the chance to see Phil Keaggy live in concert at Pruis Hall here on Ball State's Campus. He is an extremely accomplished guitarist and it was absolutely fascinating to get to see him live. I have played acoustic guitar for around 10 years and so I have a great respect for people who are extremely talented. His faith was also a strong point of his performance. He has been highly recorded for both secular and religious music purposes, but most of his personally written songs focus on a faith based approach to music and life.
I was lucky enough to get the ticket for this concert from a good friend from back home. He was attending with his father and had an extra ticket. It was a great experience to share this concert with him as he often worked sound for our church youth band. It was great getting to reconnect with him and his father and get to share a fun night of music and faith.
I share this because it really does help shape Ball State in my mind. I will be honest: I have never been completely sold on Ball State as a top-notch university. They had the program I wanted for music education, and as such I selected Ball State without even looking at other schools. However, I never felt like I really belonged here, like I needed somewhere "cooler" or more "prestigious" to try and challenge me and help me grow. And while I am still waiting for academic rigor to pick up to a pace I am more accustomed to, this concert really helped me learn that culturally Ball State might just be a good fit for me.
The ability for famous musicians and artists, touring groups, performers, and tons of other people to come to Ball State in the middle of Muncie, Indiana to perform truly helps make this college more like home. I've grown up in the arts and music and absolutely love getting to see artists of all walks of life and all different types of music, visual arts, and any other form of expression. And the fact that Ball State makes an active effort to bring these top-notch performances to Middletown, USA makes a huge impact for me.
I am also slowly recognizing the opportunities that are available for me here that may not exist in other places. One thing that comes to mind on a large scale is the study abroad and internship programs that are present here. Both of these hold great allure in my mind and I am sure that I will pursue these actively in the years to come. On a slightly closer place to home, for Christmas I am taking my mom to see Amy Grant live at Emens Auditorium. This is a big deal for me because I grew up listening to her music with my mom and the fact that Ball State is able to facilitate bringing artists from around the world to perform makes what could be a bleak, midwestern school into an active and culturally diverse community.
I know these things don't relate immediately to the concert that I attended. However, it was this concert that caused the realization that I can make Ball State exactly what I want it to be. The opportunities are abundant here and I simply need to recognize them and work to actively seize them, because they will not find me. This has been the biggest adjustment for me personally in the transition to college is simply learning that I do control my own fate, but to do that I have to put aside petty issues, find what is important to me, and act to achieve those goals.
Cultural Event #2
"Don Giovanni"
On October 22nd, I had the opportunity to see "Don Giovanni" by Mozart at the AMC in Muncie under the advice of my vocal teacher. It was the first time I had ever seen an opera. Although I had taken many music classes and was familiar with the evolution of opera to comic opera and ultimately to the modern Broadway musical, I was not familiar with the specifics or conventions of opera. It was very surprising to see the similarities between the opera and modern musicals. The amount of overlap was very evident and added to my enjoyment of the production.
To begin, the vocal techniques used were absolutely astounding. It was a live simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, an absolutely enormous theater seating probably close to 4,000. And throughout the entire performance, zero microphones were utilized. The use of resonance in the voice and body carried the sound throughout the entire building. It was also able to carry over the sound of an entire orchestra and engage in an active duet with them. The mastery of Mozart comes in his ability to engage the orchestra and vocalist to embellish the storyline.
The costuming and stage design were also wonderful to see. The costumes were period appropriate and very intricate and detailed. It was also interesting to note the use of colors on stage. In theater, the color blue tends to be associated with the protagonist. It was interesting to see how they used this color because the character of Don Giovanni is hardly the typical protagonist, and the audience simultaneously loves his exploits and deplores his decisions. The staging was also very simple, but extremely effective. With a "Hollywood Squares"-esque criss crossing of windows and balconies, action could unfold both on the main stager and above to increase dramatic irony.
Ultimately, this production was extremely well produced and very interesting for me to see. As far as relating it to our class, the biggest thing that shocked me was how relevant it can be to today's culture. In many ways, Don Giovanni was practically a member of Jersey Shore in his day. An entire song is dedicated to his sexual exploits, the punchline of which is his 1,003 encounters in Spain alone. Because he was a member of the aristocracy, he was able to do these things with little to no repercussions against himself. It was also shocking to see how very little has changed in what audiences love to seen stage in the past 400 years. This tends to lead to the conclusion that the human condition has never really changed, regardless of technology or time periods.
As I mentioned in my previous cultural event report, the fact that these sort of things exist in Muncie really help Ball State become a better and better fit for me. As I begin to realize more and more of the opportunities available, I realize that life is what I make it and that I need to seize opportunities as they arise. Ultimately, I think it would be extremely helpful if Ball State would front some of the cost to get the Met simulcasted here on campus for students. Even if there were a nominal fee for admission, there are a number of focal students who would very much enjoy this. Additionally, I am sure that there are some more students like me who are switching out of the music program but still love music and exploring it more in depth. I think this would be a great way to increase arts awareness and keep students on campus by providing even more opportunities.
Phil Keaggy
On Thursday, September 1, I got the chance to see Phil Keaggy live in concert at Pruis Hall here on Ball State's Campus. He is an extremely accomplished guitarist and it was absolutely fascinating to get to see him live. I have played acoustic guitar for around 10 years and so I have a great respect for people who are extremely talented. His faith was also a strong point of his performance. He has been highly recorded for both secular and religious music purposes, but most of his personally written songs focus on a faith based approach to music and life.
I was lucky enough to get the ticket for this concert from a good friend from back home. He was attending with his father and had an extra ticket. It was a great experience to share this concert with him as he often worked sound for our church youth band. It was great getting to reconnect with him and his father and get to share a fun night of music and faith.
I share this because it really does help shape Ball State in my mind. I will be honest: I have never been completely sold on Ball State as a top-notch university. They had the program I wanted for music education, and as such I selected Ball State without even looking at other schools. However, I never felt like I really belonged here, like I needed somewhere "cooler" or more "prestigious" to try and challenge me and help me grow. And while I am still waiting for academic rigor to pick up to a pace I am more accustomed to, this concert really helped me learn that culturally Ball State might just be a good fit for me.
The ability for famous musicians and artists, touring groups, performers, and tons of other people to come to Ball State in the middle of Muncie, Indiana to perform truly helps make this college more like home. I've grown up in the arts and music and absolutely love getting to see artists of all walks of life and all different types of music, visual arts, and any other form of expression. And the fact that Ball State makes an active effort to bring these top-notch performances to Middletown, USA makes a huge impact for me.
I am also slowly recognizing the opportunities that are available for me here that may not exist in other places. One thing that comes to mind on a large scale is the study abroad and internship programs that are present here. Both of these hold great allure in my mind and I am sure that I will pursue these actively in the years to come. On a slightly closer place to home, for Christmas I am taking my mom to see Amy Grant live at Emens Auditorium. This is a big deal for me because I grew up listening to her music with my mom and the fact that Ball State is able to facilitate bringing artists from around the world to perform makes what could be a bleak, midwestern school into an active and culturally diverse community.
I know these things don't relate immediately to the concert that I attended. However, it was this concert that caused the realization that I can make Ball State exactly what I want it to be. The opportunities are abundant here and I simply need to recognize them and work to actively seize them, because they will not find me. This has been the biggest adjustment for me personally in the transition to college is simply learning that I do control my own fate, but to do that I have to put aside petty issues, find what is important to me, and act to achieve those goals.
Cultural Event #2
"Don Giovanni"
On October 22nd, I had the opportunity to see "Don Giovanni" by Mozart at the AMC in Muncie under the advice of my vocal teacher. It was the first time I had ever seen an opera. Although I had taken many music classes and was familiar with the evolution of opera to comic opera and ultimately to the modern Broadway musical, I was not familiar with the specifics or conventions of opera. It was very surprising to see the similarities between the opera and modern musicals. The amount of overlap was very evident and added to my enjoyment of the production.
To begin, the vocal techniques used were absolutely astounding. It was a live simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, an absolutely enormous theater seating probably close to 4,000. And throughout the entire performance, zero microphones were utilized. The use of resonance in the voice and body carried the sound throughout the entire building. It was also able to carry over the sound of an entire orchestra and engage in an active duet with them. The mastery of Mozart comes in his ability to engage the orchestra and vocalist to embellish the storyline.
The costuming and stage design were also wonderful to see. The costumes were period appropriate and very intricate and detailed. It was also interesting to note the use of colors on stage. In theater, the color blue tends to be associated with the protagonist. It was interesting to see how they used this color because the character of Don Giovanni is hardly the typical protagonist, and the audience simultaneously loves his exploits and deplores his decisions. The staging was also very simple, but extremely effective. With a "Hollywood Squares"-esque criss crossing of windows and balconies, action could unfold both on the main stager and above to increase dramatic irony.
Ultimately, this production was extremely well produced and very interesting for me to see. As far as relating it to our class, the biggest thing that shocked me was how relevant it can be to today's culture. In many ways, Don Giovanni was practically a member of Jersey Shore in his day. An entire song is dedicated to his sexual exploits, the punchline of which is his 1,003 encounters in Spain alone. Because he was a member of the aristocracy, he was able to do these things with little to no repercussions against himself. It was also shocking to see how very little has changed in what audiences love to seen stage in the past 400 years. This tends to lead to the conclusion that the human condition has never really changed, regardless of technology or time periods.
As I mentioned in my previous cultural event report, the fact that these sort of things exist in Muncie really help Ball State become a better and better fit for me. As I begin to realize more and more of the opportunities available, I realize that life is what I make it and that I need to seize opportunities as they arise. Ultimately, I think it would be extremely helpful if Ball State would front some of the cost to get the Met simulcasted here on campus for students. Even if there were a nominal fee for admission, there are a number of focal students who would very much enjoy this. Additionally, I am sure that there are some more students like me who are switching out of the music program but still love music and exploring it more in depth. I think this would be a great way to increase arts awareness and keep students on campus by providing even more opportunities.