First Ever Pro­fes­sional Record­ing Ses­sion for Music Ensemble

By Sarah Bul­lock ’09

Over the course of two evenings in March, Wesley’s Con­tem­po­rary Music Ensem­ble opened a new chap­ter in the music program’s his­tory with the group’s first pro­fes­sional record­ing at the Schwartz Cen­ter for the Arts. This under­tak­ing was ini­ti­ated by Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Music Dr. David Laganella, who wanted to doc­u­ment the hard work of the stu­dents in the music pro­gram and also pro­vide them with proof of their own progression.

Upon com­ing to Wes­ley as a new pro­fes­sor sev­eral years ago, Laganella designed the credit-bearing Con­tem­po­rary Music Ensem­ble course to help stu­dents dis­ci­pline them­selves to play a vari­ety of music in a pro­fes­sional man­ner and in a group set­ting. Dr. Jef­frey Gib­son, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish and an active mem­ber of the Ensem­ble, noted that Laganella sets high expec­ta­tions for the mem­bers “despite the extra work the Ensem­ble means for him.” Gib­son con­tin­ued, “It’s clear Dr. Laganella enjoys watch­ing his stu­dents learn and grow as musi­cians, and he wants them to enjoy it as well. He doesn’t expect the mem­bers to be bril­liant musi­cians (or I’d cer­tainly be out). He knows they’re all at dif­fer­ent skill lev­els and does his best to put together arrange­ments that work for all involved. As a result, the Ensem­ble has been per­haps the most suc­cess­ful fine arts pro­gram at Wes­ley in recent years.”

Stu­dent musi­cian Saman­tha Simp­son expressed a sim­i­lar sen­ti­ment in regard to the rigor of the course as well as Laganella’s devo­tion to the group. “While this course is a tremen­dous amount of fun, his atti­tude helps to keep us on our toes by remind­ing us that it is also hard work that should be taken seri­ously. He demands the best out of his stu­dents, and pushes them to achieve their full poten­tial.” She added, “Dr. Laganella is a great asset to the music depart­ment because of his deter­mi­na­tion and his drive. He is help­ing to turn the music depart­ment into a seri­ous field of study at Wesley.”

The record­ing was con­ducted by Eugene Laws, engi­neer of Equal Loud­ness Stu­dios, a mobile record­ing stu­dio. The set list was com­prised of a mix­ture of jazz and pop songs, includ­ing “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by Weather Report, “Night and Day” by Cole Porter, “Sum­mer­time” by George Gersh­win, “Har­vest Moon” by Neil Young, “Moon­dance” by Van Mor­ri­son and “Heart­breaker” by Pat Benatar. The stu­dents and fac­ulty that took part in the record­ing are listed in the chart to the right. Being a part of a pro­fes­sional music record­ing is a rare treat that most music stu­dents do not get the chance to enjoy and one that Wesley’s Ensem­ble mem­bers will not soon for­get. “Get­ting the oppor­tu­nity to record was an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence, not to men­tion a bit of an ego boost for all of us. After all, this is what ‘real’ musi­cians do!” Simp­son expressed.

Laganella worked on fine tun­ing the record­ing over the sum­mer. While it will not be for sale, copies will be avail­able in Spring 2010 for any­one within the Wes­ley com­mu­nity that is inter­ested. He intends for this first record­ing to be a tool to help fur­ther pro­mote the music depart­ment and build on its suc­cess. He also plans for the Con­tem­po­rary Music Ensem­ble to make a record­ing every two aca­d­e­mic years, so that all the stu­dents involved in the pro­gram have a chance to par­tic­i­pate in the studio.

Simp­son said, “For a musi­cian, there is no sub­sti­tute for per­form­ing live, and there are few expe­ri­ences that com­pare to the thrill that goes along with this par­tic­u­lar event. Being a part of the Con­tem­po­rary Music Ensem­ble has been one of the high­lights of my expe­ri­ence at Wes­ley Col­lege.” W