Music enthusiasts form Living Learning Community
It’s impossible to pigeon-hole the musical tastes of the members of Octave, and that’s the point. In 2009, seven music-loving friends founded this Living Learning Community that is dedicated to promoting musical diversity and appreciation on campus. Octave member Andrew Tham provided some insight into the group and its activities.
Who is in Octave, and what are their musical interests?
Anna Yeagle, Rebecca Atkinson, and Osean Perez are all in the orchestra and string quartet. Colin Eakins, Ian Watt and I are in the jazz band. Julian Stacey isn’t a music student, but he’s the drummer for both jazz bands and the steel drum ensemble.
Octave has an extremely wide range of musical interests, and we’ve made it a personal goal to always be expanding our horizons. We don’t want to cater to just the music majors or any specific group. We want everyone to listen to our radio shows and come to our programs in the hopes that they’ll hear or learn something new and become more interested in music.
What type of performances do you do?
We had an introductory recital at the beginning of November. All the members of Octave, with the help of a few friends, played a range of musical styles, from a Baroque sonata to a hard bop jazz tune. Ian Watt and I even arranged a ballad (Kurt Weill’s “My Ship”) for jazz combo and string quartet for the recital. We played in Allee Chapel which provided a nice intimate environment, and the turnout was great.
This semester we’re playing for an art gallery opening, and we’ll be using electronic composition and probably a live string quartet. We’ll probably also have Julian’s rock band, Freeman and the Staceys, put on a blues show.
What’s your radio show like?
Octave Radio is on KRNL every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 9 p.m. Each show is hosted by two different members of Octave, and we usually play music according to a monthly theme. For instance, in December our theme was religious music, so we played a lot of oratorios, masses, and spirituals. We even recited Gregorian chant on the air as a live-in-the-studio performance. We had it played on a radio at Harlan Coffee House Open Mic Night — it was awesome!
What does your music mentoring program entail?
Every Saturday morning, we go to Taylor Elementary School in Cedar Rapids and give fourth, fifth, and sixth graders music lessons. We’re teaching all sorts of things such as violin, clarinet, trumpet, guitar, drums, and even basic music reading skills. It’s been a really rewarding experience to take the music skills I’ve developed in a few years here and share them with younger students.
What’s your role in Octave?
I mostly organize ideas for on-campus programs such as recitals or educational activities. The Gregorian chant was an example of that. We’re also planning to have a “Rite of Spring” dance party where we watch a DVD of the ballet’s performance, and then immediately afterwards dance to the music ourselves. It’s going to be off the hook and probably really awkward at the same time. As far as actually playing music in Octave, I usually play bass or piano.
What’s best about Octave?
The best part about this Living Learning Community is being able to share the experience of interacting with music on multifarious levels with the other seven members. We get to work together as researchers, composers, educators, and performers of music. I feel like we’ve created an enthusiasm for art, whether it’s playing in a recital or going to the symphony together, that is sometimes hard to find.
