>>>Etienne Massicotte: The sense of community with other people, you know, music is an interactive art. I’ve always really been attracted to working with people.
I’m also really attracted to the energy you can get from music, whether you’re playing it, listening to it, [or] writing it.
>>>Christine Kasprisin: I decided to join the jazz ensemble, really because I love jazz music.
It’s really fun, it’s really different from almost any other type of music you’ll come across. And I really wanted to get involved on campus.
It’s really incredible just to have the chance to play with some of the top contemporary jazz musicians of our time.
They’ll just suggest little things, or [say], “think of it like this.” And they’re just so nice, I don’t know. They are really fun to talk to and they have crazy stories.
>>>Etienne: One of my favorite guest artists that played with us was Butch Miles, who was the drummer for the Count Bassie Jazz Orchestra.
It would be like if the athletic department recruited Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, depending on what religion you follow, to come in and sit in on the men’s basketball team during a game.
>>>Darius Dixson: I think it is very important, and I think it’s really cool that Professor Lindberg keeps that dialogue happening between his ensemble and the ensembles that he’s affiliated with outside of the College and those musicians as well.
>>>Etienne: Every musician, I think, throughout their career needs to have an opportunity to play in an ensemble with people that are better than them and worse than them.
Like you said, there are music majors and non-music majors in the ensemble. As a player in the ensemble, no matter where you are in that spectrum it’s possible, it’s very possible to glean good experiences from where you are.
>>>Christine: It was kind of intimidating at first, but if anything it just made me push myself harder, to practice more to make sure that I wasn’t letting the ensemble down.
I think it’s really good. You have a whole bunch of different backgrounds and ways of thinking and playing, but you can all come together and make this one beautiful thing.
