MAJOR: ENGLISH
WHAT ARE YOU INVOLVED IN ON CAMPUS?
“As of now, I’m involved in Hofstra’s only all-male a cappella group, the Dutchmen, acting as their music director. I am also involved in Hofstra’s English Society, submitting to their literary magazine, Font. I’m currently looking into getting more involved on campus, specifically with the music and English departments, but also with the psychology department and possibly SGA.”
WHAT DO YOU DO AS MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE DUTCHMEN?
“As music director of the Dutchmen, I’m in charge of running our rehearsals, teaching the music to the group, deciding the order of the songs we will learn each semester, and adjusting our incoming arrangements of music to facilitate the learning process. I help decide the songs we will preform at gigs, I warm the group up before performances, and when group members audition for a solo that I’m not auditioning for, I run auditions.”
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG TO PERFORM AND WHY?
“My favorite Dutchmen song to perform would have to be Boys of Summer by The Ataris, arranged by Nick Cancelliere. The response we get from the crowd is amazing, and you can tell that the guys really enjoy performing it. It’s exciting to perform from start to finish, and it’s one of our songs that I feel we sound the best on. Also, the chorus is killer!”
WHAT IS THE MOST EMBARASSING THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU WHILE PERFORMING?
“Last year we performed our arrangement of the Pokémon theme song at a gig on campus. We were low on numbers, so I switched my voice part for the song. I don’t know what happened, but some of the guys finished the song three-quarters of the way through, and since we were so low on guys, it was noticeable. So the rest of the group just came to a weird stop and all I could do was look at the audience with the “deer-in-the-headlights” look. Thankfully that was the one and only time it happened.”
WHAT IS A GOAL THAT YOU HAVE FOR THE DUTCHMEN?
“Personally, I’d like for Dutchmen to be known in the a cappella world. It’s good to have connections to groups in the area, but I want to spread out and perform with groups from different states. I want the Dutchmen to be known beyond the east coast. I want for the group to not only perform with top tier groups, but also to socialize with them so that when our name gets thrown into conversation, people will know us for how fun we are to just hang out with as well as for our musical accomplishments.”
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU GRADUATE?
“My dream job would have to be working as a clinical psychologist with my time split between working in a hospital and in a private practice. I’d prefer to work with children.”