Halloween in July
Happy Halloween. . . In October
From Kittie Cooper, Director of De(Composers) Forums
We asked Young Musicians Program (YMP) faculty member Kittie Cooper to tells us about Halloween in July, a beloved YMP tradition that she introduced six years ago:
Halloween in July is one of those beautiful days at Walden that bring out peak levels of wackiness in the community. It’s always a surprise when it’ll happen—some space is just decorated on campus for the students to discover. They then have the afternoon to come up with costumes while the offices are converted into a haunted house for students to trick-or-treat in later. The decorating is done secretly, under the cover of some complicated and blatantly fictional story that keeps the students away (this year, spiders had nested up in the offices and needed to be relocated).
Halloween in July is one of Walden’s more recent traditions—the first one was in 2016 and we’ve had one every year since (even 2020 when Walden was online). Some faculty and staff were talking about how we have winter holidays in July, and we were kidding around that we should have Halloween in July.
I really wanted it to happen though, because it sounded awesome and very summer-campy, so I kept bringing it up and asking people to help so we could make it happen. I convinced Sam Pluta to suggest Halloween as one of the musicianship frolic themes (which ended up being “Welcome to the Hallolympic Games” or some such), because then I knew we’d at least have some Halloween decorations to start with. People were honestly so trusting that year—I still can’t believe they just let us take over the offices and jumped right in to running around decorating things.
The rooms of the haunted house change every year, and are always a mix of spooky, scary, funny, nerdy, and just plain beautiful. This year two rooms that were on the particularly beautiful side of things were the hidden room of rainbows and unicorns (and other glittery, happy things curated by Rebekah Griffin Greene), and the room of 12-tone solfege bots (where Francesca Hellerman made a Max patch that randomly generated tone rows for the students to solfege). We also had a jump scare hallway with a bunch of DIY synths and lights (thanks to Alex Christie), and a room of planned obsolescence (featuring antiquated Walden merch and technology, dreamed up by Theo Trevisan), and there were many more stand-outs that I’d love to list but then this would be too long! My favorite thing about Halloween is that it’s always a group effort, and you get to see people’s personalities and senses of humor coming out in their own unique ways—just through costumes and decorations. And the Walden students are of course extremely clever, so they come up with some really amazingly original (and spooky, and hilarious) stuff every year.
2017 Season Highlights
Transformative Programs
Walden’s 35th season at our wonderful host Dublin School celebrated another exciting season during campus construction of a new dorm, refurbished academic buildings, and a remodeled recital hall (with air-conditioning!) that Walden will be able to utilize in 2018.
- Walden’s 45th Young Musicians Program brought creative, talented young composers from 12 states and 4 countries to Dublin. These students spent five life-changing weeks working with incredible faculty, top-notch artists and ensembles, and guest Composer-in-Residence, Robert Kyr.
- At the 2017 Creative Musicians Retreat in June, our adult participants, ranging in age from 19 to 79, joined us for another immersive week of composing and learning from renowned faculty, guest ensembles, and Composer-in-Residence, Annie Gosfield.
Award-winning Concert Series
Walden’s Concert Series and artist presentations were again offered completely free and open to the public throughout seven weeks this summer. More than 20 events were presented during June-August.
- Guest artists Mivos String Quartet, percussionist Matthew Gold, pianist Steve Beck, violinist Josh Modney, reed quintet Splinter Reeds, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Ryan Ross Smith, The Walden School Players, and Aurora Nealand & the Royal Roses performed.
- Walden’s annual choral concert, featuring Walden students, faculty, and community members, closed out the concert series on a high note at All Saints’ Church in Peterborough.
- Splinter Reeds, which premiered 7 new works by Walden faculty members, also played programs for Community Connections partners Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center and Keene Public Library.
- Collaborative Partnerships: A key component of Walden’s success is its partnerships with renowned organizations.
- PRISM Quartet – Continuing Walden’s 25-year partnership with this outstanding ensemble, Walden alumnus Reiny Rolock’s piece was premiered at concerts in Philadelphia and New York.
- Boston Philharmonic Young Composers Initiative – A reading and recording of six compositions featured a new work by Walden student Francesca Hellerman, performed by the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Walden faculty members Osnat Netzer and Evan Williams served on the discussion panel with other Boston-area university and conservatory faculty.
- The MacDowell Colony – Walden continued its decades-long association with its annual visit to this preeminent artist colony. Students heard from two of this summer’s MacDowell Fellow composers, Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw and Walden’s own Sam Pluta, Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Chicago.
- International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) – ICE returned for a third consecutive summer to perform new works by Walden students, as well as a world premiere by Walden faculty member Eliza Brown.
- Ensemble Dal Niente – Continuing Walden’s success in attracting ensembles to perform Walden student and alumni compositions, Dal Niente has commissioned a piece by Walden student Ruby Landau-Pincus.
- Connecting the Walden/JCC Community: We gathered during the year to celebrate & support our musical community.
- In December and January, six Walden holiday parties were held in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
- Walden presented an Alumni Composers Forum in San Francisco in January that featured 7 pieces by alumni from all over the U.S., moderated by Walden faculty Emil Margolis and Alex Ness and featuring Wild Rumpus.
- We celebrated Walden with fundraisers (and friend-raisers!) in Washington, D.C., in March, Boston, New York, and San Francisco in May, and Dublin in August. These events helped raise more than $30,000 for Walden’s programs! The events featured world-class performances by Walden alumnus Cyrus Chestnut, Jesse Mills & Rieko Aizawa, Austin Wulliman, Jennifer Kloetzel, and Walden alumna Hilary Kole.
Alumni Composers Forum - San Francisco
YMP ~ Composers Forum II
Performances of works by Young Musicians Program (YMP) participants, with audience discussion moderated by program faculty.
CMR ~ Composers Forum I
Performances of works by Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) participants, with audience discussion moderated by program faculty.
CMR ~ Composers Forum III
Performances of works by Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) participants, with audience discussion moderated by program faculty.
CMR ~ Composers Forum II
Performances of works by Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) participants, with audience discussion moderated by program faculty.
YMP ~ Composers Forum I
Performances of works by Young Musicians Program (YMP) participants, with audience discussion moderated by program faculty.
YMP ~ Composers Forum III
Performances of works by Young Musicians Program (YMP) participants, with audience discussion moderated by program faculty.
YMP ~ Composers Forum IV
Performances of works by Young Musicians Program (YMP) participants, with audience discussion moderated by program faculty.