Making a Scene: WWC Concert Organizers
Tyson Lewis | December 8, 2022
On a near weekly basis, students of Warren Wilson College (WWC) can catch an array of performers. Whether it be Kittredge Recital Hall, Morris Pavilion or Bryson Gym, there are musicians ready on campus to perform.
Similarly to musicians that are eager to show up and play concerts, there are students regularly eager to attend concerts. Performers and audience members are here, and it's all possible because behind the scenes there are fellow students who organize concerts.
Mac Clark, a junior at WWC, organizes many concerts as a member of the music arts club and shares his experience doing so.
“The advancement office will have concerts that are usually associated with a homecoming event,” Clark said. “There's the music department concerts, which are usually a little bit more like, professional, and, like traditional or culturally based concerts. And then there is the music and arts club concert, which is more focused around student performers. And I am the president of the music and arts club and my operations within the club would mostly be booking the artists, organizing the advertising and communicating with the school.”
Clark set the scene for his favorite part: the early stages of organizing the concerts where seemingly anything is possible.
“I'm like brainstorming and the phase where it's like, anything goes, you can be like, let's have a rave or, let's have a massive Halloween themed show, or let's do like a fucking Art Gallery on the Jensen trail in the woods,” Clark said. “It's kind of been this puzzle afterwards of like, well, is that actually possible? And is that possible with the resources we have? Or like, what stuff can we nab or ask for? To use to make things possible? In a way, it's a really fast puzzle.”
With the concert organization being similar to a fast puzzle there are also stressful times as ultimately there is very much to do in very little time.
“Once you're actually on site and it's happening, there's always a stress for that, like, no one's gonna show up,” Clark said. “Or like some one of the performers is going to fail in the end and I mean, yeah, that's pretty stressful that usually gets resolved pretty quickly once they actually show up.”
Nonetheless, it all pays as Clark described when the concerts actually do happen. He described the short term and long term benefits of his organizing:
Sophomore and staff writer Watson Jones performing at Battle of the Bands.
“A show going really well. Like seeing everybody jumping, seeing Wilson acting really spontaneously is, is, it's like, invaluable in a lot of ways,” Clark said. “ I think long term, what I really find valuable is watching the musicians that I'm working with develop.”
Even personally as the organizer himself, the music is rewarding.
“Ani Jaffe and Kayla Bell — who now graduated — played a song together and I just was not doing well with my mental health at the time,” Clark said. “They played a song of Kayla's that just really connected to me in that moment. And that was really nice. Sometimes it's really hard as someone who's organizing the concert to actually sit there and appreciate the music, but that was just like the perfect song for me at the perfect time.”
Clark covered the diplomatic aspects of putting on concerts for the music arts club and practical needs for the concerts: sounds, lighting and other ways that the scene is set for the musicians and audience.
Junior and student in the music arts club is the person on the job, Wyatt Edmonson coordinates the audio and lighting in the various spaces on campus where concerts are held. These are broad jobs with a lot of tasks to complete that change with setting..
“Basically on show days, I do everything,” Edmonson said. “So all the tech all set, all the organization coordination and soundtracks and things. It's kind of unclear what I do, actually. A lot of the time. So I put a lot of work in and it's a lot of fun.”
Fun seemed central to the whole operation as Edmonson described the wonky acoustics of different spaces on campus, getting into the weeds of being a sound tech.
“Well, we kind of use the same spaces a lot,” Edmonson said. “I just have used this space. And I know, it's like the pavilion is really weird, because all the sound goes up and then funnels in the middle and shoots straight down. Where I usually put the PAs, it'll blast the sound in and if you're standing on anywhere other than like, there's, there's actually a circle right in the middle. And my goal is to always have it be the loudest there.”
A playful description of how Edmonson adjusts sound portrayed a real audio wizard and the magician revealed how he learned his tricks.
“So I've been doing a lot of stuff like electricity and circuits and that kind of stuff,” Edmonson said. “Then I don't know previous ADHD hyper fixations on sound quality speakers headphones. I've had an XLR mic and I've had a condenser as my computer microphone since I was like 12. And so like, just fiddling with my mixer constantly and like being aware of how things sound and how all that works. Just kind of works out in my head.”
Sound travels differently in different spaces. Because of this, not all rooms are equally as fun to figure out in terms of sound.
“I really really hate Kittredge; that room is dominant,” Edmonson said. “It just sucks sound away. Yeah. Which is the point because it's all sound insulated, and all that makes for a really weird soundscape. It's just interesting to see how setting things up in certain ways in different places will make things be completely different.”
Edmonson explained how regardless of how hard it is, it works out in the end to be copacetic.
“Even when the show is a shit-show and I want to die — which happens a lot more than it should — I get to see people have fun and then the subsequent days,” Edmonson said. “I get to like see and hear people like posting and like talking about their experience at the events and like really realizing that even if it's even if it's a fucking catastrophe for me, nobody knows that. Yeah, people still have fun anyway. And people are still often blown away by their experience.”
Recently, there has been another person organizing campus events and concerts, including an anti-fashion show and rave, as well as resurrecting the 48 hour band for the fall 22 semester. 48-hour band was an event that had previously been held by spring 2022 graduates Elias Goldstien and Declan King.
Aria Hansen, Junior and business major at WWC, talked about her style of organizing concerts. They are fun to organize for her, but she outlines some broader issues.
“I have a lot of fun,” Hansen said. “I really enjoy that planning and helping, and that sort of stuff. And I really enjoy that, like a lot of people have so much fun at these things. But also, I feel like there's also a lack of community and support. In these events, sometimes, well, first, everybody's so busy and tired.”
She provided ideas to fix this to get more students coming to concerts.
“I feel like I talked to the whole school,” Hansen said. “I think maybe having fewer events, okay, honestly, fewer events. And, like, plan them a lot more ahead of time. People know about them.”
Hansen emphasized the speed with which things have to happen to host a concert on Warren Wilson, an act of quickly assembling the right people.
“You just get together with a few people,” Hansen said. “If you're gonna have artists, you go and talk to them. And you ask for play. It's really easy. You just like email, whoever is hosting or whoever is like, like, where the space is. And then you email people. And then you have a meeting. And then boom, it's done.”
Clark, Edmonson and Hansen are a few people who give audiences to musicians and music to audiences. They play a pivotal role in making a scene.