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Concerts chair talks fall lineup

Arts Editor, Susanne Bushman ’16 sat down with Concerts Chair, Mark Spero ’16 to discuss the committee’s fall linup.

SB: What can students expect from the fall lineup?

MS: They can expect really good music from a wide range of genres, showing off a bunch of up-and-coming artists from all over the world. We’ve got a grime artist coming from England next week. We’ve got people from New Jersey, New York, the Twin Cities, Los Angeles. When I was making the lineup I just tried to get the best I could get from each genre.

So, is that diversity of location and genre what you put at the forefront of your decision-making process when creating the fall lineup? Or were there other factors that came into it?

There were a lot of factors but I think that my main goal was to get a wide variety of music from many different genres. I mean by that, that anyone on-campus could get into, so that everyone has a chance to go to Gardner and see these shows and see someone that they’ll really enjoy. We also try to get up-and-coming artists from each of these genres. We also get a lot of messages from agents that we’ve worked with in the past and that comes into play with who we get.

Are there other events or things that you’re working toward this semester that you’re excited for as the Concerts chair?

It’s mostly concerts, but I’m excited for any of the small events that we might have. … One thing we’re going to try to do is work with more organizations on campus, [including] The S&B articles we’re working on, working more with KDIC and with Freesound, with ACE and other parts of SGA. I really see Concerts as something that could expand and become something that promotes really good music on-campus and a really good music scene on-campus.

Any particular challenges for you coming up?

September’s got a lot of rough shows, a lot of shows that will be really good but are taking a lot of work from the concerts committee as a whole to come together. I guess the main challenge of the year is, how do we take concerts and its job of making a really good music scene on-campus and make that into something that will happen this year and will happen in years to come — something that’s institutionalized.

Is there one show in particular that you, personally, are really excited to see?

I’m excited for all of the shows for various reasons, and I really did try to find artists that I thought everyone would like and then figure out, “Why would everyone like this?” and in that process, I started liking all the bands we’re getting. I’m really excited for Gallant, OOFJ, Ishtar. I think those are my three big shows, just on a personal note.

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