I enjoy music, whether I’m listening to it or playing it, very much. I listen to many genres of music. However, my experience with Jazz has been limited to having a Jazz unit in my high school Music Survey class, where I listened to classical Jazz performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. I don’t usually listen to the Jazz genre, but I thought that Tuesday’s performance would be a nice, refreshing experience. I definitely wasn’t disappointed.

Firstly, everyone was so excited outside of Juilliard prior to the performance. When everyone was seated and the performance began, I liked that the musicians interacted with the audience, in a way. The saxophonist was so into his music that he began dancing, almost in place, during performances. The pianist’s hands flew effortlessly, weightlessly over the keys, in a way that I’ve always dreamed of doing. He was composed, and completely controlled, and yet completely at ease. The upright bassist seemed to really enjoy listening to every note that he played, while also communicating with the ever-engaging drummer.

I enjoyed the performance for a few reasons. I felt that each piece performed conveyed a story, and, being a musician myself, I definitely appreciated the fact that much of the music was improvisation, with some of it being based off of the original melody. Additionally, I enjoyed the variations in tempo of different pieces and the variations in tempo at different moments during each piece. I was relieved that my studies four years ago aided me in knowing when the appropriate time was to start clapping. Each piece differed from the next, and the music was unlike every other Jazz piece that I’ve heard in the past. It felt as if the audience was communicating with the musicians, and the musicians were answering in return. The musicians gave off the aura or complete comfort and mastery, which definitely allowed the performance to be an amazing way to spend the evening.

I had a great time on Tuesday night. The evening filled with Jazz music and great friends was definitely a great experience.  I look forward to having more, similar experiences in the future.

Hello everyone! I have had previous experiences with art, including the Guggenheim Museum, the Natural History Museum, Madame Tussauds, the New York Hall of Science, and others. However, during my visits to museums, I would usually walk around slowly, examining paintings and displays without commenting aloud. I would tilt my head this way and that, walk around the painting or sculpture to view it at different angles, and make my own assumptions. My experience at the Night at the Museum Macaulay Event was surely different than my usual experiences with museums.

The whole museum was ours, and six hundred Macaulay students piled in. We were instructed to record our interpretations, opinions, and discussions of the works of art within the museum on a recorder. When my group formed, we received our recorders and began walking around the first floor. At first, my group was mostly silent as we looked around and tried to decide which painting we should start off with. One of the paintings on display caught my eye and I tried to understand why it appeared to be so familiar. Then, it clicked, I was looking at the Portrait of a Lady, by Giovanni Boldini. We began discussing the painting and after approximately five or ten minutes, we realized that we were actually doing the assignment and should be recording our thoughts. A member of my group clicked the “record” button on our recorder and we launched off into a very deep and interesting discussion that I had, honestly, not expected.

After the first painting, my group and I began to discuss every piece that caught our eye as we made our way through the exhibits. Occasionally, we recorded ourselves and found that our conversations gradually became more insightful, detailed, and longer. Because of this experience, we began paying attention to the minutest of details and began asking each other questions to gain another viewpoint. We discussed the backgrounds of each painting and how our dialogue may have been different if we didn’t know the story behind each painting.

I learned that communicating between one another is a more efficient method toward understanding the significance of a painting as a whole. Additionally, I met many new people and enjoyed the night’s proceedings very much. I look forward to attending many similar events in the future.

-Elizabeth