On Friday, April 1, 2022 Bradley students were encouraged to go down to the Dingledine Music Center on campus to watch “Spring” , a concert that was run by Music and Entertainment Industry major students. Admission was free and the event was open to the public. On the way in, attendees were handed a program outlining the performances for the night and giving a brief description of what “Spring” is. A quote from Carl Anderson, the Director of Music Industry Studies at Bradley, explains that, “This concert is a showcase of Bradley music and entertainment talent outside of our traditional ensembles, including some of our own MEI majors.” All of the performers at “Spring” were students, with a total of seven performances listed on the program. The event was led by two student announcers, Christian and Abby, who explained that the night’s event was the first of its kind, and that the Bradley Music Practicum hopes to make it an annual event.
The performances started with Yvonne and AJ who performed two traditional Irish songs, “Danny Boy” and “Red is the Rose”. They were followed by Emma Anastasia who sang an original folk song named “Watercolor Sea”. After Emma, Johnny Pesos performed a few rap songs, including “Race for my Love”. While most of the performances were singers and songwriters, the group that marked the halfway point of the night’s event was K18 who performed a number of kpop dance routines. K18 was the largest group to perform at “Spring” consisting of 13 members while the other groups consisted of 1 or 2 members. K18 was followed by Joshua Devon, playing some acoustic folk songs he wrote. According to the program, Joshua was supposed to go on before a group named First Date Kiss and the show would be concluded by a group called Aftersome, however Aftersome’s drummer was sick and the band could not make it to the event. Instead of surrendering that time slot and ending early, the plan was changed so that after Joshua there would be two performances from students who were running the event. The first performance was by Sam, who spent most of the night working offstage managing sound. He played an original song of his and was the first performer to use an electric guitar over an acoustic. The second surprise act was Abby, one of the announcers. She didn’t play any instruments but she also performed a song she had written. The show was finally concluded by First Date Kiss, playing a couple of Latin infused alternative rock songs.
The audience was very enthusiastic, calling for encores on occasion and generally being respectful and patient through the small technical issues that arose during the show. Despite the many different styles of each performance, the audience brought the same energy to each and showed no favoritism. The enthusiasm of the audience provides a bright future for the annual “Spring” performances.