If a guitar is strummed in a dorm room and no one hears it, was it ever really played? While some students may jump at the chance to perform onstage, others have been hiding their talents behind closed doors.
Today, from 7 to 9 p.m., the Cultural Affairs Commission’s Singers/Songwriters Unite concert will bring student performers to the Kerckhoff Coffee House stage.
Zachary Meyerowitz, a fourth-year ethnomusicology student and director of the CAC Concert Series, said he wants to encourage students to venture from their comfort zone and experience performing live music.
“Our goal is to get people off of the hill. … There are a lot of people that don’t study music but still take it seriously. We want to get them out and heard in public,” Meyerowitz said.
Although Meyerowitz studies jazz, he said that he works to reach out to musicians that play other genres. Meyerowitz stated that the series has featured several different genres so far. Musicians playing jazz, synthesized R&B and hip-hop have all performed at previous Monday performances, whereas last year the concerts focused solely on jazz.
Fusionando, a band that fuses latin, jazz and salsa, performed in Kerckhoff last Monday for the concert series. Meyerowitz said that Fusionando has been his favorite performance so far.
Christian Johnson, a third-year environmental science student, will be performing for the concert series for the first time tonight. Meyerowitz said he knew Johnson through the music department, and he approached Johnson and asked him to perform. Johnson, a singer and guitar player, said some of his influences are John Mayer and the Goo Goo Dolls, and he described his music as mellow-acoustic.
“The audience should expect to get a mellow performance. It’s not a rock kind of style but more of a sit and listen,” Johnson said.
Another artist that will be performing at Singers/Songwriters Unite is Julian Cubillos, a second-year ethnomusicology student. Cubillos plays the drums, bass, guitar and keyboard, and he described his music as “junk” which is a combination of jazz and punk. Some of his influences are Beck and Paul Weller.
“I just want people to have a good time and enjoy themselves. My goal when I play is just to engage people and give them something to listen to,” Cubillos said.
Cubillos played in last year’s jazz series which has now been replaced by the current concert series.
“It’s extremely diverse, which is really cool. The great thing about college is so many people come from different walks of life. You’ve got rappers, indie artists and classical musicians,” Cubillos said.
Johnson said there is a lack of musical performances on campus by students and would like to give members of the UCLA community the chance to sit for an hour or two and listen to talented student musicians.
Meyerowitz said that he hopes the performers will promote more interaction on campus.
“I want the audience to dance in the end. I want them to see what kind of talent we have at UCLA. I want to see music at UCLA that’s not in Schoenberg Hall. I want live music in the middle of campus. That is what we are trying to do, bring forth student talent,” Meyerowitz said.