While most think of UCLA as a busy and bustling campus, few realize the change in atmosphere during the campus’ summer sessions. However, the Fowler Museum at UCLA hopes to revitalize those remaining students this Sunday with the Summer Sunset Concert, featuring Dave’s Aussie Bush Band.
During the regular year, the Fowler Museum hosts the weekly Fowler Out Loud series featuring student-run performances involving everything from music and dance to theater and film.
Fowler’s manager of public programs, Bonnie Poon said that while students normally make up the majority of the audience during the regular school year, the summer show audiences are mainly local families, taking advantage of the opportunity to educate their children.
Richard Okamura, a second-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student taking summer session classes on campus, believes that the reason for the lower student attendance is not due to a lack of interest, but more from a lack of information.
“Students in summer session jump at the chance to do anything,” he said. “There’s so much stuff happening during the regular year, and during summer, it’s kind of dead on campus, so people want to go and do whatever is available.”
Besides bringing attention to local talent, the concert also serves as a way for the museum to advertise the other exhibits and activities available to students, faculty and staff.
“For our summer concerts, we always try and find musical acts that line up with the exhibitions we have on view,” Poon said, referring to past concert acts such as the performance group String Theory and band Lavender Diamond.
“One summer, we had the group Lavender Diamond in conjunction with our exhibition “˜The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama.’ Their music is about peace and understanding, and the crowd enjoyed the show so much that they ran long,” Poon said. “We have two aboriginal painting shows as well as a series of movie screenings this summer, which is why we were interested in Dave’s Aussie Bush Band.”
Based out of Los Angeles, Dave’s Aussie Bush Band is primarily a folk band that specifically plays Australian folk and pop songs with the use of guitars, fiddles, string bass, didgeridoos and vocals.
Dave Winstone, the creator and front man of Dave’s Aussie Bush Band, said that he was drawn to folk music because it tells the story of Australia.
“The music of Australia isn’t all that much different from the music of the U.K. or the United States,” Winstone said. “You can tell by the sound what time period it is from.”
In addition to doing traditional folk songs, such as the sheep shearing and drinking songs, Winstone’s band also covers pop songs from artists such as the Beatles and Eric Clapton.
Though the music may not be much different from that of the United States, the history is.
Winstone said that he likes to speak between songs to tell the audience what was happening during the time period of a piece of music.
Originally from Australia, Winstone studied arrangement, composition and guitar at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Winstone said he was drawn to America because he thought that all of the big names in music were primarily from the United States.
However, the success of Australian icons such as Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin led him back to his roots.
“People kept asking me about Australia, since they could tell from my accent, so I decided to put that into my performance,” Winstone said.
This curiosity certainly rings true with summer session students.
“I’ve met so many international students during summer session,” Okamura said. “Meeting people from another country makes me want to know more about their culture, since it’s so different from my own. This concert seems like it would be a really good thing to go to with all the international students I’ve met.”