Students inspired by iconic Woodstock
WHAT do Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Joan Baez and Crosby and Stills and Nash have in common?
The 1969 Woodstock Festival.
Each year the University of Southern Queensland’s third year music students, who are undertaking the Bachelor of Creative Arts program, prepare and perform a concert based on a classic album or era of contemporary music.
This year, they drew their inspiration from the iconic music festival.
USQ music lecturer Bruce Woodward said as well as playing the well-known hits of artists at the festival, the students researched the artists, the significance of the festival and the social and cultural context in which the music was made.
“From this, they piece together a narrative to weave through the performance - telling some of the stories of Woodstock as they perform,” he said.
Mr Woodward said the theatre was close to capacity on June 2.
“There was a lot of enthusiasm for the music, with a great mix of young people perhaps discovering the music for the first time and others revisiting the music that was part of their own youth,” he said.
He said the highlight for him was watching the students develop personally and musically throughout the preparation for the show.
“Singer Adoniqua Cheetham did an outstanding job transforming her performance in the final day of the show - presenting a strongly personal and committed performance on the night,” he said.
“It’s hard to choose a musical highlight from the show, but as a guitarist I was really happy to hear Joel Hunt open the show playing Hendrix’s powerful solo
version of the Star Spangled Banner.”
Mr Woodward said it was great to watch the students work throughout the semester to develop their
performances, but he loved to see the progress particularly in the last days of the rehearsal process.
“It’s at this point where some students really bring
their performance into focus,” he said.
“These students certainly all lifted on the day of performance and should be proud of the work they did.”