While many Dartmouth students view summer as an opportunity to forego hectic class schedules in favor of nine-to-five jobs and weekends in the sun, other students devoted their Summer term to the arts. Reptar bassist Ryan Engelberger '12, the all-male a capella group the Aires, digital musician Andrew Hannigan '13 and studio art intern Grace Dowd '11 have all spent the past 10 weeks honing their crafts.
RYAN ENGELBERGER '12
Engelberger spent the summer touring with his indie rock band, Reptar, and played at Lollapalooza, Chicago's annual indie music festival that has featured Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Artic Monkeys and other renowned performers.
Engelberger, the group's bassist, has had no shortage of interactions with celebrity musicians this summer. Reptar spent the summer touring with Foster the People and Cults. Foster the People has been on the rise in the music scene lately, scoring two nominations at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.
Reptar's priority is to produce music that people cannot resist dancing to, Engelberger said. At Lollapalooza, the band tried to keep the crowd's energy up with its set list.
"Our goal was to make people dance even harder," Engelberger said. "People were definitely throwing down."
Fans dressed as reptars and made t-shirts with the cartoon Reptar character from Nickelodeon TV show "Rug Rats," which some fans later gave to the band members, according to Engelberger. "When we were walking around, people recognized us and would come up and ask for pictures. It was a surreal experience."
Engelberger has taken a leave from Dartmouth for an indeterminate period as he tours, and will postpone his June 2012 graduation date.
"The administration was really supportive," he said. "The dean's office was really excited about what I was doing."
THE AIRES
The Aires were asked to compete in NBC's television a capella competition, "The Sing-Off" in August and spent their summer filming in Los Angeles. The 15-person group is competing against other a capella groups in the nationally televised program for a $200,000 cash prize and a Sony Music recording contract.
"We happened to walk into the right opportunity at the right time," Ethan Weinberg '12, business manager for the Aires, said. "It's just unbelievable and completely unexpected the kind of thing you dream about and never think would actually happen."
Filming in Los Angeles was a challenging experience for many of the singers.
"We had never really performed with microphones and on a sound stage," Weinberg said.
Despite "doing a show every week" and the "regular wear and tear of being tired," Weinberg said he was happy to be producing music on NBC and that the group was "overwhelmingly surprised by how talented the vocal and choreography teams were."
The Aires also had the opportunity to interact with celebrity judges, including Sara Bareilles, Shawn Stockman from Boyz II Men and Ben Folds from the critically-acclaimed band Ben Folds Five. Hosted by Nick Lachey, the Monday-night show will premiere on Sept. 19 as the Dartmouth community rallies to support one of its most talented and quirky a capella groups.
ANDREW HANNIGAN '13
During his sophomore Summer in Hanover, Hannigan released an electronic dance mix, "I am a F*cking Giraffe." Despite its less-than-serious title, the mix has earned recognition within the music industry, including an honorable mention on indabamusic.com, a networking site for digital musicians, and a shout out from well-established electronic musician Skrillex.
Hannigan is currently negotiating a deal with a record label in the United Kingdom that is interested in doing an EP with remixes of "Giraffe."
Hannigan traces much of his success to his academic experiences at Dartmouth. Hannigan is self-taught as an electronic musician and began producing mixes during his sophomore year in high school. A pivotal moment in Hannigan's musical exploration, however, came during Music and Technology, a class he took with music professor David Casal, where he learned how to share his music with a larger community.
The class familiarized him with indabamusic.com, which Hannigan described as "a Facebook for musicians."
"It helped me a lot to have a community of musicians who are producing electronic music and to be able to talk to those people and share tips," he said.
Hannigan received attention on the site when he entered "Giraffe" a mix he described as "electro-house, up-beat and driving" in Identity, an electronic music competition, and was one of 10 submitters to receive an honorable mention, he said.
Hannigan said he is greatly influenced by electronic musician known as Skrillex, who Hannigan was able to connect with through indabamusic.com when the celebrity DJ praised his compilation, and advised him to "keep up the good work."
With international acclaim for his mix, Hannigan said he is "trying to figure out where to go from here."
GRACE DOWD '11
Dowd, the studio art department intern for the 2011-2012 academic year, launched her own installation in the Hopkins Center's Barrow's Rotunda entitled, "This Is My World." Her internship requires her to remain in Hanover for an additional year, working as an artist and interacting with art students. Dowd described her experience so far as "a huge undertaking" but "amazing."
Dowd prepared for the summer by setting up her studio, a space in 4 Currier Pl. given to each of the interns by the department.
"I felt a little lost before I had all of my art and materials in one spot," she said. "Now, it's another home.
