The first time I heard Caitlin Andrew’s name was during my sophomore year, hearing rumors of mysterious and incredible “active listening parties.” Intrigued, I eventually managed to meet Andrew and found out that she offered a myriad of incredible things completely unrelated to parties.
Andrew is a super-senior finishing up a B.A in music and anthropology. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Andrew began her foray into music playing piano at a young age.
In fifth grade she was forced to pick an instrument for middle school band, and was leaning toward the trumpet until her father brought out his own cello. Andrew was converted and the rest, as we say, is history.
Here at Lawrence, Andrew has played in the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra all five years. She has also played in Sambistas and has appeared in many chamber groups.
When she’s not playing in symphonies, she still manages to find impressive things to do. Andrew spent the summer interning at the Field Museum in Chicago, finishing up her senior seminar in anthropology studying Maori rituals of peacemaking.
Coming up next for Andrew is her recital April 7 in Harper Hall. She will be playing the Beethoven Sonata in A Major and “Julie-o” by Mark Summer. Andrew says that “Julie-o” is a “folksy-jazzy piece” for unaccompanied cello that incorporates many non-traditional techniques.
As for the post-Lawrence world, Andrew is applying to graduate school for theology, where she’s hoping to combine her anthropology and music backgrounds and, as she puts it, “pursue a slightly unusual course of study that would be exploring the relationship between music and human spirituality… whatever that means.”
Oh right, I suppose you’ll want to know about all those parties. Andrew laughed and then told the following story: “In the winter of my junior year, my friends and I discovered a lovely activity that we called ‘active listening’. The point is just to listen to all kinds of music – though it originated with Shostakovich – and to listen really hard with your whole body… there’s lots of yelling and fist punching.”
She continued, “It’s a nice alternative to the academic intellectual engagement we have to do with music all week and then on weekends you can just listen to the music you’ve been playing all week and let it take you away. I credit it with totally changing my perspective on what this whole experience is about because ultimately it’s about playing really great music and playing it balls out.”
Amen.
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