Images courtesy of Frankie Stolcke and Esther Guo
When eight p.m. rolled around on November 18 and 19, the house lights dimmed in the Arthur Zankel Music Center’s Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall. The chattery hum of the audience fizzled to a pregnant near-silence of anticipation. Written in this silence was a mutual understanding: this moment was special. And throughout the next two hours, the audience was musically transported fifty years into the past.
From the time of its inaugural show in 2000 to its final in-person show in 2019, the Beatlemore Skidmania concert – in which Skidmore students performed a myriad of reinterpreted Beatles classics – was immensely popular, drawing attendees from both the Skidmore and non-Skidmore communities. Beatlemore’s 20th anniversary in 2020 was shaped by COVID-19, which relegated students to the virtual stage. In the wake of the pandemic and the surge of activism following the murder of George Floyd, various members of the Skidmore community reflected on many things, Beatlemore being one of them. The general consensus found that Beatlemore did not serve Skidmore’s increasingly diverse student body. It was thus important to reimagine and rework the concept of “Beatlemore” before the widely-beloved institution returned to the stage.
As of this fall, Beatlemore has been rebooted as the new and improved Skidmania ’72. The new program consists of any music released in 1972, not only that of The Beatles. Music professor and department chair Jeremy Day-O’Connell spoke to the philosophy behind this change.
“The Beatles’ music, though beloved and influential, is far from universal. It represents just one slice of musical taste,” Day-O’Connell explained. “There are many other musical stories to be told, and more artists who can better represent the diversity of our students and our audiences. So in our new Skidmania, we leverage the concept of a historical flashback, but now on a much broader scale: a musical journey exploring the music of fifty years ago.”
“Choosing the music of fifty years ago also introduces that music to younger generations who might not otherwise encounter it,” adds Zhenelle LeBel, Managing Director of the Arthur Zankel Music Center.
The fact that both the Friday and Saturday night shows were sold out, even days in advance, testifies to the show’s wide appeal. Fifteen groups, totalling about a hundred students, performed a wide array of music, encompassing everything from classics like Stevie Wonder’s timelessly smooth “Superstition,” to British prog rock band Yes’s quirky “Roundabout,” to high-energy Led Zeppelin mashup “Black Dog/Rock N’ Roll,” to Cameroonian makossa musician Manu Dibango’s funky “Soul Makossa.”
The groups that performed were as wonderfully varied as the songs they played, both sonically and in terms of their histories. For instance, Cosmic Turtle’s electric rendition of the Eagles’ “Take It Easy” was integral in kicking off the night. Performing both on campus at concerts sponsored by Lively Lucy’s and off campus at local nightclubs like Putnam Place, Cosmic Turtle has certainly made a name for itself, at least within the borders of the 518. Other bands made their debuts at Skidmania, among these being Toast, who cleverly introduces themselves with the catchphrase, “We’re Toast.” Still yet, other groups included extracurricular student clubs, such as the treble acapella group The Sonneteers, as well as groups that offer students academic credit for participating, namely the Groove Lab and African Drumming ensemble. Regardless of their experience level, however, the enormous size of the audience – well over 1,000 between both nights – seemed to produce a similar effect for all the performers, perhaps best summarized by Sebastian Caparas ’23, who performed a solo rendition of the Bee Gees’ “Run to Me.”
“I try to be stoic and self-critical with my work, often ignoring what people have to say, but there was something innately terrifying about performing in front of a crowd that size. I felt myself actually trembling with adrenaline onstage as I tried to keep up the good technique,” Caparas admitted with a wry laugh. “I wouldn’t give it up for the world though. It was the highlight of my time at Skidmore being in such a high-energy atmosphere.”
Talia Gordon ’25, keyboardist and vocalist for Toast, echoed this sentiment: “Performing for such a big audience was pretty nerve wracking, but you could definitely feel the support from the audience.”
Before it was a sold-out event, Skidmania was just an idea, equal parts ambitious and doable, so long as all hands were on deck, and they were. In late August, LeBel worked with members of Skidmore’s music department, including department chair Jeremy Day-O’Connell and distinguished artist-in-residence Joel Brown, to solidify the logistics. Mid-September saw the first calls for student auditions and, about a month later, fifteen groups were selected by student committees to perform. By October, a Skidmania design by Anjolee Lavery ’23 was selected from a sea of such designs made in art professor Deb Hall’s communication design class.
“I was initially inspired by Aretha Franklin and one 1970s poster that I really liked, which featured a central figure with an afro and some shades,” Lavery said. “Another thing that heavily influenced my design was the ‘flower power’ movement that was prevalent in the 1960s and early ‘70s.”
By November, posters boasting Lavery’s instantly iconic design were plastered all over campus, this being one of many facets of the Skidmania marketing and press campaign coordinated by Arts Administration professor David Howson. Zankel’s Interim Technical Director, Peter Kobor, began to finish his tasks of organizing and fulfilling Skidmania’s technical needs and sourcing the equipment, even hiring three lightning technicians from High Peaks Performance to create and execute the vibrant color palette that dazzled the stage. And when November 18 and 19 rolled around, LeBel and Kobor coordinated and oversaw twenty student workers who took care of everything from stage managing, ushering, and manning merch tables to live streaming and everything in between.
There was certainly nothing inevitable about Skidmania ’72; the spectacular production was made possible by the laborious and lengthy collective effort of students, faculty, and staff alike, both from within and outside of the music world housed within the Zankel Music Center’s walls. Additionally, all the proceeds from the event were donated to Skidmore Cares, a continuation of the Beatlemore’s charitable tradition.
“Bringing an event like this back to life after a long hiatus was initially daunting. Would it work? Would people come? Would it be fun?” LeBel said, recalling her initial anxieties about Skidmania. “But we see now that it was precisely what the Skidmore and greater Saratoga region community needed. It worked, we had to turn people away so many came, and my goodness, it was FUN!”
Students are also optimistic that the multifold successes of Skidmania are indicative of what lies on the horizon.
“I hope future Skidmania performances continue to celebrate the history of rock, while acknowledging its origins in Black culture,” Caparas said. “I also hope that Skidmore students pull from an even more diverse variety of artists and styles and keep that energy in the coming years!”