Letters to the Editor

I was quite frankly offended, irritated, and embarrassed when I read the article on the Orion String Quartet concert (Orion String Quartet brings warmth to Jorgensen," Feb. 18). As a 6th-semester music education major, it's horrifying to read the lack of care or effort that goes into the articles about music concerts outside the pop genre. In the future, I suggest you take the following to heart: 1. Go back to elementary school and learn how to form coherent, complete sentences. It isn't that hard. 2. When asking students their opinions on concerts, no one cares about Tang. Get people's opinions on the actual music. 3. Include relevant, interesting information about the concerts. Nowhere in the article did I see that both the guest artists (Ted Arm and Kangho Lee) are professors in the music department. This is not the only concert review that I have been completely disgusted by. The coverage of student performing groups such as the Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble is equally dismal and disappointing. Please, for the sanity of music lovers and students all over campus, start putting some effort into your articles.

- Jordan Gibson 6th-semester music education major

After reading Caitlin Mazzola's Feb. 24 piece "Jazz livens up von der Mehden," I felt compelled to write a response to both Mazzola and The Daily Campus on behalf of the students and faculty of the UConn Jazz program. In this article, Mazzola reviews the Feb. 23 performance of the various jazz ensembles at the university. Although the tone of the article is generally positive, Mazzola displays an ignorance of jazz music and its history. The first example is her review of the first song performed that night: "Mopti" by John Cherry. Mazzola says, "'Mopti' had a rough start and seemed like a product of the band's nerves rather than the hard work put into rehearsals for the past several weeks." This statement belittles the fact that the song had a definite arrangement that was played perfectly by the band. Moreover, "Mopti" has a stretched-time feel that occasionally can make the beat somewhat ambiguous to an untrained ear. There was no "messy start;" the song was written that way and, in the opinion of many of the attendees, was one of the showcase's highlights. The author's ignorance of the jazz genre are further highlighted by her comments on the song "Anthropology," which was played by the Jazz Scholars combo. "The choice to play 'Anthropology' arose from the Scholars' exploration of rhythm for this semester," she wrote. "Each musician soloed during the arrangement, giving each a chance to show off his mastery of rhythm." As a clarification, the Scholars are not "exploring rhythm," they are exploring a common jazz form known as rhythm-changes which is based on the standard "I've Got Rhythm." A basic understanding of jazz should be enough for one to know of the rhythm-changes form. Mazzola's display of ignorance should preclude her from any serious reviews of jazz in the future. Moreover, the issues discussed above make it difficult for any serious listener or fan of the genre to take her reviews seriously. Like any good journalist, Mazzola should do some research into a topic before writing an article about it. I would like to conclude by saying that, although those involved the UConn Jazz program appreciate the publicity given by The Daily Campus, we would like the journalists covering our concerts to display some basic knowledge of the topic so that we can create a constructive dialogue with the rest of the university.

- Jonathan Doll Graduate student in polymer studies

This letter is in response to Caitlin Mazzola's "Jazz livens up von der Mehden (Feb. 24)." After several poorly written and embarrassing articles written about university concerts, I feel compelled to speak up on behalf of not only myself, but my peers as well. Student writers for The Daily Campus are obviously knowledgeable and passionate about journalism, but they don't take the time to understand the musical aspect of concerts. It was extremely offensive to say an ensemble had a "rough start" when it was really just in the context of the piece. We work hard to produce concerts and do not deserve to have them portrayed in such an amateurish fashion. This is not the first time a student has voiced concern for the articles written about concerts. They are so often poorly written that it's regarded as a joke in the music department. We would rather there be no articles at all than a misinformed and poorly written piece in the newspaper. We do appreciate that The Daily Campus wishes to include us in the paper; it's just degrading that there is so little of an effort put into the coverage. Any music student would willing to briefly answer questions from a student reporter, especially if it means a better article will result.

- Lisa Conant 6th-semester music education major