It’s finally here – the grand finale of the Fredventure! Read part 1 and part 2 to get up to speed if you haven’t already. We spent most of days 7 and 8 rehearsing/performing our music, so half of this blog post will be my general thoughts about being in MITWE.

Day 7

It was the day before the big concert; naturally, the entire afternoon was blocked out for a dress rehearsal. Still, we had one more excursion at the Cultural Centre of the Peoples of the Amazon before then.

At the Cultural Center, we met Djuena Tikuna (the indigenous singer who was to perform with us) and her husband in person for the first time. Our cast of performers was finally complete! Djuena then taught us the lyrics to a song in the Ticuna language about saving the rainforest; we would perform an arrangement of that song in our concert the next day!

While we sang with Djuena, her husband accompanied us on indigenous percussion (such as a washboard-like instrument made from caiman skin). One of the instruments was particularly fascinating – by blowing it through his nose, he somehow made a sci-fi laser sound effect (apparently to mimic some kind of bird call). Fun fact: his teacher was actually Eliberto Barroncas – the instrument maker we met on day 5.

We spent the rest of the day rehearsing in the Teatro Amazonas. Unfortunately, we ran over time so often that we ended up behind schedule by about an hour. The rehearsal stretched on for so long that we didn’t get to rehearse one of our pieces. Fred was visibly distressed (which also made us sad), so a few MITWE members tried to get Ken Amis (our assistant conductor who wasn’t on the trip with us) on the phone to help calm Fred’s nerves.

Day 8

Finally, the big day arrived. I could feel the excitement bubbling in the air as I lined up in the hotel lobby to receive a Brazilian tattoo… temporary, of course, and sanctioned by MIT⁠01 Well, mostly just Fred, but what’s the difference? . These tattoos were made with genipapo – a dark blue dye also used to colour food, like edible henna. (I forgot to mention this in the previous blog post, but Fred had also decided two days prior that we should perform in the black t-shirts⁠02 The t-shirts had the same design as the poster above. I thought they looked really groovy. we received as part of the trip. The t-shirts did make us look more cohesive, but the women who brought floor-length dresses for the concert were less than pleased.)

Despite the previous day’s technical difficulties, the concert was an overwhelming success! We even managed to set up an impromptu live stream of the event on someone’s phone, which you can watch on MITWE’s Facebook page. (However, I did almost miss one of the pieces I was performing in because I was too engrossed in eating a slice of genipapo toast in the dressing room to notice everyone leaving to go on stage. But Fred doesn’t need to know that 😉.) Afterwards, there were even fireworks outside; I know they’re almost certainly unrelated to our concert, but I like to think they were for us anyway.

And with the concert done and dusted, it was time to head back to Cambridge and continue our MIT lives. What a way to end my spring break! As I ate brunch back at Simmons Hall and thought about how grateful I was for eating vegetables and not fish for the first time in a week, I also thought about how lucky I was to be a part of MIT’s thriving arts scene.

When I first came to MIT, I thought I’d have to give up my identity of being a musician in favour of becoming the stereotypical MIT engineer, with all work and no play. But then I discovered MITWE, and there was music in my life once more.

Through MITWE, I can play music from around the world in a large ensemble, allowing me to continue honing my clarinet skills and developing my musicality. And I even get six units of HASS-A⁠03 The arts component of MIT's humanities requirement credit and an iPad Pro on top of that!

Of course, most MITWE musicians are not there just for academic credit (although it is a very nice bonus); instead, most people are there because they’re passionate about music and sharing their passion with others. When Fred asked us out of the blue to spend a day performing in a concert hall an hour away from MIT, a dozen of us chose to go with him even though we could’ve easily stayed home and worked on psets instead. Because of this amazing community, some alumni continue playing in the ensemble for years after graduating. (Scott, MITWE’s historian, has been involved for over 20 years!)

But the glue that holds this all together is undeniably Fred Harris, our wonderful conductor. Although I’ve only been at MIT for two years and haven’t witnessed his true power, several senior faculty members have described him and his projects, such as the time he brought Jacob Collier to MIT, as pure genius to me. Not only does he work tirelessly to ensure everything runs smoothly, but he’s also genuinely invested in every MITWE member’s well-being, with our semesterly “playing exam” doubling as an opportunity for him to check on how we’re doing during the most stressful time of the semester.

To any incoming first-year student who plays percussion/a wind instrument and wants to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime experience at MIT, I highly recommend auditioning for MITWE. It has been one of the most defining parts of my MIT journey thus far (and I’m sure Fred would appreciate having bassoons after not having any this year).