Two jazz performances are set for Sunday at the South Hadley campus.
The Jazz Ensembles of Mount Holyoke College will travel back in time to the for the seventh annual and all-new presentation of “The Big Broadcast!”
Performances are set for Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. in Chapin Auditorium at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley.
“The Big Broadcast!” is live radio show intended to recreate the concept of what it was like to be a part of a 1940s variety show during the height of the radio era.
“It was a different time- the world was at war, and big band swing ruled the airwaves. The radio took our cares away and helped us to get through the tough times,” said Mark Gionfriddo, director of jazz ensembles at the college.
Gionfriddo created The Big Broadcast! for a small cabaret group. He directed and incorporated it into the concert season at Mount Holyoke College. The show has gone on to become a new tradition at the college.
“It’s so different from anything else that happens on campus or in the area, it’s unique to Mount Holyoke, the students produce and write everything being performed, it really like setting up a Broadway musical,” said Dana Rubin, a senior at Mount Holyoke.
This year, the show will include a couple of arrangements by Glen Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra and the Benny Goodman Band. A new musical number has been produced in this year’s second act western play.
The audience is expected to participate when the “On the Air” and “Applause’ signs come on, and become willing partners of the show.
“Afterward, it isn’t uncommon for the older attendees that have a deep nostalgia for the period to say things like, ‘Oh, I remember hearing that soda commercial! That brings me back!’ or ‘My wife and I danced our first dance to that ballad you did in the second act!’,” Gionfriddo said.
