0
Votes

Music festival encourages neighborhood togetherness

By Sachiko Miyakawa

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

A variety of music and a mix of different languages characterized the first-ever Stouffer Family Music Festival.

Students and their families who live in the Stouffer Place Apartments gathered at the Burge Union for the concert on Saturday evening. Eric Williams, a student living in the apartments, stood in front of the audience with his wife and two children. He sang with his 3-year-old daughter Zoe. Zoe, who wore a denim one-piece and pink tights that she picked out herself, overcame her shyness for her performance of “I’m a Little Teapot.”

The concert, sponsored by the Stouffer Neighborhood Association, featured 20 groups of resident-performers and students pursuing music majors at the University.

photo

photo by Michelle Sprehe

Eric Williams, Wichita law student, and his 3-year old daughter, Zoe, listen to a performance from "The Sound of Music" at the Stouffer Family Music Festival in the Burge Union on Saturday. "Hopefully the kids will be inspired by the music," said Don Claus, vice president of the Stouffer Neighborhood Association.

Stouffer Place Apartments is home to 280 families; students must be married or have children to live in the apartments.

Seyool Oh, Seoul, Korea, graduate student and president of the Stouffer Neighborhood Association, said most of the residents were nontraditional students living with their families. He said the concert allowed their children to enjoy live music and encouraged residents to get to know each other.

Williams, Wichita graduate student, practiced singing with Zoe in his spare time between studying and housework.

Williams attends law school at the University and lives in Stouffer Place with his family. He said he chose the apartment because of its low rent, location close to campus and the Hilltop Child Development Center. He said his family also benefitted from the close-knit community of residents.

“No kids are strangers in our community,” Williams said.

Williams said he also liked the diversity of the residents.

“My children have friends from Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Beijing,” Williams said.

Oh said almost 90 percent of the residents were international students and their families. He said many international students worried about adapting to American culture smoothly. The international community at Stouffer Place helps ease the concerns of students who are new to the apartments, he said.

The diversity of the residents was reflected in the performers and audience members, who spoke their native languages and wore the clothing from their home countries.

Linda Tsevi, Accra, Ghana, graduate student, was one of the performers. Tsevi, who came to the United States a year ago to study education at the University, sang a Christian song in her native language, Twi.

Despite the unfamiliar language, the audience of more than 180 people clapped along.

The audience enjoyed a variety of music in the concert, including a piano sonata by Mozart, “Over the Rainbow” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Some songs were sung in different languages.

Barbara Williams, Eric Williams’ wife, said she liked the diversity of performers in the festival.

“It is great to hear music from all over the cultures,” she said.

— — Edited by Becka Cremer

Comments

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.

Advertisement