By Jessica Petrocchi
The President’s Gala took place April 27 in McCrary Theatre. It was hosted by Elon President Leo Lambert. Photo by Caroline Olney, staff photographer.
Elon University president Leo Lambert hosted The President’s Gala last Saturday, April 27. The musical event took place in McCrary Theatre at 7:30 p.m.
The show featured a variety of musical masterpieces. More than 140 students from the Department of Music, faculty, staff and alumni were featured in the performance to raise visibility of the department and their specific programs around campus.
“Almost every music major in the department is performing in some capacity,” said Todd Coleman, associate professor of music at Elon, who is also an award-winning composer, video artist and coordinator of music technology.
Over 140 students performed at The President’s Gala April 27. Photo by Caroline Olney, staff photographer.
President Lambert helped to commission Coleman to compose a finale piece specifically for the gala; the resulting work is titled “In Varietate Concordia,” which translates to “Many and One.”
“I’m conducting [the finale] so there’s an orchestra and choir and rhythm section and all of that,” Coleman said. “Earlier in the program, there’s a mashup of a number of different pop songs, rap, hip hop and an original song by one of our students.”
An excerpt of the finale piece explained the point it is attempting to portray to the audience: “Musica est harmonia, forma, quod communitas. Est virtus, pax, lux quod amor,” which translates to: “Music is harmony, beauty, and community. It is power, peace, light and love.”
The feature piece’s theme was diversity, and the performances were based on that topic. Student diversity was played out in the musical diversity heard throughout the show.
“My composition is intended to reflect musical diversity and harmony while also being a sort of anthem for humanity at the same time,” Coleman said. “Music also mirrors or is symbolic of humanity – or our interactions as brothers and sisters of the world. It can be diverse in colors, textures, melodies, harmonies and rhythms, yet complimentary and unified in the overall effect.”
All of the proceeds from The President’s Gala will help the department purchase musical equipment. Photo by Caroline Olney, staff photographer.
All of the proceeds from The President’s Gala will help the department purchase musical equipment. Photo by Caroline Olney, staff photographer.
Proceeds from the gala went toward the enhancement of musical equipment and expansion of facilities, notably a new music production studio and rehearsal space on South Campus. The impact will be felt well beyond the faculty and students who teach and study in the department.
“There is a real need for new equipment and facilities in music,” said Matthew Buckmaster, chair of the department of music at Elon. “The administration supported this idea to raise awareness of what the Music Department does and why that need is there. Also, we simply wanted to highlight the diversity of music that goes on every semester in the department, and the high talent level of our fantastic students.”
Reporting by Jessica Petrocchi 
It’s great that you got out and reported on this event, and you continue to add value to your portfolio. The headline is weak. We generally avoid repeating a word (president) in the headline. People’s titles are rarely used in headlines. And – most important – the people who did all of the work to get this together were the people in the music department and not Leo. He just allowed his name to be used to convince folks that they should attend this and asked that music be elevated to more prominence at the university. The headline might be best if it emphasized that nearly 150 Elon students and faculty worked to present the first President’s Gala.
Also, you should note that you have included the photo caption in the body copy of the story as well as under the photo – oops!
In future, when a photographer takes all of the photos on the page you can credit that person in just the first caption (writing Photos by Caroline Olney). You only need separate credit lines when different people take the photos.