Beautiful singing and the presentation of an award to a great composer marked the opening ceremony for the Brandeis University Festival of the Arts 2004. The event took place Thursday in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater and the ceremony drew enough people to fill more than half of the theater. There were performances by VoiceMale, a slide show with background music by Aaron Copland, as well as the Lydian String Quartet and even a film by Louis Lindauer '53. The event drew just as many alumni as it did students, and even the back walls had people leaning against them, people went in and out when they had a moment of free time from their work in the library.VoiceMale opened the ceremony with two of their songs, "Falling" by Rockapella and "Have a Little Faith in Me" by John Hiatt. They were on point musically and their enthusiasm was infectious. After they finished, there was a thunderous applause and shouting.

A slide show of photographs and pieces of film from the original 1952 Festival of the Arts at Brandeis followed VoiceMale's performance. Created by Louis Lindauer, the documentary informed the audience how the Festival began with the first graduating class from Brandeis and eventually became nationally reknowned for the extensive art, music, dance and theater presented. There were interviews from people who were involved in the first festival followed by clips from modern day Brandeis to show how far the festival has come since its inception. Pride swept through the room as alumni and students experienced that initial excitement.

Next, was a performance by Leigh Barrett, an award-winning singer and actress who has performed at most of the major theaters in greater Boston. She sang "What Keeps a Man Alive," accompanied by Tim Evans on the piano, and was backed by Brandeis students Robert Antonelli '04, Britney Burgess '04, Tritano Evans '04, Mara Radulovic '04 and Yaegel Welch '04. Barrett sang beautifully but her backup singers could have projected more.

When this ended, the Festival of the Arts Award was presented to Yehudi Wyner (MUS) for his work as a composer, pianist and conductor. Wyner is the Walter W. Naumberg Professor of Composition and has been a member of the Brandeis faculty since 1986. His compositions range from small vocal ensembles to works for large orchestras, from theater pieces to liturgical music. Beginning in 1975, he was on the chamber music faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center and has taught at Yale, Cornell and Harvard. Wyner accepted his award graciously.

The Lydian String Quartet took the stage next, playing an original composition by Wyner, entitled "Brandeis Sunday." The Quartet, made up of Daniel Stepner, Judith Eissenberg, Mary Ruth Ray and Joshua Gordon, were fantastic. The music, with its beautiful melody and harmonies, had the audience silent until at least five seconds after they completely finished the piece, at which point applause erupted in the theater. The composition was beautiful, having a slightly airy feel to it while remaining musically full. The musicians meshed perfectly, no one being louder than the other and none out of tune.

When they left the stage, the Snappy Dance Theatre took its place in the spotlight. They danced to three different songs, the first with three people, the second with one woman, and the third with four different people. The performances were really ingenious, with dancers pairing up to represent either upper bodies or just legs in one dance, or creating a dance between two people from only one person and a unique costume. One student familiar with the stage remarked afterwards that the dancing was "visually stunning."

Finally, Barrett took the stage once again, this time by herself, and sang a song by Jacques Brel called, "If We Only Had Love," once again accompanied by Tim Evans. Her voice ringing out into the theatre marked a great ending to the Opening Ceremony for the Festival of the Arts and promised many other great performances for the rest of the festival.