As well as being a talented musician, Laura Souza ’27 clearly has the makings of a top impresario. She recently helped put together a campus music festival featuring more than a hundred student performers from Bowdoin and elsewhere.
You may have noticed a number of people with guitars strolling around campus one Saturday in April.
The Bowdoin Spring Music Fest is an annual event, held this year on April 12. As well as the “formal” side of the festival, which involved scheduled performances by various ensembles in the Studzkinski Recital Hall, there was a less formal element. This took place in college houses and dining halls and involved dozens of students—mostly jazz, rock, and folk musicians, many of them traveling over from Bates and Colby Colleges for the weekend.
“It was an open invitation to all musicians to just come along,” said Souza, who started organizing the event during winter break. Souza’s official role is music outreach coordinator, a position underwritten by the Bowdoin College Opportunity Fund for Music and Community Engagement. The fund was set up in 2019 by an anonymous donor to provide support for students to engage in musical activities and experiences.
“I started out by emailing the music departments at Colby and Bates and asking them to put me in touch with students who are really active on the musical front so we could get the ball rolling,” said the music major and psychology minor. “Then we started having weekly phone calls to plan the event.”
Outside of the official concerts, which took place during the afternoon, Souza put together three events. First was the morning session, billed as a “coffee house,” where students signed up to come and play over brunch in Daggett Lounge, mostly as duets or solo artists. Among those performing was Souza herself, who sang the Cranberries’ hit “Linger,” accompanied by Liam Rodriguez '28 on guitar.
The decibel levels were cranked a little higher later in the day, as two social houses— Boody-Johnson and MacMillan—provided the setting for later sessions that evening. “There were two four-hour sets going on from 8:00 p.m. until midnight in both places, featuring several student bands from all the CBB [Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin] colleges” said Souza. “It was great to have bands from different campuses coming together for this, and everyone really enjoyed it.”
Making all this happen was quite a logistical feat for Souza and her team. “As well as sorting out things like catering and accommodation, we had to book the bands, organize the set lists, set up stages, and find sound equipment, like mics and PA systems, and hire students to help.”
With so many gigs happening at once, Souza said she was grateful that Bates and Colby were able to help in supplying some of the equipment. “It was great fun, and frankly I was a little sad when it came to an end.”
Souza’s role as music outreach coordinator went beyond organizing this particular event. With the help of the opportunity fund, she has also worked with the McKeen Center to set up a mentoring program, where Bowdoin musicians help with the Brunswick Middle School band.
She wants to continue with her musical career after Bowdoin, but maybe, given her obvious organizational ability, Souza also has a future as a musical impresario? “You’re not the first person to say that,” she said.
