A One-Night Musical Charity Event

Note from the Director

A choral studies professor at the Louisiana State University once told the All Eastern Honors Choir of which I was a part of that with musical skill comes an obligation for service. Indeed, bringing awareness and support to different issues while enriching the community culture is just one of the many facets of tonight’s performance. I am very proud to present a group of truly remarkable performers from a plethora of academic backgrounds who have come together in an effort to provide musical and theatrical entertainment while also benefiting two causes that are relevant to the campus and the global community: The Scotch’n’Soda 70th Anniversary Initiative and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. The more prevalent of these is obviously the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCan) which will receive a donation in memory of Randy Pausch, a recently deceased Carnegie Mellon professor who inspired the world with his speech on “How to Achieve Your Childhood Dreams” which gained national attention on YouTube, Oprah and ABC specials.

One of Dr. Pausch’s many achievements on campus was his successful effort to motivate interdisciplinary activities, particularly those that brought engineering, computer science and the arts together at the Entertainment Technology Center. Though Dr. Pausch is not directly connected to Scotch’n’Soda, his message is aligned with our own: bringing together students from many disciplines towards a common goal. This is why we hope that raising funds for both pancreatic cancer research -- a cause Dr. Pausch was an advocate for until his death -- and the Scotch’n’Soda 70th Anniversary Initiative are both ways we can honor Dr. Pausch. I am pleased to also highlight that tonight’s performance includes students from sixteen different majors from five different schools on CMU’s campus, each bringing a unique background towards this artistic project. We hope that tonight’s program reflects Dr. Pausch’s vision admirably and is entertaining as well.

Before I conclude, I would like to quickly give a personal thanks to some of those whose effort was tantamount to the success of this production. Firstly, Matt Aument for not only being one of my greatest musical collaborators (he and I have worked on two full length musicals previously to this) but also finding the necessary time in his 20 hour work day to fit this project in; without him, this project would have never been possible. Also, the accompanists for this production have graciously volunteered a lot of their time in a job that is often (hopefully not in this case) thankless: Matt Aument, J. Elliot DeGolia, Alex Edelman, Scott Wasserman, Alex Weston, and Bill Yanesh. Further, the cast and crew of this production who have done a splendid job putting up with my impossible schedule and last minute emails to put this entire project together. With that said, please sit back, relax and enjoy the evening!

— Matt Joachim, December 2008