Students in the AFS Upper School Music Society had much to celebrate after the remarkable success of Spring Jam ’23, a music festival featuring AFS students and faculty.
The Music Society is a club in Upper School for performers and enthusiasts to build community around their shared love of music. The co-clerks of Music Society, Riley Blore ’23 and Shalen Farahi ’23, had been thinking about some way to leverage their club’s passion for music into a big, bold event that the whole school—and the surrounding community—could participate in. Naturally, they gravitated toward the idea of putting together a music festival.
“The whole idea of the music society is to build the community around music at AFS,” explains Shalen. “And what better way is there to do that than getting a bunch of people together and trying to play something on stage?”
Community members flocked to the Josephine Muller Auditorium on the day of the event, excited to cheer on an incredible lineup of bands, collaborations and solo performances during a jam-packed four-hour setlist. The Music Society did not charge a cover fee, but instead asked for donations at the door, with all proceeds going to Play on Philly, an organization that provides underserved children in Philadelphia a transformative music education experience. As of Monday, April 3, estimates of the total amount raised were just over $1300.
“The whole festival was an enormous team effort,” says Justin Solonynka, the faculty advisor of the Music Society. “All the members of the music society came ready to work on Saturday. Riley and Shalen were absolutely incredible as co-clerks of the Music Society. They had a vision for this festival starting back in September, and they were determined to make that vision a reality. I’m really proud of them!”
Whatever happens next with Spring Jam, Shalen and Riley hope that the club will continue. “There are so many people that love music here, and building an extracurricular space for that is so important,” Shalen explains. “There are so many people that reach out to us saying ‘hey I’d like to make some music with other people, but I don’t really know how to start; or if you just love music and want to connect over it—that’s what this club should be for.
“We titled the event Spring Jam ’23 because we want there to be a Spring Jam ’24,” Shalen continues. “We really hope that this is something that will continue and maybe get bigger and bigger every year.”
Shalen and Riley expressed thanks for all the performers, attendees, and fellow members of the Music Society for all the hard work that they put into throwing the event. “I definitely want to shout out Seth Schmitt-Hall, Camille McKenzie, and Julia Ruben—they all kind of pulled together tech at the last minute and made it all sound wonderful. And a massive thank you to Sloane Waldman—She helped us organize everything big and small, from getting the food trucks for us to finding wristbands. We couldn’t have done it without her. And finally, thanks so much to Justin—we asked him so many questions, and he told us how to find the answers to every single one.”