During her freshmen year, Senior Monica Slattery was inspired when she watched the movie “Top Gun: Maverick”—not to learn to fly fighter jets, but to learn to play “Great Balls of Fire” on the piano. The scene where Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw pounds the keys for his Top Gun buddies at the bar motivated Slattery to reserve a practice room on campus so she could begin rehearsing. During one of those sessions, Dr. Sean Durkin, Saint Vincent’s director of bands, heard her playing, and said, “Hey, you know what would be fun? Playing piano for jazz band.”
Slattery asserts that her performance of that particular song would have fooled anybody into thinking she is an accomplished pianist, instead of someone with two years of elementary school piano instruction. Truthfully, she just memorized the notes and then practiced until she had it down. Durkin didn’t seem to mind. So, after Slattery learned to play piano for jazz band, he convinced her to learn percussion for concert band and marching band, too. Slattery already had a full plate with opera workshop, choir and two theater groups on campus, but the music and theater scene at Saint Vincent is her happy place, so she was delighted to say yes.
The music and performing arts department is also where senior Andrew Downs has found his calling. A math and music double major, Downs plays alto saxophone for marching band, jazz band, concert band and pep band. He also sings in the choir and for the Bearchords, the on-campus a cappella group, but his favorite kind of performing is musical theater. In the seventh grade, Downs played baby Shrek in his sister’s high school performance of “Shrek the Musical” and was hooked ever since. When he got to Saint Vincent, Downs quickly became integrated into Saint Vincent’s theater program, earning the role of Kenickie in “Grease,” produced by the College’s fully student-run theater group, The Company. Downs also performs with The Players, the theater group directed by Gregg Brandt, Saint Vincent’s director of theater operations.
Both Slattery and Downs acknowledge this artistic community is where they have made lifelong friendships. They credit upperclassmen for inviting them to audition for a show or join a music group, but by sophomore year, they were the ones doing the recruiting. In fact, a couple of years ago, Slattery had convinced her now fiancé, senior Joe Burke, an active member of The Players, to join band. “There’s like this melding of worlds,” Slattery said, explaining how students who do theater often tend to do band or choir.
“I love being around these friends. These are great people,” Downs concurs. They also recognize the meaningful impact their professors have made on them. Slattery says she has learned a lot from her music professor, Dr. Laura Knoop Very. “She knows what she’s doing, and she knows how to teach it well,” says Slattery about her favorite professor. “I can talk to her about stuff, and she puts a lot of trust in me.”
Downs feels the same way about Brandt. When Brandt is blocking his scenes, he’ll often consult Downs about his character choices, allowing him to take ownership of his role while affirming his intuition on stage. All of this has helped both Downs and Slattery gain skills in leadership as well as confidence in directing music or blocking scenes for The Company.
Unable to choose a favorite role, Downs rattles off several that he will never forget, such as Claude Frollo in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Slattery had the same problem picking a favorite role but settled on Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice” because with over 400 lines, it was one of the more challenging roles she’s had. “But,” she also reveals, “I had a really fun time with all the costumes, too.”
Now that graduation is around the corner, Downs has started applying to graduate schools for music performance. “I just really love performing. If I couldn’t do that, I’d love to teach at the college level because I like what a lot of the professors here do.”
Slattery is excited about getting married in October to Burke, who recently accepted a position in Virginia in his field of math and data science. She looks forward to beginning her life with him and aspires to combine her theology and music degrees to pursue a career as a music director at a church.
Photos: Andrew Downs and Monica Slattery perform together as King Arthur and Guenevere in their final production with the Saint Vincent Players, Camelot.
