Alum forges a special town-gown connection
An alum of both Skidmore and the all-male, wildly popular a cappella student group, the Bandersnatchers, Jon Ryan ’92 knew that music was in his future. Within three years of graduating he’d started Ball in the House, a five-man a cappella band that has earned kudos around Boston as “one of the more accomplished all-voice pop bands in town,” according to The Boston Globe.
The group’s tour calendar (approximately 250 dates a year) is supplemented by school visits and workshops. That’s what brought Ryan back to Saratoga Springs with his band. The group is highlighting the local celebration of National Arts in Education Week with a series of events at each elementary school. The highlight of the week is an Oct. 9 concert starting at Lake Avenue Elementary School, with proceeds targeted to purchase new risers in the school’s auditorium. (Tickets are available at $15 per person at the door.)
Ryan took a few minutes during his return to the Spa City to answer some questions.
Q: Why the return to Saratoga Springs?
R: Well, one of the many things we do as a band is an arts-in-ed program for school assemblies, K-12. We showcased for the Capital Region BOCES for school PTOs and that led to a week of shows in Saratoga schools last June. Many of the schools wanted us back again this year, but since we were just there with our assembly program, we came back and did beat boxing workshops in two schools, a collaborative workshop with the choir and then a fundraising concert with another, in addition to assembly programs at two additional schools.
Q: Do you frequently do these school-based programs? What's the take-away for you?
R: The schoolwork is probably about 30-40 percent of what we do (along with colleges, performing arts centers, festivals, private and corporate work, clubs, etc). We get the chance to hopefully inspire these students to get and stay involved with the arts. We talk about how some of us dealt with peer pressure as young musicians and how some of us gave up music because of that. We hope that seeing a fun show combined with us talking about our experiences and musical education will motivate them to join chorus, pick up an instrument, start a band or a cappella group with their friends, or to be inspired to keep doing that if they're already involved.
What I like best about these is when we have the chance, like we will this Thursday (Oct.9), to work with a choir after they've seen our assembly and get the chance to dig even deeper and work more closely with a group. This is when we're able to dialog more with the students and get feedback and sometimes even work 1 on 1.
In talking to students, we don't want to see them go through some of the negative peer pressure we dealt with as kids, so we always have our childhood musical experiences in the back of our minds, and that's a big part of what motivates us to try to give encouragement and positive feedback to them.
Q: What's the latest with Ball in the House? New release?
R: Yes! We just released a new album, MOVE, available here, all our shows, and on iTunes, Spotify, and all the other online places. We head to Florida next week for our next leg of touring after headlining a high school a cappella festival in New Hampshire this weekend.
Q: What's the latest with you?
R: Ball in the House keeps me pretty busy, but when I'm home, I'm greeted by the four best girls I've ever met—my wife of 11 years, Karen; and my three girls: Jillian, 9; Olivia, 7; and Karina, 6. We keep busy with swimming, dancing, choir, and playing board games.
Click here to see Ryan at Caroline Street Elementary School earlier this week.
