Lewis Center for the Arts’ Princeton Atelier presents a concert of original songs by students in the spring course, “How to Write a Song”

Students in Princeton University’s spring course, “How to Write a Song,” offered by the Princeton Atelier at the Lewis Center for the Arts, will present a concert of original songs on Tuesday, April 23, at 4:30 p.m. in the Frist Film/Performance Theatre at Frist Campus Center on the Princeton campus. The students will present selected new songs with music and lyrics written over the past semester. The concert is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week prior to the event date.

A group of people pose for a large group portrait, some standing, sitting on a yellow couch, and 1 lying in front with a mic.

Students and instructor Bridget Kearney who will perform new songs they have written in the spring Princeton Atelier course “How to Write a Song.”
Photo credit: Brandon Le

“How to Write a Song” is taught this semester by Bridget Kearney, a founding member of the band Lake Street Dive. Each week the students, all with varying levels of literary and musical backgrounds, split into different groupings of four or five participants and wrote lyrics and composed tunes on an assigned emotional topic, such as gratitude, loss, protest, desire, joyousness, remorse, and defiance. At each class, the students performed their pieces for Kearney and their classmates, who then provided critiques. Guest critics and singer/songwriters joined the class to share their experience and to listen to and provide feedback to the student songwriters. Some of the guests this semester included Arooj Aftab, Cautious Clay and Akie Bermiss.

“The class has really dug deep over the course of the semester and written over 100 songs, honing their craft as lyricists, baring their souls in song and even trying some new instruments for the first time,” said Kearney. “No subject matter has been overlooked, from zooming in on the overlooked beauties of everyday life to zooming out to global and generational stories. We’ll be selecting our favorite songs from the semester to share at the final concert, and it is sure to bring the house down!”

The Princeton Atelier, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, was founded by Princeton Professor Emerita Toni Morrison and is directed by Paul Muldoon, Princeton’s Howard G.B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Creative Writing. The Atelier brings professional artists from different disciplines together with Princeton faculty and students to create new work in the context of a semester-long course that usually culminates in the public presentation of the new work. Participating Atelier artists often select a project they want to explore and experiment within the context of a class with Princeton students before developing it for the professional art world. Previous artists have included the choreographer Jacques d’Amboise, cellist Yo-yo Ma, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, theater artist Basil Twist, choreographer Monica Bill Barnes, the theater ensemble Elevator Repair Service, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, and the Wakka Wakka puppet theater.

Kearney, who has co-taught “How to Write a Song” with Muldoon in past years, is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. A founding member of the band Lake Street Dive, she has performed at Radio City Music Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, Red Rocks Amphitheater, and The White House South Lawn, as well as appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, Ellen, and Conan. Her 3rd solo album, Comeback Kid, comes out this month on Keeled Scales. With Lake Street Dive she will release a new album in June and headline Madison Square Garden in September. Kearney holds a Bachelors in Music from the New England Conservatory in Jazz Studies (bass) and Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University in English.

Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about the Princeton Atelier, the Lewis Center for the Arts, and the more than 100 public performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, lectures, and special events presented by the Lewis Center each year, most of them free.