Music Club advisor Prof. Scott Hornick plays at club fund raiser event in 2019. | Photo used with permission from Chelsey Johnstone.
Mercer sophomore Maho Kurisu has always known she was a musician. Growing up with a piano teacher as a mother, Kurisu’s life revolved around playing and listening to music from an early age. However, when she graduated high school, Kurisu worried that pursuing it professionally was too risky, and instead chose to enroll at Mercer as a Liberal Arts major.
Kurisu says, “I was thinking of not doing music because it’s typically thought of as a hard place to go into to find a good career or a good paying job.” She adds, “But one day I was just kind of looking through the courses, and I was like, ‘This is not what I wanted to do,’ and I just kind of decided that music was such a strong passion of mine that I just couldn’t leave it.”
Kurisu is now a Music major at Mercer, focusing on vocals, guitar and piano, as well as serving as the treasurer of Mercer’s Music Club.
She describes the club as a “Good environment to get to know other musicians, and just kind of ‘do music’ just the way you like it, without having to take lessons, or be particularly good at any instruments.”
Sophomore Music major Avé Corbitt, the club’s president, emphasized its openness and relaxed atmosphere.
She says, “We’re just all here to have fun and jam together, listen to music together, play together.”
Corbitt explains that the club works to be inclusive of people from all backgrounds, skill levels and musical interests.
The club was founded in 2013 after its first advisor, alumna and Assistant to the Dean of the Business Department, Professor Elizabeth Rzasa, noticed her music students’ impromptu jam sessions and musical collaborations.
She said that she asked them, “‘Why don’t you make this official?’ so you can share your gifts with the community at large and do something bigger?”
Since 2013, the club has grown in both size and scope. However, co-advisor and Professor of Music Scott Hornick, emphasizes that the music department at MCCC has a long way to go in terms of awareness.
Prof Hornick says, “I think we need more exposure. I think people need to know what we’re doing. I do think it’s a way to bring people together. And there’s so many people on the campus who don’t know what we’re doing.”
Prof. Hornick explains that due to recent changes in financial aid laws, which mandate that federal aid can only cover courses within a student’s major requirements, non-music major involvement in the music department has decreased greatly.
Prof. Hornick says, “They wanted an outlet to do something creative after taking all their heavy-duty courses. And then they got to meet people. So, there was this whole thing that’s lost.”
He adds that he hopes the Music Club can increase musical participation for students from all departments, reiterating its ability to build community and bring people together.
Inspired by her work at nonprofit organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS during her time at Montclair University, Prof. Rzasa introduced charity and community outreach into the club from the start.
The club’s popular Open Jam bake sale featured students performing a wide variety of music, including songs that they composed, to raise money for organizations such as Save the Music and the aforementioned Broadway Cares.
This year, the Music Club is holding a karaoke bake sale in place of their traditional Open Jam bake sale. It will be held in the cafeteria on Thursday, Nov. 3, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Baked goods, including vegan and gluten free options, will be sold and students will be able to sing along to songs from a prepared setlist.
The Music Club will also be assisting with the music department’s faculty scholarship fundraiser recital, which was pioneered by Professor Hornick in 2019.
“I think it’s important for students not only to see their teachers perform, but also kind of see the behind the scenes, like the managerial side of things too,” says Prof. Rzasa.
The concert will be held at the Kelsey Theater on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. and will feature Mercer music faculty performing a variety of instruments and genres. The proceeds from the fundraiser go directly to Mercer’s music scholarship, which is offered to all music majors.
Students who are interested in joining the Music Club are encouraged to stop by MUS-156 any Wednesday between 12 and 1 p.m.
“If you can’t play something or you can’t sing, you can dance. Or you can just sit there and listen and jam out,” Corbitt says, adding, “This is a chill community that you can be in and feel comfortable in and listen to your favorite music and not feel judged.”
Prof. Rzasa says, “This is the one universal language in the world that everybody understands. Music speaks to everybody on so many different levels.”
