The University of Miami celebrated its first century on Tuesday with an epic evening concert on the Coral Gables campus, produced by the Frost School of Music as the centerpiece of a massive Centennial Celebration. Thousands of people filled Lakeside Patio and crowded the banks of Lake Osceola for the once-in-a-lifetime show, featuring 50 years of stellar Frost School alumni artists, including major figures like Pat Metheny, Bruce Hornsby, Ben Folds, and Jon Secada.
But the day was also filled with other events and affirmations of the Frost School’s history of achievement, pride, and community that testified to the potency of its legacy thus far – and the powerful foundation that has created for the future.
“I can’t tell you how proud we are to have you here,” a glowing Dean Shelton G. “Shelly” Berg told the scores of Frost School alumni gathered at the Knight Center for Music Innovation, many of whom had come from around the country, to be honored as Frost School Centennial Medalists. “It says a lot that it was so hard to narrow it down to just one hundred.”
“There are so many incredible, unique people here doing so many amazing things,” said medalist Chad Bernstein, who started the youth music mentoring organization Guitars over Guns while earning three degrees in jazz trombone at the Frost School. “It’s incredible to see what Shelly has built in this program.”
Alumni buzzed and mingled with old and new friends in the ceremony and gala luncheon on Tuesday at the Knight Center, the $36.5 million state-of-the-art edifice that is the latest pillar of the Frost School campus’s continual transformation. They included singer-songwriters, composers, educators, music industry executives, pianists, opera singers, saxophonists, producers, engineers, therapists, multiple Frost School faculty, and more. Some are famous, but all are extraordinarily accomplished. And all of them seemed thrilled and a little dazed at the confluence of their own and their peers’ history with the school that did so much to shape them.
“There are so many people here that I knew, that I’ve come to know, that I admire,” said Julio Bague, a powerhouse producer and Latin music industry executive who got a master’s in media scoring and production in 1993. “We’re celebrating where it all started, the origin of all our careers.”
Ben Folds said his one semester at the Frost School, in 1984, was still crucial. "Part of my mode of operation for the last couple decades has been to recognize where I come from and give back the same way that people did to get me to where I was," Folds said as he prepared to come to Miami. "That single semester was formative for me. It changed my life."
The phrase “full circle moment” came up repeatedly. “It’s a real full circle moment,” said jazz vocalist Ashley Pezzotti, a 2018 graduate who sang on the concert. She was marveling that she had coached student pianist Ben Richter, who accompanied student vocalist Brooke Lambert in one of several student performances for alumni at the Knight Center, for his Frost School audition.
“To come back now and be honored as one of the centennial medalists is a big full circle moment,” said Broadway star and 2006 Frost School alumnus Joshua Henry, who opened the concert with an electrifying rendition of “The Room Where it Happens,” from “Hamilton.” “To sing that song, to say hey, we’re so blessed to be here, is incredible.”
Incredible seemed the right word for the show, which kicked off as a gorgeous Miami evening settled over the sea of people packing Lakeside Plaza and beyond. Berg, who conceived and directed the concert, was its incandescent center, moving constantly between conducting a full orchestra of Frost School students arrayed alongside the stage, and playing piano with the powerhouse alumni medalist rhythm section of bass, guitar and drums. (As Ben Folds jammed on a killer rendition of his bluesy, piano-driven "Theme from Dr. Peyser” Berg switched so quickly between conducting, urging on the band, and leading the audience in clapping along that he almost seemed to be three people.) A line of Frost School jazz vocal students, led by Professor Kate Reid, filled out the rich soundscape.
Emcee Jason Kennedy, a School of Communication graduate and celebrity TV reporter and personality, was the warm, adept host who welcomed artists and University leaders to the stage, including President Joe Echevarria and predecessors Julio Frenk and Donna E. Shalala.
While most of the crowd seemed to be current students, there were plenty of middle-aged and older people in the crowd – with all of them ready to cheer on the artists regardless of their era. Phones came out for Miami-raised pop hero Jon Secada, who earned two degrees in jazz vocals in the 80s, stalking the stage in a dynamic performance of his 1991 breakout hit “Just Another Day/Otro Dia Mas Sin Verte” - and also for 2019 graduate Alexis ‘Idarose’ Kesselman, who turned “A Glimpse of Us,” a monster 2022 hit she co-wrote, into a poignant pean of love and loss. Raquel Sofia, a 2009 jazz vocal graduate and Latin Grammy nominee, was luminous singing her “Llorando en una bici.” Towering Carter Vail, another 2019 alum, drew some to sing along on his yearning rock ballad “Harder to Kill.”
People whooped when bassist Will Lee, lean and old-school cool in black sunglasses, son of transformative Frost School Dean William F. Lee, asked who’d heard of Jaco Pastorious, the famous early jazz program bassist, before leading a swinging, dynamic performance of Pastorius’s jazz-funk fusion tune “Liberty City.” The crowd was still but intent for Bruce Hornsby’s quietly passionate performance of his 1986 hit “The Way It Is,” with its haunting refrain of "some things will never change." Though they didn’t attend the Frost School, Latin pop-rock band Bacilos, who formed while attending the University of Miami in the 90s, are indelibly associated with the school. “Over 30 years ago we used to play at a pizza place near here and I introduced this song to my classmates,” said leader Jorge Villamizar to introduce their beloved “Tabaco y Chanel,” prompting the crowd to scream and sing and clap along.
Yet people also seemed riveted by guitarist Pat Metheny, another early jazz program legend, who led a grand, intricate medley of two of his songs, “Have You Heard” and “Are You Going With Me.” Then Echevarria, Berg and interim provost Guillermo Prado dressed a grinning Metheny in graduation regalia and conferred an honorary doctorate in music on the multi-Grammy winning artist.
The show closed, of course, with a birthday song: the powerhouse Dawnn Lewis leading all the artists in the Beatles’ raucous “Birthday” and Stevie Wonder’s soulful “Happy Birthday” and bringing the crowd to their feet. It was a moving moment, as generations of artists celebrated the school that did so much to shape them and their music.
